Watch Video: Introduction

Welcome! Anesthesia with Intention is designed to help you build sound fundamentals in anesthesia. Spending time establishing a firm foundation will pay huge dividends in developing confidence in anesthesia decision making.

This month’s topic is Anesthesia for the Health Canine Patient.

The healthy dog is a great starting point for delving into how to establish good anesthesia habits as it familiarizes you with the various steps involved in anesthesia decision making and anesthesia delivery techniques.

The main video presentation is supplemented with additional stand alone video shorts that delve into certain important anesthesia topics in more detail and that serve as practice tips.

Please share any interesting experiences you have as you apply your new found knowledge to your delivery of anesthesia to your patients. Your comments will be helpful to your colleagues and will allow us, your mentors, to fine tune our focus during the webinar.

Be sure to note the date of this month’s live Q&A webinar, also listed in the menu. It’s a great chance to ask questions, review cases, and clarify anything that comes up during the month.

In the downloadable resources section at the top of the page — you’ll find an anesthesia record template there. We strongly encourage you to use it. It helps you more easily detect trends in changes of your patients vital signs during anesthesia.

Analyzing the anesthesia record of a patient that has thrown you curveballs or had adverse responses to anesthesia is a very powerful learning tool: We learn most when things do not go as planned – as long as we take the time to dissect what happened.

Let’s get started!

1 Comments

Questions & Answers (1)

Tina Longtin
April 1, 2026 at 12:41 pm

Hi Dr. Brock,
I was wondering if I could ask a question about a reply you had given last month to a colleague's question about a feline neuter anesthetic protocol for a cat with a heart murmur. You had mentioned at the end: "Listen carefully for upper respiratory noises such as gurgling both before and also in the half hour or so after extubation and treat with IM glycopyrrolate at 0.01mg/kg." I do sometimes hear this in feline patients after extubation during neuter procedures, (does not occur in patients we do IM sedation for other procedures and are not intubated). I was told or assumed it may be due to the lidocaine spray upon intubation and we tell clients this should resolve within 24-48h. Should I be treating this with glycopyrrolate and is the lidocaine spray the actual reason for this??

A question for Dr. Sylvestre also: I was just looking for the spay and neuter workshop to see if I could watch the cryptorchid videos, do we still have access to this?

Thank you very much,
Tina

1 Comment
Nancy Brock February 7, 2026 at 12:53 pm

Caroline writes:
Hello Dr. Brock,

I have a couple of questions regarding my anesthesia protocols:

Ketamine for Feline Spays: Do you recommend using ketamine boluses during cat spays as well? I typically use them during canine spays, specifically when working on the pedicles.

Induction Protocols: Does ketamine need to be part of the induction protocol for the intraoperative boluses to be effective? Previously, I used a ketamine/propofol combination for induction followed by ketamine boluses. However, at my new practice, the technicians prefer inducing with Alfaxalone only, so I am no longer using ketamine during the induction phase.

Great questions! Yes I use ketamine in the same way for both cat and dog spay procedures. But if you are not witnessing the increase in heart and respiratory rates that accompany traction on the ovarian pedicles then I suggest that you don’t need the ketamine IV bolus, there is nothing to “fix”. If you are observing that the cats in your practice don’t respond to ovarian pedicle traction the same way as dogs, the reason may be in the differences between your canine and feline spay premed protocols: many cats receive large doses of ketamine and dexmedetomidine in their premeds which may blunt their reponse to surgical manipulation.

Ketamine does not need to be part of the induction protocol for the peri-operatve IV ketamine bolus to be effective. Using ketamine during induction can provide two benefits 1) immediate intense brief analgesia that can help with handling an acutely painful patient in the first 10 minutes or so of unconsciousness, for example, the dog with acute fracture pain being handled and positioned for placement of regional blocks. 2) Reduction in the total dose of propofol that is required for intubation which MAY reduce the severity and duration of post induction apnea and hypotension.

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