As a Fear Free clinic, we operate a little differently when it comes to reactive and fearful patients. Whether that’s the patient who is lunging and growling at us, one that is pulling in the opposite direction on her leash because she’s so scared, or one that is painful and needs X-rays performed, each takes a special kind of care. We try our best to mitigate fear, anxiety, stress, and discomfort by going slow, giving treats, and sending home pre-visit medications, but for some animals, this just isn’t enough. That’s when sedated care is safer care.
The first thing to know is that sedation is different than anesthesia. Anesthesia means an animal is fully unconscious. They usually need support breathing, are completely unconscious, and cannot feel anything. Sedation is typically an oral or injectable medication that causes varying levels of drowsiness, pain control, and calming effects.
How is sedation safer? There are many answers to that question, but one of the best examples I think about is when an animal comes in with suspected heart failure. We usually take X-rays to look for fluid in the lungs, but that can be stressful even for the calmest animals. Many people would assume that sedating an animal in heart failure would be dangerous and compromise the heart, but in heart failure, even a little stress can further damage the heart. We use heart-safe sedation to calm these animals and allow for low-stress, safe X-rays to be taken.
When animals are fearful, their body goes into fight-or-flight mode. When this happens, dogs and cats can hurt themselves trying to escape. They can also potentially hurt their owners or vet clinic staff members. I’ll sometimes hear “why can’t you just hold them down and get it done?” This raises both medical and ethical concerns for me, and it’s our jobs as veterinarians, technicians, and assistants to advocate for our patients.
I know that the word sedation can be scary for some pet owners, but I find that once owners see how low-stress sedated care can be, they prefer that over the “just get it done” method. Sedated care can certainly be safer care.
