Midwest Anesthesia Consulting Veterinary Services LLC

Midwest Anesthesia Consulting Veterinary Services LLC MACvet provides mobile veterinary anesthesia consultations & RACE-approved training services. Our aim is to make advanced anesthesia accessible to all animals.

Did you know you might be overdosing your obese patients during anesthesia?! 🙀All anesthetic medications should be dosed...
04/20/2026

Did you know you might be overdosing your obese patients during anesthesia?! 🙀

All anesthetic medications should be dosed on ideal or lean body weight 👌📊 This is because the body has different tissue sites with varying drug activity: we want our drugs to be in active sites (e.g. brain and bloodstream), as opposed to inactive sites like fat or adipose to tissue.

When we dose drugs using a body weight (lbs or kg) and don’t account for the fact the added weight is from extra inactive drug sites, like fat, you will inadvertently be overdosing the amount of “active” drug you’re hoping to administer 🙊

* https://todaysveterinarypractice.com/nutrition/nutrition-notes-treatment-of-obesity/
* https://aneskey.com/pharmacokinetics-3/ -fig-305

ALWAYS use lean body weight when calculating your anesthetic & analgesic agents to ensure effective AND safe dosing 🤗

FYI: this concept of using lean body weight also applies to calculating airway supplies — do you know which specific supply it really impacts?

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We’re so lucky to support clients like these 🤓 Reach out if you’re also interested in seeing how specialist support can ...
04/17/2026

We’re so lucky to support clients like these 🤓 Reach out if you’re also interested in seeing how specialist support can elevate your team & patient care!

Welcome TITO to the MACvet Mindset! 💕Tito needed major dental work done to help improve his recent decline in appetite, ...
04/17/2026

Welcome TITO to the MACvet Mindset! 💕

Tito needed major dental work done to help improve his recent decline in appetite, but he also has chronic 🫀 disease that made his anesthesia more complicated than most… that’s where MACvet came in to help!

Dr.Gaby collaborated with the wonderful Colorado Western Slope teams of and to ensure Tito safely received the dental care he so desperately needed. After many team discussions, additional anesthetic supplies gathered, and prepping Tito for his “anesthesia marathon” — Tito was able to have his 🦷 concerns addressed and Dr.Gaby was there virtually the whole time to ensure everyone felt supported with his anesthetic needs 🤝

Tito is now back to himself again and his family is excited he’s finally reached the viral and ⭐️-quality level he deserves being featured on our post 😂

We’re grateful to be a part of each pet’s care team and help teams, and pet parents, feel supported from intake to recovery 🫶

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👀 Our recent “Anesthesia Guess Who” was…. Alpaca! 🦙Alpacas, Llamas, Vicuñas, and Guanaco are South American camelid spec...
04/15/2026

👀 Our recent “Anesthesia Guess Who” was…. Alpaca! 🦙

Alpacas, Llamas, Vicuñas, and Guanaco are South American camelid species native to the Andes 🏔️ Because of their high-altitude environment, these animals have evolved to have ovoid RBCs 🩸 and hemoglobin-O2 affinity changes that enhance their ability to counteract the hypoxic high-altitude air 😮‍💨 DOI:10.1644/06-MAMM-S-199R1.1

SO FREAKING COOL 🤓😲

Share with us your Alpaca anesthesia story or reach out if you’re interested in learning more tips & tricks to providing advanced anesthesia to all kinds of animals! 📩

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ANESTHETIC DEPTH 👁️📊Anesthesia providers in both human and veterinary medicine use the principles from Guedel’s Classifi...
04/10/2026

ANESTHETIC DEPTH 👁️📊

Anesthesia providers in both human and veterinary medicine use the principles from Guedel’s Classification of Stages of Anesthesia to guide us in ensuring our patients are at appropriate levels of “asleep” based on the patient & procedure needs 😴 More advanced methods of anesthetic depth assessment involves measuring 🧠 wave activity (e.g. BIS, EEG) which is primarily used in humans or animal research at this time.

Some animals don’t have the same clinical indicators of anesthesia depth (e.g. jaw tone in herbivores, palpebral reflexes in horses) which makes it challenging in vet med — we need to know the nuance signs of appropriate anesthetic depth for the plethora of animals we care for! 🤯

Anesthetic depth is often fluctuant throughout a case & makes assessment challenging — this dog’s clinical depth indicators (ventromedial eye position + slack jaw tone) indicated appropriate anesthetic depth (Ax Stage 3 Phase 2). However, when stimulation changes, so does the level of anesthetic depth — as depicted by a strong gag reflex in this dog during active endoscopy.

It is the anesthetist’s duty and challenge to “fine-tune” the level of anesthesia for the goal of the patient and the procedure ⚖️

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PULSE PRESSURE VARIATION [PPV] 📈📉A reliable way of assessing fluid-responsiveness under anesthesia! PPV is a non-invasiv...
04/07/2026

PULSE PRESSURE VARIATION [PPV] 📈📉A reliable way of assessing fluid-responsiveness under anesthesia!

PPV is a non-invasive monitoring tool where you compare how each pulse pressure waveform on a plethysmograph (the pulse ox waveform) changes when positive-pressure ventilation (also PPV…) is present.

Due to pressure increasing in the thoracic cavity during controlled ventilation (either by hand or mechanical), if a patient is hypovolemic they may visually and numerically show notable pulse pressure variation (PPV>13%) during inspiration. These patients are more likely to benefit from an IVF bolus to correct systemic hypotension, as opposed to a patient with normal PPV values would likely not be fluid-responsive 💧⛔️

DOI: 10.1016/j.aat.2011.05.001

The key is that patients must be receiving ventilation ⚙️🫁 — if they are spontaneously breathing, we cannot use any alterations in PPV or plethysmography in this way 🙅🏻‍♀️

So just remember: PPV needs PPV 😉

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Is your team staying updated on new anesthesia guidelines & research? 📚👩🏻‍💻MACvet’s medical director — Mr.Gurgles the 🐦 ...
04/04/2026

Is your team staying updated on new anesthesia guidelines & research? 📚👩🏻‍💻

MACvet’s medical director — Mr.Gurgles the 🐦 — supervises and ensures Dr.Gaby is staying up-to-date on her anesthesia knowledge she shares with your teams!

We know access to new science and research findings can be difficult for some — that’s why MACvet does it for you with our Scientific Articles of the Month 🔎 Make sure to not miss out on useful anesthesia research with our monthly SAMs!

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MACvet is saving lives one 🦄 at a time! The amazing team at learned the up-to-date guidelines on veterinary CPR through...
04/01/2026

MACvet is saving lives one 🦄 at a time!

The amazing team at learned the up-to-date guidelines on veterinary CPR through our RECOVER CPR training lecture + lab 👩🏻‍🏫 Frequent trainings and refreshing of skills that aren’t (hopefully) utilized often keeps teams ready & prepared for any anesthetic emergencies that may occur!

REMEMBER: Veterinary patients that suffer CPA under anesthesia have a MUCH higher likelihood of CPR methods being successful and achieving ROSC 🙌 Any other -certified folks remember why this is? 🤓

Petunia the 🦄 is here to poke teams with a reminder to stay up-to-snuff on your CPR skills… Reach out to us today to schedule your team’s CPR training! 📧

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🔎 SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: Impact of combining dexmedetomidine with either acepromazine or atropine on sedation ...
03/24/2026

🔎 SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE OF THE MONTH:
Impact of combining dexmedetomidine with either acepromazine or atropine on sedation quality & cardiopulmonary values in dogs 🐕

Do you pre-medicate with an anticholinergic (either atropine or glycopyrrolate) before administering dexmed? Have you also ever thought to combine both sedatives - ace & dexmed - together in the hopes of improving either sedation or cardiovascular impacts?

Well this study might make you think twice about that combo… 🤨😟

This study is just one of many that shows how detrimental the pre-administration of anti-cholinergics prior to dexmedetomidine (alpha2-agonist) administration can be 🫣 While many worry about the bradycardia that occurs from dexmed administration, we must all remember that this is a REFLEX-bradycardia that the body does on purpose to counteract the vasoconstriction & systemic hypertension that occurs from dexmed 📈👎 It is only appropriate to consider anticholinergic administration once the vasoconstriction has subsided and the patient then becomes hypotensive amidst concurrent bradycardia 📉👌

For those familiar with Zenalpha (medetomidine+vatinoxan) being a similar combo to dexmed+acepromazine, this was an early study before Zenalpha hit the shelves to potentially show how the contrasting alpha-receptor profiles may “minimize” cardiovascular effects. However, this study and Zenalpha-studies have shown that there ultimately can still be an overall negative effect on cardiac output (especially when inhalants are included) 🙅🏻‍♀️

As you can see, there are no appreciable benefits to combining these drugs in this manner 🙃 This study is a great example of how understanding the receptors your anesthetic drugs work at (yay for pharmacology!) makes it SO much easier to know what effects to anticipate 👩🏻‍⚕️📚💉

Reach out to us if you’d like to understand more about the relationship between dexmedetomidine, acepromazine, and anticholinergics 📩

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Are we the only ones that find these round CO2-absorbent granules just SO CUTE?! 😻Carbon Dioxide Absorbents exist in our...
03/20/2026

Are we the only ones that find these round CO2-absorbent granules just SO CUTE?! 😻

Carbon Dioxide Absorbents exist in our anesthetic machines to help remove excess CO2 from the air our patients expire, thereby helping prevent Rebreathing of CO2 (indicated by ⬆️FiCO2).

Many of us know that the granules change pretty colors when they’re working & binding CO2, but did you know that the color change only occurs when that chemical reaction is ACTIVELY occurring? When brand new or when used/exhausted, the granules are white in both cases ⚪️ So if the granules remain white the whole anesthesia, how do you know they’re working…. 🤨?

Your other clues are looking for heat 🔥 and moisture💧production! Aside from the color change, these are also produced during that active chemical reaction and you can often times look inside for signs of condensation and/or feel the canister become warm (much easier to notice in large animal anesthetic machines).

Little tips and tricks to ensure we’re providing fabulous anesthetic care to our patients!

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☘️ In the spirit of St.Patrick’s day, here’s a well-fitting 🧞 MYTH or REALITY 🧬:Red-Head Syndrome exists in our veterina...
03/17/2026

☘️ In the spirit of St.Patrick’s day, here’s a well-fitting 🧞 MYTH or REALITY 🧬:

Red-Head Syndrome exists in our veterinary patients (e.g. Golden Retrievers, Irish Setters)

MYTH! 🙅🏻‍♀️

Red-Head Syndrome is a well known genetic variance in humans where individuals with red hair often require higher anesthetic requirements compared to other people 👨‍🦰🔥 This anesthetic consideration is due to a mutation in the MC1R-gene that impacts nociceptors and results in these individuals sometimes needing almost 20% more anesthetics/analgesics 💉

While this is well described in human anesthesiology, there is NO EVIDENCE of this in veterinary anesthesiology 🙂‍↔️ If your veterinary patient has red-fur and seems to be needing more anesthetics, it’s more likely a temperament and/or dosing issue than anything related to their “hair color” 😅

Do you have any other anesthesia myths you want proven or debunked? Share your favorites with us below! 📩

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