Hospital Bookings

It is necessary to pre-book your animal’s operation. We usually need only a few days’ notice. Routine operations are scheduled Monday to Friday.

Please arrive between 8am and 9am and a nurse will admit your pet to the hospital. It is possible to arrange an early drop-off or you can leave your pet overnight if necessary. The nurses will be happy to answer any questions that you have and may discuss other relevant services. If there is anything else that you would like us to do, please make sure the nurse is aware of it. You will be asked to sign a form, consenting to the procedure and agreeing to the cost. Please ensure that you leave a number where you can be contacted during the day. This administrative procedure will just take 10 to 15 minutes.
A general health check is carried out pre-operatively, and a sedative and a long-acting painkiller injection are given to settle your dog before the anaesthetic and operation.

For routine procedures we request that dogs and cats are starved (given no food but they can drink water) for 12 hours before the anaesthetic. This is to prevent vomition on induction or during recovery, which could lead to suffocation or aspiration pneumonia. Many procedures, especially abdominal operations, can be complicated if the stomach is full of food.

After the patient is sleeping and has been clipped and cleaned ready for surgery, it is moved through to our operating theatre. The veterinary surgeon who performs the operation is gowned and scrubbed up, just as you see surgeons on TV!

Pets should not be denied surgery on the grounds of old age. Pets are living and staying healthy longer. Age is no longer a big concern when it comes to anaesthetics or surgery. It is the health of the pet that we are concerned with.

Many senior pets require surgery such as cancer removals or dental work, and a large number of our surgery cases are seven years or older. Denying these pets surgery will often allow the disease to worsen, leading to pain or suffering. In these cases the only humane alternative will often be euthanasia.
Most pets that come in for routine surgeries are just day cases and go home after 4pm. Please phone before coming to collect.

Anaesthetic Protocol

At Valley Farm we are not prepared to compromise the health or safety of our patients.

Routine Procedure

Shortly after admission, patients undergoing routine procedures are given a sedative injection. The reason for this is three-fold: it relaxes the animal, it allows for easier handing and it lowers the dose of anaesthetic we have to give. 

A catheter is placed in a vein (cephalic vein) in the front leg so that we can administer the anaesthetic safely. This remains in place until your pet is fully recovered.
We use only safe, up-to-date anaesthetics that give very little ’hangover’ effect.

Most animals are put under by an injection of anaesthetic. The dose is calculated and administered by our qualified nurses or doctors. Most of these anaesthetics are short-acting and give us just enough time to intubate. This is when we pass a silicon endotracheal tube down into the trachea so that the patient can be kept asleep by the anaesthetic gasses and can receive oxygen.

The anaesthetic gas that we use is Sevoflurane. We were the first veterinary practice in South Africa to have this new, safe anaesthetic which has fewer side effects than its predecessors. It is very quickly metabolised within the body. This means that when we switch off the anaesthetic the patient wakes quickly.

The endotracheal tube is usually kept in place until the swallow reflex has returned.
All patients under anaesthesia are monitored by a qualified veterinary nurse with the aid of respiration, heart, oxygen and blood-pressure monitors.

Something very simple that can help to support the body systems during an anaesthetic, is the use of intravenous fluids. These are administered as routine for all procedures that last more than one hour. If you would like your pet to have the benefit of intravenous fluids whilst under anaesthetic, just request this. 
Intravenous fluids (drips) can help keep the blood pressure up during an anaesthetic and are recommended in elderly animals, even for short procedures.

Pre-anaesthetic evaluation

Any information that you can give us about the pet’s recent health will help us with our pre- anaesthetic evaluation.

We may recommend running blood tests, do an ultrasound scan of the heart or even x-ray the lungs. In the elderly or very sick patients we strongly recommend running blood tests. This is to make sure we are fully informed of anything that may negatively affect the anaesthetic procedure.
Forewarned is forearmed! We can adapt our anaesthetic procedure to each individual patient or, if the operation is not urgent, we can delay it until the medical condition is under control.

Emergency and special cases

Although we have a standard anaesthetic procedure, this is not suitable for all patients. Our staff use their experience, knowledge, the test results, the clinical examination of the pet as well as the procedure to be performed, to decide on the correct, safest anaesthetic protocol for your pet.
In an emergency the pet may not have been starved.  As long as we are aware of this we can adapt our procedure to prevent any mishaps.

Risks involved

With any anaesthetic or operation there is a risk. We do all that we can to keep this risk to an absolute minimum. We have the facilities and qualified, experienced staff to deal with any emergencies that may occur.
Young, fit animals that have been starved for 12 hours, undergoing a routine procedure, are considered low risk cases.
If you would like to find out more about the risks for your pet please call us. We should be happy to talk to you.