Veterinary Anursethesia

29/12/2025

From Frontiers

🚨 🚨 Join us for an online webinar: Cardiac Anaesthesia in Veterinary Medicine — Recent Advances and Innovation��📅 Date & time: 20 January 2026 at 6 pm CET time��Panelists: ��Dr. Thaleia Stathopoulou – Senior lecturer at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London�Dr. Carolina Palacios-Jiménez – Senior Lecturer at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London�Dr. Alfonso Rodriguez – Senior Clinician at Bristol Vet Specialists, Bristol�Dr. Lydia Hjalmarsson – Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London�Prof. Gunther van Loon – Head of the Equine Internal Medicine department at Ghent University, head of the Equine Cardioteam Ghent�Dr. Janny de Grauw - Anaesthesia specialist and Head of Discipline for IVC Evidensia, Netherlands��✅ Online event�✅ Free registration (no costs)�📝 Register here: https://lnkd.in/eUWdwf_f���‼️ Please note: the webinar recording will be available only to those who attend live.

02/12/2025

Constant alarms can be very triggering and heighten stress, so usually the solution is to silence them or alter the settings. But how detrimental can this be to the care we are giving to our patients; can it cause things to be missed?

Clinical alarms in medical devices play a vital role in enhancing patient safety by alerting healthcare professionals of any physiological changes that may require immediate intervention (Mindray). The alarms act as an early warning system to prevent patient deterioration and adverse outcomes. However, the increasing sensitivity of alarm systems has led to an overwhelming number of false or non-actionable alerts, resulting in a phenomenon known as alarm fatigue (Cvach, 2012). This issue has proven detrimental to patients; in human medicine, between 2005 and 2010, 216 deaths across the United States were linked to unheard or dysfunctional alarms, and between 49% and 96% of clinical alarms were overridden (Mindray).

The consistent alarms have also resulted in cognitive overload, where repeated exposure to uninformative alerts results in reduced responsiveness to important warnings (Ancker et al., 2017). Think of “a boy who cried wolf”. A hypothesis arising from two possible alarm fatigues was tested: a) cognitive overload associated with amount of work, complexity of work, and effort distinguishing informative from uninformative alerts, and b) desensitisation from repeated exposure to the same alert over time (Ancker et al., 2017). The findings supported a model of alarm fatigue, which arises from the difficulty in distinguishing relevant alerts from irrelevant ones due to the high number of informative alerts (Ancker et al., 2017).

Therefore, should we consider altering the settings to only alert for what’s relevant for our patients?

To reduce alarm fatigue, RVNs should have more awareness of the safety behind alarms; therefore, the appropriate training should be available to give us the ability to safely optimise alarm levels and frequencies (Shaoru et al., 2023). Cvach (2012) also concludes that training RVNs to be able to safely adjust alarms to patients’ actual needs ensures that the alarms are valid and provides an early warning to potential critical situations. It’s also been seen to be effective to document alarm parameters, improving alarm adjustment compliance, e.g., in a cat, setting the heart rate alarm settings to 100-200 bpm.

Let's get Lit:
- https://tinyurl.com/mindraycrozfusion
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23779608231207227
- https://array.aami.org/doi/10.2345/0899-8205-46.4.268
- https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12911-017-0430-8

29/11/2025

Beyond excited to welcome the nurse advocate anaesthetist Keagan to the next live Anursethesia Diaries session!

Tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-anursethesia-diaries-december-journal-club-venous-assessment-tickets-1712220641029

28/11/2025

When treating bradycardia under anaesthesia with an anticholinergic, does the dose matter?

The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, also known as the "fight or flight" and "rest and digest" systems, are both part of the autonomic nervous system. Anticholinergics antagonise the muscarinic effects of acetylcholine (ACh) on the parasympathetic nervous system, where ACh is the primary neurotransmitter. Their use in veterinary anaesthesia is to block vagally mediated bradycardia. You may also hear them called antimuscarinics or vagolytic drugs. Anticholinergics increase heart rate by blocking the vagus nerve’s ability to slow the heart, allowing the natural pacemaker to run faster – the effect? The heart rate rises!

First let’s discuss glycopyrrolate. A study was conducted by Dyson et al. (1999) to evaluate the effectiveness of glycopyrrolate administered at a dose of 5 or 10 mcg/kg in anaesthetised dogs of varying weights. The results showed 47% of the small dog breeds (

17/11/2025

A pulse oximeter can show a heart rate or oxygen saturation even when it’s not on a patient because it’s reacting to noise, not real physiology. Ambient light, especially the flicker from fluorescent and some LED lights, which emit wavelengths overlapping the red and infrared range used to measure haemoglobin, can trick the sensor into thinking it sees a pulse.

Physics innit.

09/11/2025

We're all set for the 2026 Anaesthesia Roadshow, with all venues booked.

Apply for your 2026 CPD budget so you can get booked in as over a quarter of tickets have already gone!

Check it out here:

Understanding the fundamentals of anaesthesia monitoring will not only boost your confidence, but will also serve as a foundation for future skills and concepts.

24/10/2025

We’re back! Your fave showgirls (because I’d love to be in pink sparkles) are excited to announce the first of the 360 Days for 2026

On the 8th of March and I will be at

A day crammed with content, building confidence to not only use your monitoring to alert you but also to be able to act in an emergency.

4 hours of theory with a 2 hour practical workshop- 6 hours of CPD for £155

But be quick, as always these are small groups and limited to 24 people

02/10/2025

Oh, this ASA chart is fun and sexy! Print yours!

https://www.thinkanaesthesia.com.au/sites/default/files/2024-05/ASA%20Physical%20Status%20Classification%20Chart%20&%20Premedication%20Chart%20Digital.pdf

01/10/2025

They're HERE!

Quick guides to your ventilator!

Covering how to set up:
- Mindray Veta 5
- GE Datex-Ohmeda
- Smiths Medical ventiPAC
- Penlon Nuffield 200 Ventilator
- Burtons/Vetronics SAV04
- RWD R420/NarkoVet® SAV II
- NarkoVet® Pro
- Vetronic Merlin Ventilator
- Ventilator Terminology

Order yours here: https://shorturl.at/0xnAV

01/10/2025

We're absolutely thrilled at Vet Empowered to bring in an expert guest speaker for this session on something that's come up time and time again in our community. We are heading towards our 5th birthday, and this is one of our series of events to give back in line with our values.

Many veterinary professionals have noticed that hormones affect their mental health, but often feel uncertain about next steps. You may have researched symptoms independently, questioned whether what you're experiencing falls within normal ranges, or felt unsure about who to turn to for support or guidance.

That's exactly why we've invited Dr. Helena Tucker to join us. Helena is a Clinical Psychologist specialising in women's mental health, with a particular focus on PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder), PME (Premenstrual Exacerbation), neurodiversity, and menopausal mental health. What makes this even more valuable is that Helena brings both her professional expertise and her own lived experience with PMDD - she truly gets it from both sides.

Whether you're a vet, vet nurse, student, or practice manager, Helena will help you understand what's actually going on when hormones affect your mental health, the difference between PMS and PMDD, and crucially - what your options are. We'll talk about practical strategies that actually work in busy clinical environments, how to advocate for yourself in medical appointments, and where to find ongoing support.

There will be opportunity for questions, as well as to pre-submit them at registration.

To find out more, or to sign up, click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/jPiTWqxvRhywOJkqzpE93w #/registration

30/09/2025

A "pinch me" moment - I will have my very own spot at the Vets Now ECC congress in November! My debut exhibitors experience with my very own company. Woah.

Please come by and see me at Stand 36 to talk nerdy, see the sassy anaesthesia merch out there, and pick up some flyers on how I plan to blow 2026 anaesthesia CPD out of the water!

29/09/2025

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has a prevalence of approximately 15% in the domestic cat population (Payne et al., 2015). Therefore, it is fairly common to have to anaesthetise these patients for various procedures.

In cats with HCM, the ventricles become thickened, which leads to a reduction in cardiac output due to diastolic dysfunction. This leads to a secondary dilation of the left atrium as a result of increased pressures in the left ventricle. End results of this disease are myocardial hypoxia and left-sided congestive heart failure (Robinson and Borgeat, 2016).

But what do we need to consider before anaesthetising them?

- Reducing stress levels is important. This will minimise sympathetic stimulation and help prevent increased myocardial workload.
- Tachycardia should be avoided, as this will increase myocardial workload. Avoid drugs such as ketamine due to their sympathomimetic action.
- Low doses of alpha 2 agonists such as medetomidine may be considered, as they will cause bradycardia, which will increase ventricular filling. The reduction in cardiac output that they cause may also benefit ischaemic myocardial tissues due to the reduced oxygen demand. The use of these drugs may only be recommended in pre-clinical cases of HCM.
- Avoid hypovolemia, as this will reduce diastolic function further. However, intravenous fluid therapy administration should be done with care, as this could increase the preload in the heart and cause decompensation.

Just because a patient has HCM doesn’t mean they cannot be anaesthetised! We just need to consider how our anaesthesia plan will affect the patient and try to reduce risks where possible.

There is also the Veterinary Cardiovascular Society meeting in November: https://www.vet-cardio.co.uk/meeting/next-vcs-meeting/

Let’s get Lit:
- Robinson, R., and Borgeat, K. (2021) ‘Cardiovascular Disease’ in BSAVA manual of canine and feline anaesthesia and analgesia. 3rd edn. Quedgeley, Gloucester: British Small Animal Veterinary Association. 287
- Payne JR, Brodbelt DC, Luis Fuentes V. Cardiomyopathy prevalence in 780 apparently healthy cats in rehoming centres (the CatScan study). J Vet Cardiol. 2015 Dec;17 Suppl 1:S244-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jvc.2015.03.008. PMID: 26776583.