Anesthesia has evolved into a safe medical practice since it was first used in 1799. Initial anesthetic drugs included such things as ether and chloroform, both of which proved toxic and often fatal not only to the patient but also to the doctor administering anesthesia! Modern anesthetics are very safe and have come a long way from early anesthetic drugs. Having said that however, they are medications and like any medication they can cause harm to the patient or the doctor and the staff in the operating room.
In general, there are two types of anesthetics: injectable anesthetic drugs and inhalant anesthetic drugs (gases.) Injectable drugs can be further classified into short acting medications or longer acting medications. Short acting medications tend to be used for induction of anesthesia (getting the pet to become anesthetized very quickly) or given continuously throughout anesthesia for maintenance of anesthesia (keeping the pet asleep during the entire procedure.) Long acting injectable medications may be used as the sole anesthetic drug and will usually keep the pet asleep during the entire procedure without the need for additional anesthetic. Inhalant or gas anesthetics are used in place of injectable drugs to keep the pet asleep during the entire procedure (although short acting injectable drugs may be given to quickly anesthetize the pet before it is placed on the gas anesthesia for maintenance.)

Both injectable and gas anesthetics can be used safely IF dosed properly, IF chosen considering the pet’s medical condition (some drugs should not be used in pets with certain medical conditions if at all possible, such as the use of xylazine in pets with heart disease) and IF proper monitoring of the pet while anesthetized is done (I believe proper monitoring should include at least careful visual observation of the pet’s respiration and heart rate as well as monitoring by an electronic monitor that checks the pet’s heart rate and oxygen saturation through pulse oximetry.)

In my practice, I’ve performed what I call holistic anesthesia which includes careful monitoring and low doses of anesthetic drugs properly chosen for the patient’s condition so that the pet can wake-up immediately following surgery without any anesthetic hangover effects.

Thanks to modern anesthetics and monitoring equipment, anesthesia should no longer be considered dangerous as long as it is properly administered, as is the case with any conventional medication.

Myth #2: My pet will be groggy following anesthesia

One of the most common complaints I hear from pet owners who seek out my help for anesthesia and surgery is that their pets are groggy for several hours or several days following prior anesthetic procedures. While this commonly occurred many years ago as our anesthetic drug choices were more limited, in my opinion it should never occur today. I believe it is malpractice to send the pet home if it is barely awake following anesthesia or surgery. In general, this hangover or groggy effect occurs when injectable ketamine and xylazine (or similar) drug combinations are used for anesthesia. These drugs, while safe when used properly, are often given by injection for spaying and neutering procedures, especially when these procedures are offered at a discount or low cost (these medications are much less expensive than using gas anesthesia or other injectable medications.) A very common side effect of these medications, especially when given under the skin or in the muscle, is prolonged recovery periods. Many of these pets are groggy for 24 hours or more, and I’ve seen pets that required hospitalization for supportive care as it took them several days to fully recover. In my opinion a safer (although slightly more expensive) approach is to use a short acting anesthetic followed by gas anesthesia for anesthetic maintenance for surgical procedures including spaying and neutering. Using this anesthetic regimen, pets wake-up quickly following surgery and can be sent home fully awake. If sedation is needed at home to keep the pet from becoming overactive, oral sedatives can be used.

Myth #3: My pet can’t be anesthetized too often

Some pet owners are concerned if their pets require several anesthetic procedures over a short period of time, such as for cleaning severely infected ears or changing bandages or splints following fracture repair. Once again if the proper anesthetic drugs are chosen, these quickly leave the body and do not require extensive metabolism by the liver or kidneys. This is especially the case with gas anesthetics, as the anesthetic leaves the patient while the patient continues to breathe following the procedure. While it is true that we never want to anesthetize a pet more than necessary, some procedures such as those I just mentioned require sedation or anesthesia with some frequency. Rest assured that as long as the proper anesthetics are chosen, there is no increased risk to your pet from having several procedures done over a short period of time (as an example, keep in mind that in human medicine, burn patients are often anesthetized daily to allow cleaning of their wounds and skin grafting.)

Myth #4: Sick pets can’t be anesthetized

Sick pets can be safely anesthetized as long as the proper anesthesia is chosen and the pet is carefully monitored, although it is always preferable to get the sick pet healthy first before anesthesia is done. However, this is not always possible. For example, in my practice I often see older pets with very bad dental disease that are not eating and are feeling pretty crummy. It is often hard to determine if the pet has stopped eating because of the severe dental disease or because of its underlying illness. In these cases, the pet must be anesthetized in order to clean its teeth to allow us to determine if the dental disease or the internal disease is causing the lack of appetite. The good news is that once again with properly chosen modern anesthetics, antibiotics, fluid administration, additional supportive care, and careful monitoring, these pets rarely have anesthetic problems and feel much better following the procedure (and most resume eating as the severe dental disease was the cause of their lack of appetite!)

Myth #5: My pet is too old for anesthesia

I don’t believe that any pet is too old for proper medical care. If that proper medical care includes anesthesia, then the anesthesia must be done in order to help the pet. It is true that some owners choose not to have an anesthetic or surgical procedure done for a pet that they deem too old (for example, performing a total hip replacement on a 15-year-old Labrador with arthritis,) but this is the owner’s choice that is made after careful discussion of all the options available for her pet. It is true that older pets don’t metabolize some drugs as well as younger pets, and for these reasons the correct anesthesia must be safely chosen for the pet’s age and more importantly its state of health or presence of medical problems at the time of the procedure. I see far too many pets who have not been given proper care (especially dental cleanings and tumor removals) because their current veterinarians deem them “too old” for anesthesia and refuse to do the procedure.

In my area I’m known as a veterinarian who anesthetizes old and often sickly pets on a daily basis, and pet owners seek out my assistance because they want these procedures done on their older pets and recognize the health benefits the pets receive by having the procedures done. I always tell these owners that if their current veterinarians don’t want to anesthetize their pets, then the veterinarians should not anesthetize their pets as there is likely to be a problem if these veterinarians are scared of the anesthesia. I can honestly say that I have not had a single anesthetic problem or death in an older or sickly pet using our carefully chosen holistic anesthesia regimens. I hope that if you get nothing else out of this article, you’ll appreciate that older pets and those with illness deserve proper medical care and can receive it safely if the veterinarian is comfortable performing anesthesia and carefully monitoring the pet during the procedure!

Once everything is ready to go and the book is available for purchase, I’ll let you know.

Help me spread the word so we can save as many lives as possible!

Shawn Messonnier DVM

I wrote the book for two reasons. The first reason is to let women know all of the choices they face during their diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, many of which may not be shared with them by their conventional doctors. There is a lot of well researched data I’ve included in the book that shows the benefits of exercise, mind-body medicine, proper diet, proper nutritional supplementation, etc., that can literally make the difference between life and death for someone with breast cancer. There is also a good amount of information in the book about things women can do to reduce their chances are developing breast cancer. With all this information, women can be put back in charge of their own health care and make decisions they think are best for themselves and their families.

The second reason I wrote Breast Choices for the Best Chances:Your Breasts, Your Life, and How You Can Win the Battle!, is to raise money for two charities near and dear to my heart. This past summer my daughter Erica, who was preparing to go to college, lost two of her friends to cancer. Half of the proceeds from my book will go to help these two families and their foundations.

I will let all of you know when the book is published. It will be available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle as well as a paperback book, also available through Amazon.

I hope you will help me spread the word about the benefits of using integrative medicine to save lives as well as help raise money for these two wonderful charities.

Shawn Messonnier DVM

Now, thanks to the ability to self-publish e-books, I have been able to start achieving this longtime goal. Over the next few weeks, I will be releasing the first five titles in my new series called Dr. Shawn-The Natural Vet Healthy Pet Series. These books will first be available through Amazon Kindle. Those of you who do not have a Kindle reading device can add the app for the Kindle on your other devices, especially your iPad. I also hope to eventually publish these books through Barnes & Noble’s Nook reader as well. Thanks to the ability to self-publish these books, I have total control over the content and the pricing. Since my desire is to help as many pets as possible, I’m keeping the cost of the books in the series as low as possible. Most of them will cost between $0.99 to $2.99.

The first title in the series, recently published on Kindle, is 100 Tips to Keep Your Pet Healthy, priced at only $0.99.

This first book in the series provides 100 things that are important to keep your pet healthy. These are some of the most important lessons I have learned as a veterinarian and which I share with my patients during their visits to my practice. Much of the advice differs from what your conventional doctor might share with you, but that’s not surprising since my advice stems from a more holistic perspective.

http://www.amazon.com/Shawn-Natural-Healthy-Tips-ebook/dp/B006QY8IUI/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325190591&sr=1-6

The second title in the series, recently published on Kindle, is Say NO to Drugs: Natural Joint Supplements for Dogs & Cats, also priced at only $0.99.

This book, done in a Q&A format, will help pet owners decide which joint supplements might help their pets and which ones could replace prescription medications.

http://www.amazon.com/Say-NO-Drugs-Supplements-ebook/dp/B006QY8K6K/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325190591&sr=1-7

The third title in the series, also in a Q&A format and also recently published on Kindle, is Say NO to Drugs: Natural Alternatives to Antibiotics and Antifungals, also priced at only $0.99.

Each day I see many pets which have been treated with drugs such as antibiotics or antifungal/antiyeast medications. While these drugs can sometimes be helpful for pets which really need them, in most cases minor infections of the skin, ears, bladder, and intestinal tract can be treated naturally without using these expensive and harsh medications. Using fewer of these medications reduces antimicrobial resistance, which means that when these drugs are really needed to help your pet, there is a greater chance they will actually work!
Read the book and start saying YES to health and NO to unnecessary use of medications.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006S8C5AQ

You can see all of my Kindle books at

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=messonnier&x=17&y=16

Keep checking my blog and the Kindle store as more books will be added shortly.

And (hopefully) my long awaited book on breast cancer, Breast Choices for the Best Chances, will be out shortly as well!

Enjoy!

First, I want to thank all of you for supporting the work we do. Whether you are a pet owner who has visited us in person or talked with us on the phone, or a pet owner who has ordered any of my natural products, your support allows us to help others in need.

While we support national and international charities, here are some of the ways we have helped those on a local basis.

Occasionally we have pet owners referred to us whose pets need medical care, yet because the owners are experiencing temporary financial difficulties they may not be able to afford all of the care the pet requires. Fortunately we are able to help some of these owners with a fund we have established at our office that allows us to provide discounted care for these pets.

We also believe in helping our fellow citizens locally. As such, your support of our work allows us to support the following local charities:

North Texas Food Bank-The food bank provides food to needy families throughout the North Texas area.

Samaritan Inn-The Samaritan Inn provides temporary housing and job assistance to the homeless and unemployed throughout the North Texas area.

David Timothy/The Soup Man-Several years ago David Timothy felt a calling from God to “Feed His Sheep.” He has set up a wonderful program in downtown Dallas to provide hot meals to the homeless five days a week, and recently, through the generosity of benefactors, has started providing homes to many of the homeless as well.

We have chosen to support these wonderful charities which do good work to help others. If you are looking for a charity to support, I would encourage you to consider any of these, especially if you live in the North Texas area.

Thanks for supporting us so that we can help make a difference in the world!

Dr. Shawn

Dear Dr. Shawn: My five-year-old male Boston Terrier was diagnosed with epilepsy last year. His veterinarian placed him on a medication called phenobarbital. While it has helped control his seizures, I am concerned about him getting my pet medications for the rest of his life. I’ve also heard that this particular drug could hurt his liver. Are there any natural alternatives to help dogs like mine that have epilepsy?

A:There are many causes of seizures in dogs with epilepsy being the most common. Epilepsy basically means that your dog is having seizures and the cause is unknown. Epilepsy is a rule-out diagnosis, which means testing must be done to make sure other causes of seizures are not present. If the testing does not reveal other causes, then the term epilepsy is used to describe his seizures. For younger pets, testing can simply include a physical examination, blood profile, urinalysis, and fecal analysis. Older pets may require additional testing such as an MRI or CT scan to look for brain tumors which tend to occur more commonly in older pets and certain breeds of dogs, including Boston terriers and boxers.

While phenobarbital is a wonderful medication for pets with epilepsy, as you mentioned side effects can and do occur including liver disease. For this reason if any of my patients need to take phenobarbital, I always supplement these pets with natural remedies to help protect the liver, including milk thistle and choline. Additionally, pets taking phenobarbital should be examined at least 2 to 4 times a year for possible side effects; these examinations should include a blood profile and urinalysis. When possible, I prefer natural therapies as they are generally devoid of side effects and do not typically require the regular evaluation of pets that are taking medications such as phenobarbital.

In my practice, I’ve found wonderful success in controlling seizures using supplements such as choline, dimethylglycine, and herbal products and homeopathics. In fact, it is very rare that any of my epileptic patients take drugs for their seizures. If possible, I would try to find a holistic doctor who can slowly wean your pet off of the phenobarbital (if you try to lower the dosage too quickly seizures may recur) and use natural therapies to keep him seizure-free for the rest of his life. Finally, I do not routinely vaccinate pets with seizures as I do not want precipitate a seizural event.

However, it’s important to check out potential policies before purchasing them. Some policies have a limit on how much they will pay for a procedure (for example, $100 for an X-ray even though the X-ray might cost $300,) whereas others will cover most of the cost (typically 80%) of a procedure once a small deductible is paid for by the pet owner, regardless of the actual cost of the procedure.

One piece of advice I give to my clients who are considering purchasing pet health insurance is to call the company and find out what will be covered, what won’t be covered (usually pre-existing conditions and congenital problems will not be covered,) and how much reimbursement the owner can expect for common procedures such as emergency clinic visits, emergency surgeries, treatment of common conditions such as skin and ear infections, and cancer therapy.

Finally, since most pet owners are interested in using some sort of natural therapy to help their pets, is very important to find out if the policy you are considering purchasing will cover natural therapies including nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathics, chiropractic care, acupuncture, etc. Not all policies cover these therapies, even though these therapies are often less expensive than conventional medical therapies and improve the pet’s health, which results in lower medical expenses over the life of the pet.
The good news is that once you find a policy that meets your needs, you can go to any veterinarian you wish. The veterinarian is not involved in the transaction at all other than to sign your insurance form which allows you to be reimbursed for the cost of your visit once you submit your claim to the insurance company.

In my practice, most older arthritic dogs and cats rarely require regular NSAID therapy. Instead, a number of natural therapies are used to minimize pain, decrease inflammation, and help damaged joints heal. These natural therapies can include but are not limited to high-dose fish oil, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory herbs and homeopathics, cold level laser therapy, chiropractic adjustments, and acupuncture. Nonsteroidals are only given by the owner when the pet experiences a particularly painful day. On that day, owners are instructed to use an initial dose of no more than 50% of the label or typically prescribed dosage. This lower dosing regimen is usually adequate to make the pet comfortable and yet not experience any side effects.

Using nonsteroidals in this way (low dosage, as needed basis) is the safest way to control pain and inflammation.

There are many different supplements I prescribe depending upon the pet’s condition. For the sake of your question, I will assume your pet is normal and healthy and does not have any particular medical problems.
I like to start with a basic all-around health-maintenance formula. While there are several of these on the market, the one I most consistently prescribe for my patients is called Vim & Vigor by Pet Togethers (note-I am a consultant for this company because I absolutely LOVE their product and seen wonderful benefits for my patients take it.) The basic health-maintenance formula should contain vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and nutrients such as glucosamine and enzymes to support the various systems in the body (gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, urinary, etc.)

For pets five years of age and older, I also prescribe Cholodin (made by MVP Labs) in addition to Vim & Vigor. Research I have done the product shows it is an effective treatment for cognitive disorder (doggie and kitty Alzheimer’s) and reduces the chance your pet will ever develop cognitive disorder as it ages (cognitive disorder is the most common chronic degenerative nerve condition of older pets.) For older pets that have developed arthritis or are likely to develop arthritis I prefer another product made by MVP Labs called Cholodin Flex, which is essentially their Cholodin supplement plus hyaluronic acid to relieve the pain and inflammation associated with arthritic joints.

I also think that pets can benefit from fatty acids (I like the balanced fatty acid liquid made by RX Vitamins for Pets called Ultra EFA,) antioxidants (I like Proanthozone made by Animal Health Options and Super Ox made by Nutriwest) and enzymes (I like a product called RX Zyme, also made by RX Vitamins)

To make administration of supplements easy, I try to prescribe products that are specifically formulated for pets and are made in flavored vehicles (flavored chewable treats or flavored liquids.) I encourage you to work with your veterinarian to find the best products to help keep your pet healthy!

1.Cold Laser Therapy-Cold laser therapy involves the application of a painless laser to your pet’s arthritic joints or sore back. Similar to acupuncture without the needles, regular cold laser therapy treatments have helped many of my patients live normal lives and avoid surgery (especially those with disk disease of the back and cruciate ligament injuries involving the knees.)

2.Homeopathics-Various homeopathic remedies have shown benefit in relieving pain and inflammation in pets. Specifically, recent studies showed a homeopathic treatment equally effective to the nonsteroidal medication Rimadyl in helping dogs with arthritis.

3.Hyaluronic Acid-While many people are familiar with glucosamine and chondroitin as joint supplements, hyaluronic acid (HA) and tart cherry are quickly becoming a favorite joint supplement, especially for those pets suffering from severe arthritis that do not respond to glucosamine and chondroitin.

4. Herbs-Pets as well as people can benefit from anti-inflammatory herbs including boswellia and white willow bark among others.

5. Fish oil-While fish oil is recommended for a number of inflammatory conditions, don’t forget its value for helping pets with musculoskeletal problems either. Combining fish oil with other therapies will not only help inflamed joints will make the pet healthier as well!

Finally, keep the following points in mind when it comes to dealing with arthritis in pets. The MOST important treatment for arthritis in pets is to make sure they maintain a normal weight. Extra weight carried on damaged joints not only further damages the joints but causes more inflammation in them as well. And even though we’ve been discussing musculoskeletal problems in dogs, don’t forget that even cats get these same problems including arthritis, often as frequently as dogs! Older cats that seem a bit stiff, have urinary or fecal accidents in the household, become cranky if you pet them, and which seem to “act old” often are often found to suffer from arthritis.

While many of the nonsteroidal medications we use in arthritic dogs are not safe to use in cats, fortunately our natural therapies are as helpful in our feline patients as they are in dogs. For more information on helping pets with his musculoskeletal problems, check out the latest information on natural therapies in my new book The Natural Vet’s Guide to Preventing and Treating Arthritis in Dogs & Cats (New World Library, 2011.)