One of the most important factors that influences a general anaesthesia and the recovery time afterwards is patient warmth. When an animal is anaesthetised it loses the ability to regulate its body temperature and as a result it can lose a tremendous amount of body heat. It is well known that cold animals are harder to keep stable during anaesthesia and take considerably longer to wake up. This is particularly so for our small patients such as rabbits, rodents and birds.
With this knowledge in hand we have invested in several methods to minimise heat loss in our surgical patients.
Heat mats are used extensively throughout our treatment area, surgery and recovery cages. These temperature controlled mats are placed under the anaesthetised and recovering pets to provide extra warmth.
During surgery and recovery many of our patients are also wrapped in forced warm air blankets. These blankets trap a cocoon of warm air delivered from a special heating unit around the pet. This greatly minimised heat loss.
All our surgical patients have their body temperatures closely monitored during and after surgery so as we can adjust the heat we are providing if needed.