It depends on what the procedure is, as to other questions you may want to ask. The most obvious things would be, "What do I have to do to prepare my cat before, i.e. fasting, water intake, all that kind of stuff?"

I think what’s as or maybe even more important is asking, "What do I need to prepare for afterward?" Again, that depends on what the surgery is. Some surgeries are very mild and quick, and have very quick recovery times where others might be a lot more involved, so, you just need to ask questions such as, "How should I prepare for when I take my cat home? Do I need a special kennel? Do I need a special diet, pain control?" Anything like that, which we'll cover in a second.

The medications that we use to sedate them will lower their blood pressure and heart rate. So, some of those effects we want, but we don't want too much of that. And we are sometimes taking away their ability to feel pain or to do those normal bodily functions. And so, we have to monitor to make sure that they are okay during those procedures and that we're not making them too low in the sedation.

We minimize the risks with the lab screen before surgery to ensure your pet is healthy enough to go through surgery. Another question was asked about monitoring during surgery. We would monitor your pet very closely to make sure that their blood pressure and heart rate and all that was acceptable. And then afterward, we would also take measures to make sure that they recover well during anesthesia.

Yes. Whether it's for you, me, or your pet, any anesthesia comes with risks, but we do everything we can to minimize those risks.

Cats will almost always need post-surgery pain medication. If we may have given that during the procedure, that would last them for the next 24 to 48 hours afterward, or we may send additional medicine home that you would give them there.

We give you proper instructions on how to give medications. Giving cats medications is not the easiest thing to do. Some of those can even be rubbed on the skin, on the inner part of the ear. Other things that you would want to know would be that cats sometimes go home still a little sleepy or sedated. And so you want to protect them from certain areas of your home. So, for example, if you have stairs, if they like to get up on and perch on certain furniture, you may want to keep them in a smaller area so that they can't because they still may feel a little drunk. And you want to keep an eye on that surgical site, too, just for any kind of signs of infection, redness, irritation, or leaking.