# Anesthesia in the Spoos?



## Yaddaluvpoodles (Mar 20, 2010)

There are certain medications which lower seizure thresholds. If a poodle is predisposed to seizures, this type of medication may cause the dog to have seizures.

My Vic has idiopathic epilepsy (as do several dogs related to her, including some of her offspring). She was bred once prior to her first seizure (I didn't know she had epilepsy when I bred her). I kept one of her boys.. Riley. I wanted to have a vasectomy done on Riley. Checked with nearly 10 different vet clinics, couldn't find anyone who was willing to do it, everyone just wanted to neuter him. Finally I gave in and took him in to be neutered. I didn't talk with the vet before hand.. I talked with a vet tech. I gave her a thorough family history, including the seizure history and the need to be cautious with meds. I don't always have the greatest memory any more, but it seems that it was less than 2 weeks from neutering to date of onset of Riley's seizure activity. His first seizure took place in the evening and believe me, I was on the phone first thing in the morning to the vet clinic to inquire what medications had been used.. sure enough.. Ketamine. It turns out that the tech never relayed any of the information to the vet. The vet was unaware of the seizure predisposition.

IF a poodle is not predisposed to seizures, they can tolerate ketamine (and other seizure threshold lowering meds) just fine. The meds don't cause the dogs to seize unless the predisposition is there already. That means that for the majority of poodles, it's not an issue.. but you have to know what health issues are in the family line to know whether or not it could be a problem.


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## bigpoodleperson (Jul 14, 2009)

If your dog has seizures then both Ketamine and phenothiazine tranqulizers (Acepromazine) are a risk. If your dog does not then I wouldnt worry. I have actually seen several dogs with known seizures being given Ketamine with out issue. Poodles dont have the risk that sighthounds do with anesthesia. Poodles are however a lean breed in general, so I would stay away from any barbiturate's. They can be dangerous in dogs with little body fat. There are much newer and safer drugs on the market now instead. I would also make sure your vet uses either Isoflurane or Sevoflurane inhalent anesthesia. They are both the safest on the market and are used in human medicine. 

In general for any surgerys I would make sure they do a blood panel on your dog. Make sure his liver and kidney values are in a good range so he can process the anesthesia. Also makes sure he is clotting well and doesnt have any major infections. I would require an IV catheter and fluids as well. This will provide fluids to help flush the drugs from his system, help keep his blood pressure up, and also the vet has a port to the vein if anything were to happen to administure life saving drugs. I would never put any pet under without a catheter.

I would not worry though. If you go to a more "modern" clinic who stays up to date with things then they should use the safest drugs and techniques. He should be hooked up to monitoring devices the whole time and be kept warm. Im sure your boy will be just fine! My Riley had entropion surgery when he was 7 years old on both eyes. Good luck!


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## Yaddaluvpoodles (Mar 20, 2010)

bigpoodleperson said:


> If your dog has seizures then both Ketamine and phenothiazine tranqulizers (Acepromazine) are a risk. If your dog does not then I wouldnt worry.


I would still encourage anyone who has a poodle who will be undergoing anesthesia to make themselves as aware of the family seizure risk as possible and let the vet know if there is a risk there.

My Riley had no prior seizure history... knowing thefamily history, knowing the risks.. I SHOULD have insisted on talking directly to the vet, instead of trusting the tech. It's not easy watching a poodle thrashing on the ground and thinking.. if only.....

I don't worry about seizures with anesthesia with my other poodles (not related to Vic/Ri)


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