Once you have made an appointment for your pet to be castrated, please offer a small meal at 10pm the night before the anaesthetic and then withhold any further food. Access to water should be allowed until they are ready to come into the surgery.
Once admitted they will be examined by your vet and given a health check. If your pet is fit and healthy a premedication injection will be given. This helps calm the body and prepare him for the general anaesthetic. The premedication can take 20 - 45 minutes to take effect and they will be slightly sleepy and relaxed.
Once your pet is ready, he will then be taken through to the Prep room. A small area of hair is clipped from his leg, an intravenous catheter is placed and a general anaesthetic is injected into the vein.
An endotracheal tube is then placed into his trachea to maintain a clear airway for us to administer an oxygen/gaseous anaesthetic mix to keep him under anaesthetic.
Once asleep under anaesthetic he will be prepared for theatre. His veterinary nurse monitors the anaesthetic while shaving an area of hair from his testicles. Once the hair has been shaved the area is then cleaned using an antiseptic soap. When all the dirt and hair has been removed a surgical spirit/antiseptic preparation is then applied to the operation site. This procedure is carried out to reduce any bacteria on the skin and provide a sterile operation site. All the hair will grow back in time. They are then transferred to theatre.
The nurse will carefully monitor the anaesthetic during the surgery. Your vet will perform the castration by firstly making an incision in front of the scrotum. Each testicle is then clamped, tied off with suture material and then removed. The skin is then sutured with dissolvable stitches. This is a permanent and irreversible procedure. Once your vet has completed the surgery the gaseous anaesthetic is switched off and your pet will be maintained on pure oxygen for a short period of time.
Once the veterinary nurse is happy, we will then disconnect the anaesthetic circuit and transport your pet to the Hospital Ward where the endotracheal tube is removed when ready. He is placed into a warm kennel and his recovery carefully monitored by the Hospital nurse (a qualified veterinary nurse). Once he is sitting up and alert, his intravenous catheter is removed and the Hospital nurse will contact you to update you on their progress and arrange a collection time. On discharge a veterinary nurse will explain all necessary post- operative care.
We will only discharge a patient when we feel they are fully awake and able to walk. Some pets take longer to fully recover than others and are treated on a case by case situation, so don’t panic if a late time is requested for collection.
The benefits of having your pet castrated:
- May improve unwanted behaviour (if castrated early)
- Decreases risk of prostatic disease
- Testicular tumours are prevented
- Reduced incidence of perianal tumours
- Reduced incidence of perianal hernia
- Stops dogs from running away after bitches in season
