SURVEY OF SMALL ANIMAL ANESTHETIC PRACTICE IN VERMONT

An anesthesia survey was sent to 88 veterinary practitioners in Vermont. The purpose of the survey was to obtain information about current techniques of anesthesia in dogs and cats, including morbidity and mortality data. Details regarding anesthetic waste gas scavenging also were sought. Thirty-nine completed questionnaires were analyzed. The most common anesthetic sequence in dogs was acepromazine and atropine premedication, followed by thiobarbiturate induction and halothane maintenance of anesthesia. Techniques involving dissociative anesthetics also were popular. In cats, dissociative anesthetic combinations commonly were used, although inhalation anesthesia frequently was employed for maintenance of anesthesia. Most veterinarians were aware of the health hazards of breathing trace concentrations of anesthetic gases and employed a waste gas scavenging system. The most common complication of anesthesia was cardiopulmonary arrest, and the annual anesthetic mortality rate was 0.11% in dogs and 0.06% in cats.