Safety, Comfort, & Warmth –These may not be words that you would normally associate with surgery, but at Animal Health Services these are at the core of our philosophy of patient care.
We want to share with you what these words mean to us. Safety is always our top priority. For this reason we recommend checking pre-anesthetic blood tests for all pets and require it on pets aged 5 years or older. (Understanding your pet’s blood work) We physically evaluate each patient and assign a Certified Veterinary Technician to be their surgical nurse. We support each patient with intravenous fluid to maintain blood pressure and to help them to better recover from anesthesia. Monitoring is also important so that we can correct any problems that may develop. We routinely monitor ECG, blood oxygen, carbon dioxide levels, body temperature and blood pressure.
A surgery is associated with pain. We consider it a moral imperative to proactively do all that we can to minimize pain and increase patient Comfort. For this reason, all surgical patients receive pain medications before, during, & after surgery. We also use a surgical laser which causes less pain, swelling, and bleeding than a traditional scalpel.
Warmth is a word with two meanings. Keeping a patient warm is important for both comfort and safety. We use warm water circulation blankets and warm air circulation blankets to maintain body temperature. We also feel that it applies to the attitude of our surgical staff. They do an excellent job of providing empathetic and compassionate care for our patients. They also provide assurance and post-op telephone call to worried pet owners.
We are unwilling to compromise these principles. We feel that they are vital to our mission of providing superior veterinary care. We would love to servce you and your pet.
