Careful planning, communication and preparation can facilitate a safe and productive appointment for fractious patients that need to be sedated or anesthetized, says Katherine Bennett, DVM, and Christine Egger, DVM, MVSc, CVA, CVH, DACVAA. They share tips for safe handling of for diagnostic or surgical procedures in these areas:
- Owner communication
- Pre-appointment prep
- Sedation administration
- Patient handling while hospitalized
- Recovery and discharge
Source: Clinician’s Brief, November 2018. Link. Aggression represents over 50 percent of behavior-related problems in dogs,1 and fractious animals pose an inherent risk to veterinary staff. Precautions should be taken to ensure both patient and team safety when sedating or anesthetizing these patients.
Multimodal pharmacologic restraint, along with modified approaches to drug administration and patient handling, can mitigate most of the issues encountered with aggressive patients in the hospital setting.