The challenges of small animal veterinary anaesthesia in 2020

Veterinary anaesthesia may be facing new challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the potential for shortages of cylinders of oxygen and some drugs in veterinary practice if resources are diverted to the NHS. Oxygen supplementation is vital during anaesthesia of all patients to prevent hypoxaemia in the face of respiratory depression induced by anaesthetic drugs but there are ways to limit the use of oxygen and save this valuable resource in practice. Unlike other countries such as the USA, at the moment the UK is fortunate not to face shortages of μ opioid receptor analgesics such as buprenorphine, methadone, and fentanyl because specific veterinary licenced drugs are available in this country. However, preservative-free propofol may become less available in the veterinary sector as a result of diversion to the NHS and it is possible that manufacturing lines of some drugs will be taken over to produce drugs for the NHS in the future. This article prepares veterinary surgeons should such shortages occur and to discuss how to safely limit oxygen use in practice and think about alternative drugs to use in veterinary anaesthesia that are not likely to be affected by the pandemic.