General anesthesia, when administered correctly, is very safe for older patients. Older patients have some unique anesthetic concerns such as maintaining blood pressure, maintaining body temperature, as well as metabolizing (removing) drugs from their systems.
Different drugs may be required due to a pre existing medical condition such as heart or kidney disease and doses of those drugs may require significant fine-tuning.
Proper drug selection for each patient, modification of drug protocols to address any pre-existing medical conditions, and diligent patient monitoring are the keys to success with geriatric patients.
At Arizona Dog and Cat Dentistry, we do not regard old age as a disease and routinely treat patients up to 18 or 20 years of age.
In addition, Dr. Victoria Lukasik, DVM, DACVA,