Is Gas anaesthesia safer than regular anaesthesia?

I am getting my kitten spayed this weekend and while researching about the procedure I came across types of anaesthesias, advice much appreciated!

Thats a really good question, but first let's clear something up about the way it was asked;  when I hear 'regular anaesthesia,' for dogs and cats, I picture gas anaesthetic.  When I first walked into an operating theatre in the 1990s, there was an animal asleep on a gas circuit.  When I walk into an operating theatre now, I expect to see the same thing.  Gas is delivered by means of a tube that passes down an opening from the throat into the lungs, from where it is inhaled.  The gas can be turned up to make the anaesthetic deeper, or turned down to lighten it.  This is standard.   However, animals are rarely 'gassed down' these days.  Can you imagine a mask being held to an animals face while it falls to sleep? - this is not very wealfare friemdly and gas often ends up escaping and impacting those in the room.  Most animals most of the time can be induced (sent off to sleep) with an injection, which is much easier to control and wears off quite quickly.  Once they are asleep, a tube can be safely put down their throats and the gas can get started.  The induction agent usually wears off quite quickly.    Now;  there is an anesthetic called a 'triple' which is sometimes used to spey cats.  This uses Ketamine and two types of sedative together, to create an anaesthetic.  Because they are given together into the muscle, it is less easy to control the depth of this anaesthetic (ideally the airway would be protected with a tube and Oxygen delivered through a circuit in any case).  This offers less control of the depth of the anaesthetic, although the agents can be reversed uning another injection if need be.

My favourite anaesthetic for a routine cat spey at this time would consist of an injected induction agent and gas for maintanance.   I think that having a tube into the airway is useful, because the airway is already open should there be any problems.  Good vets will usually be very pleased if you show an interest in why they have chosen the combination of drugs that they have.

Hopefully that is enough infornation, but if you have any other specific questions, please do ask away.  Our blog has a 'search' function and can also be very useful on this subject.

This has been very helpful, Thank you!