We tend to minimize that risk by having a trained veterinary staff monitor your pet. Not only is your cat connected to certain machines like an EKG, but we also measure oxygen saturation, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate. But also, you have a physical person that's trained to monitor them for any problems that might happen.

Obesity's a big one in our cats. Many of our indoor cats are overweight, and so that's an increased risk for them. It's harder to breathe, harder to recover, and they take longer to recover. So that's a big one. Other ones would be age is not necessarily a disease, but we know that they can handle things differently. And the older the pet, the more likely it is that another illness is going on, like kidney disease or thyroid disease in our cats.

That's right. You don't care the percentages of how low the risk is; you just want to know, is your cat going to be okay? And I think that comes through the relationship of knowing your cat, through the physical exam, through the blood work, and the test. But we also look at your cat individually, and we talk to you. It's a conversation, and so we speak with you about those risks individually. And again, we weigh the risk and the reward and talk about that.

At the Animal Hospital of Statesville, we have written out in a form that we talk about. There are risks, but the more important thing is that we're doing everything we can to minimize those risks and make the procedure as safe as possible for your cat. We also weigh the risk of anesthesia to the benefit of the procedure, so that's critical. We don't sedate a pet or anesthetize a pet just to do it. We're doing that for the benefit of whether they need surgery or they need dental disease is taken care of or different things for their health.

Often, clients are worried about anesthesia, and they're concerned about their pet dying, and that's a genuine concern a lot of our clients can have. That risk, while it is possible, is extremely low. I think the percentages given are for dogs, 0.05%, and cats, 0.1%., so they’re really low. The more common side effects are still not common, but we might see if they have any underlying conditions that we either know or don't know about, heart disease being a big one. We’re sedating the cat and taking away a lot of their normal functions, and we're controlling their breathing, so heart disease and kidney disease can play a role.