These may administered intramuscularly, subcutaneously, or intravenously or by inhalation through a mask. There are now a variety of anesthetics to choose from depending upon your pet's condition. Your cat's doctor also relies on anesthesia as an integral part of more advanced diagnostic techniques. As in human medicine, it's now standard in animal medicine for a veterinarian to use less invasive, nonsurgical approaches to take a peek at what's going on inside a cat's body. Endoscopy and biopsy are examples of less invasive diagnostic procedures where anesthetics may assist in the detective work.
General anesthesia has a number of benefits.
Anesthesia brings about a loss of consciousness in the patient so the patient has no awareness of what is going on and, upon awakening, has no memory of what happened. Anesthesia also blocks any sensation of pain. In addition, anesthesia brings about muscle relaxation and suppression of reflex movement in the patient. Scientists don't completely understand how anesthesia works. But they do know that once the drugs enter the bloodstream and travel to specific receptors in the brain, they induce a state of anesthesia.