The Life Span Cycle Of Vet Care For Dogs

Can You Get Other Work Done During Your Dog's Surgery?

16 October 2018 by Leonard Wallace

If your dog is scheduled to have surgery, then you can ask your vet to do some other medical jobs while your pet is anaesthetised. What kinds of things can you have done and when is this an option?

Common Extra Jobs in Surgery

Vets are sometimes happy to do a little extra work at the end of an operation on a dog. For example, your vet may agree to tack the following types of treatments on to surgery:

• Microchipping your pet.
• Cleaning their teeth and dealing with minor dental problems.
• Cleaning out their ears.
• Trimming their claws.

Vets may actively encourage you to get these extra jobs done during the procedure, especially if your dog is anxious or doesn't behave well during regular appointments.

If your pet is already having a general anaesthetic, it makes sense to use this window of opportunity to get some essentials sorted out quickly. This is also better for anxious or aggressive pets as they won't be aware of what is going on and therefore can't get stressed.

However, there may be times when your vet decides that adding treatments to a vet surgery isn't a good idea. When does this happen?

Reasons Not to Do Extra Jobs in Surgery

While your vet may not have a problem doing extra work during routine surgery, there are times when they won't want to add to the surgical load. For example, your vet may prefer not to add extras to emergency operations or long procedures.

Plus, if your dog is pretty sick, then your vet will want to just fix the damage quickly and keep your dog under anaesthetic for as short a time as possible to aid their recovery. If extra treatments compromise the health of your dog, your vet won't do them.

In some cases, vets won't add some treatments to even routine surgeries if the extra treatments take too long. While general anaesthesia is safe, your vet won't want to sedate your pet for too long. This increases the risk of something going wrong with the anaesthetic.

So your vet may agree to give your dog's teeth a clean and polish during the surgery, but they may not want to work on your animal if it needs a lot of dental work like multiple extractions that will take too much time.

To find out if your dog can have extra treatments during surgery, ask your vet for advice.

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