At the time your consultation with one of our Veterinary Eye Specialists, surgery was recommended. At this stage all of the options have been presented to you, and the procedure and expected success rate have been explained to you.

Surgery:

Eye surgery is very specialised, Animal Eye Care is one of Australia's best equipped veterinary eye clinics. We routinely use a operating microscope to perform eye surgery, as well as using delicate eye surgery instruments. Our surgeons are highly trained and experienced, we often demonstrate these specialised skills to other Veterinarians, and we also teach the students at the Veterinary School, Werribee.

Prior to surgery - General health checks:

In older animals or in those where there are some general health problems we may ask your local veterinarian to do a general health check, and this may involve blood & urine testing, and other tests as needed. If you have any concerns about your pet's general health, please do not hesitate to speak to one of our team members.

Fasting:

It is very important to make sure that your pet has been fasted before a general anaesthestic. We recommend that your pet has nothing to eat after midnight the day of surgery. Water is allowed overnight, but take the water away first thing on the morning of surgery.

Dropping your pet off for surgery:

We usually perform surgery as a day procedure, so animals come in the morning and go home in the afternoon or evening. We usually admit animals between 8 and 10 am with the exception of cataract surgery patients which need to arrive at 8am. As you fill in our surgery consent form, please remember to highlight any general health concerns that you might have. Please also advise us if your pet has had any adverse drug or anaesthetic reactions.

In Hospital:

Animals admitted for surgery are examined prior to their anaesthestic. Your pet's temperature, heart rate and other vital signs will be checked. A premedicant sedative is given, along with anti-inflammatory pain relieving and antibiotic injections.

Checking Heart Rate

Checking gum colour

Checking temperature

All animals given an anaesthetic at Animal Eye Care have an IV (intravenous catheter) placed, this allows us to place fluids and drugs directly into the blood stream. This will minimise side effects from the anaesthesia, and hasten the post-operative recovery.

IV fluids - Temp care heats the fluid before they go into the patient's body.

Your pet will be shaved on a front leg to give the IV.

Shaved area on foreleg

Catheter placement

Induction

Anaesthesia:

An induction injection of anaesthetic is given, and then an ET tube (EndoTracheal) will be placed down the windpipe and then connected to a gaseous anaesthetic machine. Your pet will be maintained on the gaseous anaesthestic. Under the GA your pet will be carefully monitored. We use a 'Surgivet' monitor to observe blood oxygenation, capnography to monitor the effectiveness of respiration. Heart rate (includes ECG), respiratory rate, pulse rate, body temperature, and blood pressure are also carefully monitored. We also use specialised anaesthesia techniques to maximise access to the eyeball. This is very important for surgery inside the eyeball, especially for cataract and luxated lens removal.

Tubing a Dog

Montioring Equipment

Blood pressure probe

Surgivet monitor

With any anaesthestic there is always a small risk of complications including death. Fortunately with the more modern anaesthetics that are dissociative rather than depressive, this risk is reduced. Our main problem seems to be keeping the animal quiet enough after surgery.

Picking Up your Pet after surgery:

Animals are usually discharged in the afternoon or evening. We can only send animals home when they are fully recovered from their anaesthesia. Whenever possible we will try to send animals home at a requested time. As different animals recover at different rates and our schedule can change at very short notice, we cannot guarantee an actual discharge time. Our prime concern is your pet's well being. We will ring you with a report when we finish surgery, and a time to ring us back later to see how your pet is recovering from their anaesthestic.

E collar:

Eye surgery is very delicate.

We use fine sutures to reduce the risk of scarring. These can easily be displaced by animals rubbing or scratching their eyes. For this reason we insist on having your pet wear an Elizabethan collar after most eye surgeries. Please do not remove or trim the E collar. Check under the E collar daily for any signs of irritation e.g. for inflamed skin. Cats may need to be groomed whilst they have an E collar.

Medications:

Follow the medication instructions carefully, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. If more medications are required after surgery, there is a charge for these. Make sure your pet's eye is clear of all discharge before applying medications.

Post Op Checks:

Post op checks are included in the surgery, the number of checks included depend on the surgery. A fee for travelling will be charged for post ops seen at out clinics away from East Malvern.

Complications - at the time of your consultation we will carefully explain what the likely success rate of your pet's surgery will be. Despite everyone's best intentions complications can unfortunately develop.

If you notice any problems e.g. increased discharge either watery or mucky, increased pain, increased redness or cloudiness, please call us immediately. Should complications arise we charge for materials only, we do not aim to profit from any complications.

Care at Home:

At home the bandage on the leg, where the intravenous fluid catheter was placed, can be removed. Please ensure that your pet is placed in a warm, dry confined area at home, so your pet can recover quietly. Offer only a small amount of food and water initially. If they eat too much they may vomit.

Some dogs may cough after surgery due to the ET tube irritating the wind pipe. If you have any concerns about your pet's surgery please do not hesitate to contact us.