Can an old, overweight dog have a cyst removed with local anesthetic?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Unfortunately, for larger masses / cysts, full anesthesia is required to remove them. Some masses can be removed using local anesthetic while the patient is awake, but not in all cases. If it is quite a large cyst, unfortunately, the only 100% solution would be to remove it entirely. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. You can also inquire about freezing the cyst, which depends on the size and location of the mass / cyst.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. If it is possible, I would recommend having the x-rays done without sedation and depending on how the x-rays look and how her blood work looks, consider removal of the mass under anesthesia. She is not too old for anesthesia but the risk of anesthetic complications rises with age. As long as her heart, lungs and blood work are normal, she should be fine under anesthesia. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! The biggest issue with obesity is stress on the heart and the lungs. Breathing abnormalities while under or in recovery can be huge complications in obese dogs. With that being said I personally do not see higher anesthesia complications in obese dogs over lean dogs. Anesthetic complications are rare and unpredictable and affect all age groups. I hope this helps and I wish you and Maisey the best!

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Most vets today will use a "pre-med" (combination of a pain medication and a sedative) which is often a mix of an opioid and a sedative (often hydromorphone and acepromazine, or some mix of this sort), then an "induction agent" which is usually either propofol, alfaxan, ketamine/diazepam, or ketamine/midazolam, and then will use a gaseous inhalent which is pretty much always isoflurane. Any of these drugs are fine, and often the drug that is best is the drug that your vet is most comfortable using. Thiopental is an 'old school drug' which is less favoured compared to these newer drugs, however it can be used completely safely as well. Doing pre-anaesthetic bloodwork will reduce the risks involved by making sure there is no organ dysfunction prior to surgery. I would suggest just asking your vet how the procedure works, and would check about if IV fluids will be used, what monitoring is present, as the monitoring is probably the most important part of a safe anesthetic, more-so than the type of drug that is used. Best of luck with Lucy!

In an overweight dog, there is more fat tissue to get through, and within the abdomen there is fat covering everything making it more difficult to see, and slippery to handle the tissues. It is a little more challenging than a spay in a thin dog. If they rescheduled the procedure with a different veterinarian, it is possible that the veterinarian on duty today wanted to make sure she was in more experienced hands. A spay is a very routine procedure, although no surgery is without risk. You should be thankful that the veterinarian today did what was best for Aubree, and I hope everything goes well tomorrow. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I would recommend having a geriatric blood panel done first before deciding to sedate Sebastiancat to have the cyst removed. That will give you an idea of the anesthetic risk of sedating him, letting you know if it is dangerous or not to have it removed. You can also have it drained by the vet, but it may return. I would discuss these options with your vet.

Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I can see that Jake has a very large, round, well demarcated growth on his side. While it is impossible to tell exactly what type of tumor it is and give a prognosis following removal, it is likely that removing the tumor will make him more comfortable. Depending on the approach, the surgical site may be rather large and require some care and pain management at home. As long as Jake is otherwise healthy, surgery and anesthesia are relatively safe as well. I hope this helps and am happy to answer any other questions you have!