The medicine practiced by the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center’s Anesthesia Service is a key aspect of thousands of procedures and treatments each year, but the communication driving the success of that care is where the team truly shines. 

The service provides high-quality anesthetic care for patients requiring general anesthesia or sedation for diagnostics, procedures or safe handling, as well as local anesthetic techniques such as epidurals, peripheral limb or plane blocks, and acupuncture. Each case has a dedicated anesthetist, who ensures patient safety and comfort.

“We tailor anesthetic protocols to each unique patient,” says Lauren Ienello, an assistant professor and member of the Anesthesia Service. “This starts with reviewing the history, the reason for requiring anesthesia or sedation, current medications, relevant diagnostics and performing our own physical examination, followed by designing a plan to fit the needs of the individual patient.” 

In addition to keeping patients comfortable, the Anesthesia team teaches the residents, interns, and College of Veterinary Medicine students, which is another key aspect of their work. 

“When mentoring students who are learning anesthesia, they often come in with a lot of anxiety,” says Caitlin Tearney, associate professor and member of the Anesthesia Service. “Our team aims to give them knowledge, guidance, and repeated exposure to help them gain confidence and competence when they finish their rotations.”

That experience translates across the veterinary field. On any given day, nine speciality care services at the Veterinary Medical Center may need anesthesia, sedation, or pain management for their patients. With more than 30,000 patient visits across the center’s small and large animal facilities each year, Anesthesia team members need to be able to work on not only dogs and cats, but also horses, camelids, pigs and small ruminants.

Sometimes their cases take them beyond hospital walls to nearby Como Zoo and The Raptor Center. In recent years, the team’s work has allowed clinical teams to fit a giraffe with orthopedic shoes and pull teeth from a snow leopard. The team also partnered with the zoo’s care team to perform a CT scan on Mumford, the African lion, prior to his passing in April. Providing anesthesia for such a wide variety of animals requires knowledge and an understanding of each species. 

“These cases require extensive teamwork, including collaboration with the attending clinician, and innovative thinking to be able to provide anesthesia to nondomestic species where the typical equipment we use may not be perfectly fit to their unique anatomy or physiology,” Ienello says.

With such a wide breadth of patients—especially those with complex medical needs—challenges can arise. Some cases may require extra diagnostics. This may include more recent blood work, an echocardiogram for a heart murmur, or radiographs. The team also may determine that a patient should receive additional support services during a procedure, including an arterial line for direct blood pressure monitoring, serial blood gas, glucose or electrolyte monitoring.

Whether the challenge lies in the patient’s health or in a complicated procedure—like performing an emergency cesarean section on a llama—the team works to overcome it, says Colleen Hickey, an assistant professor and member of the Anesthesia Service. 

“Determining how we can use the tools at our disposal to minimize patient discomfort and complications is like solving a puzzle,” she adds. “There is no better feeling than having a challenging case recover well and return home to their owners.”

Meet the Service is a monthly feature spotlighting the people and work of the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center's care services across its hospitals and clinics.