Anesthesia & Pain Management Services
The Anesthesia and Pain Management Service at Tufts VETS offers state-of-the-art treatment practices supporting surgical cases as well as acute or chronic pain management. The service is staffed by an ACVA board-certified anesthesiologist and two licensed surgery technicians. Our service works in close collaboration with other Tufts VETS specialties, including ophthalmology, internal medicine, radiology and critical care, to provide training and support for case management.
Services available for Tufts VETS patients
Anesthesia of routine cases
We provide support for anesthesia of routine surgical cases, including referral reports for RDVM to create medical records of the patient's response to anesthetic drugs.
We have a wide spectrum of anesthetic drugs and will create a customized anesthetic protocol for each patient based on the pre-anesthetic exam and (if appropriate) laboratory profile. We routinely monitor blood pressure on all cases and offer a designated anesthesia doctor or nurse for all cases. Specialized equipment available includes anesthesia ventilators and multi-parameter electronic monitors, including direct arterial blood pressure monitoring. Most cases receive inhalant anesthesia with either Isoflurane or Sevoflurane.
- Specialized pain management techniques such as epidural analgesia, epidural catheters and wound soaker catheters.
- Anesthesia of the high risk surgical patient. The board-certified anesthesiologist can directly anesthetize high risk patients with support from the critical care staff.
- Pain management consultations for patients with either acute (peri-operative) pain or chronic (cancer or osteoarthritis pain).
Services available for Tufts VETS Referring hospitals
Anesthesia and Pain Consultations
Anesthesia and pain consults are available by phone, email or fax. We are happy to answer any questions you have or to discuss difficult cases over the phone.
Pain Case Referrals
Dr. Emily McCobb will see referred pain cases by appointment at Tufts VETS in Walpole, in conjunction with the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine Pain Clinic. She is particularly interested in helping animals with terminal diagnoses enjoy good quality of life at home. If requested, Dr. McCobb will travel to referring hospitals to troubleshoot anesthetic equipment problems or to offer continuing education sessions for the technicians that are tailored to the needs of the practice.
Externship opportunities
We now offer one week externship opportunities for veterinarians. The focus of these externships can be on case management, pain medicine or equipment and are customized to suit the practitioner's interests.