The busiest place in the clinical wing!  This is where most pets are anaesthetised and prepared for their procedures.

A WORD ABOUT ANAESTHESIA

While on the subject of anaesthesia, we only use the safest anaesthetic agents. We have a range of sedative, pain-killing, and anaesthetic drugs available and choose the combination which best suits each individual patient.  While no anaesthetic is 100% safe, modern anaesthetics are incredibly safe compared to just a few years ago.  To further increase safety, we offer a pre-anaesthetic blood test for all patients - and require it for older animals who are at a greater risk.

For all species, we routinely administer pain relief before, during and after an operation, or procedure, to ensure your pet is completely comfortable.

OPERATIONS and PROCEEDURES

Once a patient is anaesthetised, it is wheeled into the theatre on our adjustable trolley and moved onto the operating table.  This trolley lets us transfer patients from ward to prep then theatre and back to the recovery area with the least amount of handling or stress.

This trolley is electrically operated and allows us to handle large animals as gently as possible. We can lower the table surface nearly to the floor and raise it sufficiently for transfer to the operating table or hospitalisation cage. It also allows us to move unconscious patients from the car park area to prep, radiography or theatre in emergencies – saving precious time.

Non-sterile procedures – such as lancing abcesses – are carried out in the prep suite, allowing our operating theatre to be kept as sterile as possible.

DENTAL TREATMENT

Prep is also where most of our dental treatment is done. With dental work becoming more important as pets live longer, we invested in a high spec dental machine rather than struggle with less expensive models.  While it looks like a clutter of tubes and wires, it is actually pneumatic operated drill and polisher which is far gentler. Less stress means reduced time under anaesthesia and a quicker recovery for the patient.

An ultrasonic scaler removes tartar buildup on teeth ... producing nice white pet smiles!

TREATING PAINFUL URINARY TRACT BLOCKAGES

Special attachments use powerful ultrasonic waves from the dental scaler to break up urinary crystals in cats and dogs.   This is done with far less patient trauma than the traditional method of flushing or intrusive surgery. 

KEEPING THINGS STERILE

Tucked into one corner of the suite is the large white Autoclave which pressure sterilises all of our surgical instruments, gowns, towels and other apparatus.  It's a new generation, computer controlled autoclave which is capable of sterilising all materials - even porous and hollow instruments. With six automatic cycles of sterilisation, it exceeds EU and international standards - including those for PRIONS!  It's an expensive bit of kit, but at Hollyoak hygiene is of paramount importance!