We perform a physical exam on all our patients before they undergo sedation or anesthesia. Most of the time, we're going to recommend, or even possibly require, blood work, depending on what we're doing.

The most common would either be injectable, where we give an injection in the vein, or inhalant, general anesthesia, where they are intubated.

That is a possibility, but it is a very low risk. And when that occurs, of course, we take that very seriously, and we do things to help prevent that. So whether it's an IV catheter ahead of time, assessing any underlying diseases, and treating those before we're going to sedate your pet or anesthetize your pet, those are all things we take into consideration.

Anytime we need the pet to be still, and we might be performing something painful or uncomfortable, we would need anesthesia.

The side effects would be a lower heart rate, a lower respiration rate. That's just part of anesthesia. Changes in blood pressure and sedation itself are all side effects.