Anesthesia

IACUC Learning Module - Dogs

Previous

Next

ANESTHESIA

Preoperative examination to determine health status is critical to successful anesthesia. There should be no evidence of coughing, sneezing, ocular or nasal discharge, or fever. Anesthesia should be delayed if these signs are noted. Pre-anesthetic preparation of the dog is relatively straight forward with food withdrawal for 8-12 hours prior to anesthesia and water withdrawal at least 1 hour prior to anesthesia. If fasted, vomiting is infrequent; however, an endotracheal tube should be placed for anything more than a short, minor procedure.

Important Link: IACUC Approved Analgesics, Anesthetics & Sedatives

POSTOPERATIVE CARE

All patients recovering from anesthesia require specialized care, even when the patient is a dog! The area needs to be warm, quiet and have good lighting. Room temperature should be maintained between 27-32^o C because most animals will be hypothermic following general anesthesia. Alternately, a comfortable background room temperature may be supplemented by warming lamp, heating pads or hot water bottles. If electric devices are used, the dog must have constant monitoring, so that it cannot chew any cords! An incubator is an ideal device for this purpose and permits administration of supplemental oxygen as needed.

Oxygen should be available, because of residual respiratory depression associated with anesthetic drugs. Oxygen may be given via face mask attached to an oxygen source, or via an oxygen cage.

Food and water bowls, buckets or containers need to be removed from the cage. There are many instances where dogs have drowned in only inches of water, being groggy from the anesthesia and unable to control their movements.

No animal should be placed directly on a grid floor, instead, animals should be padded to protect against possible injury during recovery from anesthesia. If the dog is laid on it's side, it needs to be turned from side to side about once every ten minutes, to prevent the "down side" lung from injury. If possible, position the animal on their chest and stomach with the head in a slightly downward position. This ensures the best position for breathing and protects against aspiration of gastric contents should vomiting or regurgitation occur. If vomiting does occur, clearing of the mouth with suction generated from a syringe or suction device is important to prevent aspiration into the lungs.

THE DOG

(Canis familiaris)

	Normal Range	Beagles	Setters-Pointers
Weight, adult males, lbs.:	2.5 - 230	30 - 40 avg.	45 - 55 avg.
Weight, adult females, lbs.:	2.5 - 180	30 - 35 avg.	40 - 50 avg.
Birth weight, lbs.:	0.1 - 1.3	.7 - 1.0 avg.	1.0 - 1.3 avg.
1st heat period, months:	10 -14	9 - 12	11 - 12
Male breeding age (start), months	10 - 13	10 - 12	10 - 12>
Estrus cycle:	Biannual (except Basenji with 1 period annually)	Biannual	Biannual
Gestation range, days	58 - 67	63	63
Litter size:	2 - 14	4 - 8	7 - 14
Weaning age, weeks:	4 - 9	6 - 8	6 - 8
Rebreed after parturition:	Next heat period - 4-4½ months
Breeding life of female:	6 to 10 years
Breeding life of male:	6 to 14 years
Mating ratio:	1 male to up to 60 - 70 females (hand-mated)
Breathing rate/minute:	20 (10-30)
Heart beats/minute	120 (100 - 130) newborn (160 - 180)
Body temperature:	102^o F (38.9^o C 36.7^o C - 40.6^o C)
Feed consumption (average):	½ ounce Dry Dog Chow per 1 pound of body weight
Water consumption:	Ad Libitum
Pups begin on dry feed:	3 - 4 weeks

Back to Training Modules

Back to Table of Contents

This web page is maintained by Certification Coordinator

Last updated: 01/02/2008 gea