Surgery and anaesthesia

Most cats and dogs will have at least one operation in their lives, to be either spayed or neutered. A small minority will, unfortunately, have more due to accidents or illness. When this happens, you need to know that they will receive the best possible care and attention from first being admitted right through to post operative care.

At Vale Vets, we are able to offer a gold standard service with experienced surgeons, fully trained surgical nurses, and the most up to date anaesthetic monitoring equipment.

Before surgery, your vet will explain the procedure and give you printed instructions about preparing for the operation and post operative care. You will be told not to feed your pet from 8:00 the night before the operation, although it is important they are still allowed to drink water. Before the operation, your pet will first be given an injection to relax him before anaesthesia. Throughout this period, one of our nurses will reassure him and keep him calm and relaxed. Your pet will be constantly monitored, using our sophisticated anaesthetic monitoring equipment in more complicated cases, to ensure the anaesthetic is kept at safe levels. After the operation, your pet will be taken to the recovery ward - separate rooms for cats and for dogs. They will be regularly checked until and after they come round, including regular checks if they are hospitalised overnight. Our hospital is never left unstaffed and nurses are on the premises 24 hours a day.

When they are ready to go home, your vet or nurse will hand your pet back to you with instructions about post operative care. We then offer a free post op nurse clinic after a recommended period, where your pet can be checked over and you can ask about anything that is worrying you. You can, of course, call at any time before that if you have any concerns or questions.

Most minor operations will be undertaken by our general practice vets, all of whom will be experienced in carrying out these procedures. However, in the event that your pet needs more specialist surgery, we are able to offer this as our referral practice has an experienced soft tissue surgeon, Carol Wright.