Spay and Neuter

The Harmony Difference

At Harmony Animal Hospital, we have three goals when spaying or neutering your dog or cat: safety, pain management, and communication. Here’s what you need to know about our practice’s spay and neuter approach.

spay and neuter dogs and cats

Patient Safety Procedures

Patient safety is always our top priority, so you can be assured that your animal companion is monitored and cared for from the second you drop your pet off at our office. Here are the steps we take to ensure your pet’s safety during a spay or neuter procedure:

  • We treat every patient as an individual. We do not schedule multiple spay or neuter procedures at the same time because we perform each surgery individually and wait until that patient is 100% recovered before any other procedure is performed.
  • All patients are required to have blood work. Blood testing helps us ensure your pet is healthy before administering anesthesia to our patients.
  • We use an IV catheter and administer IV fluids for every procedure. The IV catheter provides the surgeon instant access to the patient’s veins if any complications arise. We also administer IV fluids to maintain the patient’s blood pressure, which supports her heart and kidney function, assures appropriate hydration levels, and compensates for blood loss.
  • We never leave our patients alone. Our patients have a doctor and technician team attending to them from induction until they are fully recovered and stable.
  • We keep our patients warm. Our patients are given a warming blanket during and after the spay or neuter procedure to maintain a healthy body temperature because they cannot do so on their own. This greatly reduces pain and speeds up recovery after the procedure.
  • We monitor our patients’ vital signs. During anesthesia, it’s critically important to monitor a patient’s vital signs, including heart rate, blood oxygen levels, CO2 levels, respiratory rate, blood pressure, temperature, and depth of anesthesia.

We use state-of-the-art tools to monitor your pet’s vital signs so that we can react instantaneously in the event of a complication.

Harmony_Animal Hospital Spay & Neuter Infographic
Spay and neuter your dog logo.
Spay and neuter your cat logo.

The philosophy of our spay and neuter program is to do what's best for your situation - and your pet.

Pain Management and State-Of-The-Art Surgical Tools

Getting spayed or neutered does not have to be painful for your pet, and we have the skill, experience, and technology to reduce blood loss, pain, and inflammation before, during, and after the procedure. Here’s what you need to know about our pain management and surgical tools:

  • We use two lasers to minimize bleeding and reduce post-operative inflammation. Harmony Animal Hospital doctors employ a surgical laser instead of a scalpel, which reduces bleeding and pain at the surgical site and aids in faster healing. After the procedure is done, we use a post-operative therapy laser to reduce pain, swelling, and inflammation, which helps our patients heal faster.
  • Our patients receive three forms of pain medication. We use injectable local anesthesia at the surgery site, an injectable opiate before and after surgery, an anti-inflammatory injection at the time of surgery, and we provide all patients with a take-home prescription for anti-inflammatory medication that aids recovery.

Communication

If you are a pet owner planning a spay or neuter procedure, you deserve and can expect excellent communication from the staff at Harmony Animal Hospital. Our communication protocols for spay and neuter procedures are:

  • Drop-off review. When you drop your pet off for their spay/neuter procedure, we will review the day with you and answer any questions.
  • Pre-operative notification. Before we begin the procedure, we will call or text you.
  • Swift communication of any complications. If any complications arise during the procedure, we will call you immediately and keep you apprised.
  • Post-operative notification. Once your pet is in recovery and stable, we will call or text you.
  • Pick-up review. When you come to pick up your pet, we will review everything that has happened and advise you on what to expect during the next couple of days to weeks. We provide written documentation about the procedure and aftercare, as well.