Cardiac Anaesthesia for GPs
Online Course
How the heart works and how it fails – anaesthesia for patients with cardiac disease.
August 4th - 25th, 2026
Live & Online
Tuesday Nights 7:30pm (QLD Time)
8 CPD Points
Early Bird Special
Save $100 When You Register by 7th July 2026!
Your investment: $397 AUD (Normally $497 AUD)
Early Bird Ends 7th July 2026
An Introduction to This Online Course
Is This Course for You?
The heart wants what it wants, but it doesn’t always see fit to share its preferences in advance of the anaesthetic.
Known (and unknown!) cardiac patients have a way of making a routine anaesthetic feel anything but routine. Understanding how the heart works, the common ways in which it fails and how this affects your GA can be the difference between decisively acting or defensively reacting.
This course is valuable for all GP vets, and veterinary teams, who anaesthetise dogs and cats. The primary focus of these four once-weekly online sessions is to refine your approach to general anaesthesia (GA) in patients with known or suspected cardiac disease. However, the information in these course modules are translatable to other cases and will enhance your preparedness to manage perioperative morbidity in all your patients.
You’ll work through the heart in a way that makes sense: starting with heart function and loading factors, followed by how physiology changes when disease is present. You’ll be immersed in discussions of targeted perioperative patient assessments, goal-directed fluid therapy, effective blood pressure management and the responsible use of anaesthesia agents in patients with cardiac disease.
You’ll have the chance to learn:
- Cardiac function and dysfunction, including the physiological changes that occur during GA
- How cardiac function changes during GA
- How anaesthesia agents affect heart function
- How to assess tissue perfusion and volume status during GA
- How to tailor prescription medications perioperatively
- Anaesthesia considerations for patients with cardiac disease, including special considerations for MMVD, DCM and HCM
- Alpha2 adrenergic agonists: to use or not to use
- Managing arterial blood pressure during GA in cardiac patients
- Normal versus abnormal ECGs and how to respond
The content taught in this virtual classroom is especially relevant if you anaesthetise cats and dogs on a regular basis, including patients suffering everybody’s favourite acronyms: MMVD, DCM and HCM. It’s also well worth your investment if you want to enhance your anaesthesia plans for cardiac disease patients and find managing hypotension in these populations particularly challenging.
At the end of the four weeks, you can expect to feel more confident knowing how to approach GA in your patients with cardiac disease. You will also leave with a framework for prescribing perioperative medications, managing intraoperative complications and feel supported when discussing anaesthesia referrals with owners.
Why This Course Is Different
To-the-Point Learning
The focus lies with the practical, the functional, the usable – not purely the theoretical. Engage with patterns and problems commonly encountered performing anaesthesia in patients with cardiac disease in general practice, supported by clinical reasoning, clear explanations and case-based discussions
Built for Busy Vets
When life is already feeling very full, CPD needs to be easy to fit in. This course is as accessible as they come: join live Zoom sessions at 7:30pm AEST, Tuesday nights (for the real-time Q&A), and/or catch up with recorded sessions on demand.
Hand-picked Expertise
Our educators aren’t just picked because they really know their stuff – although this is a solid starting point! We’re also interested in their ability to communicate this clearly and functionally in a way that clicks.
Improve What You’re Already Doing
Cats and dogs with cardiac disease require GA for many reasons. This course is designed to support, refine and advance your approach to managing these cases in your clinic. What to consider, how to manage and when to refer.
Real Cases, Real Conversations
This is a live, interactive classroom, regardless of where you join. Expect to discuss, compare and work through clinical cases with plenty of time to ask questions.
Course Outline
Module 1: Applied cardiac function during GA
This module covers applied cardiac function: how the heart works, how it fails and the factors which influence cardiac performance during GA.
In this module you’ll be supported in developing a working knowledge of myocardial function and cardiac loading factors, including pressure and volume, and, through case examples, you’ll learn to recognise their influence on cardiovascular stability during GA.
Hot topic question to answer: When is a fluid challenge likely to improve blood pressure?
How to assess vascular volume during general anaesthesia.
Module 2: Managing cases with volume overload & systolic dysfunction
This module looks at the anaesthesia of patients with volume overload and myocardial failure, including myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).
By the end of this week’s session, you’ll have covered key anaesthesia considerations for MMVD and DCM, have explored how to assess prominent morbidities afflicting these populations and leave with a framework for managing blood pressure during general anaesthesia.
Hot topic question to answer: Can I use alpha2 adrenergic agonists in patients with MMVD?
Module 3: Managing cases with pericardial disease & diastolic dysfunction
This week focuses on the anaesthesia of patients with diastolic dysfunction, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and restrictive pericardial disease.
You’ll look at pressure versus perfusion and question when blood pressure is not telling you the whole story. You will leave with a framework for tailoring perioperative anticoagulation therapy and will work through options for sedating high-risk patients.
Hot topic question to answer: How do I sedate a high fear-aggression-stress (FAS) cat with HCM?
Module 4: Case-based ECG interpretation and treatment of common arrhythmia rhythms
Your final module provides a case-based approach to ECG interpretation, focused on comparing normal to abnormal and describing how to manage arrhythmogenic disturbances during GA.
With practical discussion and room for questions, you’ll have the opportunity to get clearer on identifying atrial versus ventricular rhythms and work through examples of treatment options.
What's On Offer
Live & Online
Join once weekly from wherever you are, without travel, time away from your home or your clinic. Simple logistics with a simple goal: top notch teaching, minimal upheaval. Recordings stay available in case one of those weeks does what veterinary weeks tend to do.
Straight Back to Practice
The VetPrac difference is simple: everything we teach is designed to be applicable in your clinic right away. If it isn’t useful in GP practice, it simply doesn’t make the cut. No specialist equipment is required; if you’re routinely anaesthetising dogs and cats, odds are you already have everything you need.
Room for the ‘What Ifs?’
Each once-weekly session consists of 45 minutes of taught content, followed by up to 30 minutes (demand -dependent) of question time. Bring your real-world tricky bits and hear how an experienced clinician who really knows the ropes thinks through them.
Take practical discussion points into your own clinic – creating clearer plans and supporting calmer decisions all-round for patients anaesthetised at your practice.
Your Instructor
Dr Shaun Pratt
Qualifications: BVSc (Hons I) DVetClinSci FANZCVS
Shaun graduated from The University of Queensland before completing an anaesthesia internship at The University of Sydney. After spending two years in private general practice in north-western Sydney, he returned to UQ to undertake a residency in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia while also completing a doctorate focused on traumatic haemorrhagic shock. Shaun has a particular interest in interventional cardiothoracic procedures and the management of critically injured trauma patients, bringing a calm and practical approach to complex anaesthetic cases. Outside of work, he enjoys water polo, hiking and trail riding, and shares life with his wife Karla, also a veterinarian, alongside Sunny the golden retriever, three cats and four horses.
Every educator we work with is selected for their depth of knowledge & their ability to teach it clearly in a welcoming and judgement-free online classroom. Your virtual seat awaits!
Payment Options
Early Bird Offer Ends In:
What Our Community Is Saying:
Real Feedback From Across Our VetPrac Workshops & Courses
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Addressing Common Questions
"I don’t have time to take off work. Why should I attend?"
You don’t need to – that’s the beauty of online, evening CPD. No need to skip important out-of-work commitments either, since each live session is recorded so you can access the course content at any time.
The time you invest now is also designed to pay you back in the clinic. By giving you a clearer framework for premed choices, what to do about fluids, managing blood pressure, and when referral should be part of the conversation, this course can help reduce the hesitation spiral that sometimes comes hand-in-hand with dodgy hearts.
"Can I split the payment between myself and my workplace?"
Yes. If you have a CE budget available through your clinic or workplace, we’re happy to arrange split invoicing to help make registration easier.
Many participants choose to divide the workshop cost between their employer’s contribution and personal payment. Simply contact the VetPrac team ([email protected]) prior to registration, and we can help organise the invoicing arrangement for you.
"Will I actually be able to apply these skills?"
You can and you should! This course is GP-practice-ready. The cases covered, questions answered, and points discussed across these four once-weekly sessions can be easily translated into the average frontliner’s every day:
Deliberating alpha-2-or-not? We’ve got you covered. Can you fluid resus your MMVD dog? Worked through it. That ECG trace? Now you’ve seen that it’s consistent with ventricular arrhythmia.
Finding it tricky to grasp why seemingly adequate blood pressure isn’t enough to perfuse your patient?
… let’s talk about it.
"Will I receive CPD points, a certificate, and learning materials?"
Yes. Participants will receive CPD points and a certificate after completing the course and passing a brief 8-question multiple choice quiz. You’ll also receive access to learning materials in advance to support your live sessions.
Your educator personally selects the materials that will be most useful to enhance your learning experience: this may include course notes, downloadable slides, journal articles, and links to further reading.
"What happens if I need to cancel or the online course is cancelled?"
If you need to transfer or change your registration to another workshop, an administration fee of $50 applies. Cancellations made within 45 days of the workshop start date will incur a fee equal to 50% of the course investment, and cancellations within 7 days of commencement are non-refundable.
If VetPrac needs to cancel Cardiac Anaesthesia for GPs, your course fees will be refunded in full.