In the past week, we have had two dogs start to vomit while under anesthesia. One, very spectacularly vomited large volumes of food that was completely undigested- probably not in his stomach for more than an hour. Luckily, thanks to properly inflated endotracheal tubes and quick reflexes on everyone's part, both dogs were OK. Still, this scary situation could have been avoided if we had been told they had eaten.
Vomiting during surgery is BAD. Bad as in possibly resulting choking, aspiration pneumonia or death. This is true for both humans and animals, which is why MD's and DVM's council their patients to fast for 12, 18, 24, etc. hours before surgery. And why a nurse confirms with the patient/owner the morning of the surgery that no food has been ingested for said amount of time. Because no one wants the patient to DIE.
I think people don't understand why we say, "Please pick up Fluffy's food the night before, and do not feed her breakfast the morning of the procedure." Maybe they think we are overly cautious. Maybe they just forget, and don't want us to be mad, cancel the surgery or suffer the embarrassment of saying, "Yeah, my dog ripped open his bag of food and finished it this morning before I could stop him." So, let me answer these possible causes:
Please, please, please always fast your pet for the designated amount of time before surgery! Because we would all be really sad if something completely preventable happened to your beloved pet.
Ok, enough sad talk! Look, puppies! Puppies are cute!
Vomiting during surgery is BAD. Bad as in possibly resulting choking, aspiration pneumonia or death. This is true for both humans and animals, which is why MD's and DVM's council their patients to fast for 12, 18, 24, etc. hours before surgery. And why a nurse confirms with the patient/owner the morning of the surgery that no food has been ingested for said amount of time. Because no one wants the patient to DIE.
I think people don't understand why we say, "Please pick up Fluffy's food the night before, and do not feed her breakfast the morning of the procedure." Maybe they think we are overly cautious. Maybe they just forget, and don't want us to be mad, cancel the surgery or suffer the embarrassment of saying, "Yeah, my dog ripped open his bag of food and finished it this morning before I could stop him." So, let me answer these possible causes:
- Vomiting during surgery can result in death. Which, if it were my animal, preventing death is worth any precaution.
- I forget things a lot. And I lose things. So does everyone. So, if you tell me that your dog was begging and going crazy for food and you fed him because he was driving you nuts and it is part of your morning routine, I will not be mad. Neither will anyone else. We are all human.
- More than likely, we would not cancel the surgery for the day. We would just ask what time the food was ingested, and adjust our surgery time. It may mean we are doing surgery later in the day than planned, but that's OK! We love your dog, and want him to be safe.
- We all have pets. They all do bad things. If you tell me your dog got into his bag of food, I will laugh, and probably recount something WORSE that one of my animals has done. Like the time my cat stole food right out of a dinner guests HAND when she was not looking! So, rather than embarrassment, you would get commiseration. (Though, if you dog ate an ENTIRE bag of food, the surgery might have to be postponed, as he would probably be vomiting anyway. Silly dog!)
Please, please, please always fast your pet for the designated amount of time before surgery! Because we would all be really sad if something completely preventable happened to your beloved pet.
Ok, enough sad talk! Look, puppies! Puppies are cute!
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