The clinic I used to work for used Iso (with Propofol induction on top of an ace/hydro premed cocktail) with the young dogs. Sevo was reserved for geriatric patients/patients with heart conditions (although the Propofol induction stayed the same regardless). The clinic I work at now uses Iso for everything, with a Propofol induction and ace/torb premed cocktail.

In summary: I don't think having him be on Sevo would be a bad thing, but I don't think Iso will hurt him, either.

 

What blackrose said. We use Iso the majority of the time, but if the animal has a heart condition, we use Sevo. If he's in pretty good health, I wouldn't imagine they'd use Sevo.

As for pre meds, we've been using dexdomitor lately, but every clinic's different.

Also, this might help. http://www.surgivet.com/Userfiles/education-resources/clinical/Isoflurane vs Sevoflurane.pdf

 

Thanks, I was concerned about comments for human use of Iso, now replaced by sevo. BUt, hadn't read anything against Iso, except that it wasn't as 'fast' as sevo.

Shep doesn't seem to have any heart problems, and no significant lung problems (other than normal for his age) ... according to the Vet.

My main fear was waking up from the anesthetic, not the actual surgery or minor chance of a tumor (vs. granuloma).

Your experience helped. I appreciate it.

 

I don't have any first hand experience with sevoflurane (we only use iso at school and the clinic where I work), but I can tell you what we were taught in anesthesiology/pharmacology...

Sevoflurane is less soluble than isoflurane. Patients will begin waking up faster and respond to changes in amount delivered more quickly.
Sevoflurane is less irritating to mucous membranes. This makes it a better choice for mask inductions than isoflurane.
Sevoflurane has a higher MAC (minimum alveolar concentration) value. This means you need more sevoflurane to get the same level of anesthesia as isoflurane.
Sevoflurane is more extensively metabolized in the liver than isoflurane. Not really a big deal as it's more insoluble and is probably a wash in terms of actual amount of drug reaching the liver.
However, both isoflurane and sevoflurane cause a similar degree of respiratory depression and vasodilation. So, practically, there's not a huge amount of difference between the two for maintenance of anesthesia.

The anesthesiologist that gave us the inhalant lecture considers the two to be mostly interchangeable and a matter of personal preference.

 

Thanks for the info.