Keeping Veterinary Patients Warm with HoverHeat
With your experience in a veterinary surgery suite, you already know one thing for certain: anesthetized patients get cold, fast.
Whether you’re performing a routine spay, a dental cleaning, or an orthopedic procedure, maintaining normothermia isn’t just about comfort—it’s a critical part of patient safety and recovery. And yet, many veterinary hospitals still struggle to keep patients warm consistently throughout anesthesia and recovery.
That’s where patient-warming solutions like the HoverHeat are making a noticeable difference in veterinary practices.
Let’s take a closer look at why temperature management matters so much, and how systems like HoverHeat help veterinary teams stay ahead of the problem.
Why Veterinary Patients Get Cold During Procedures
Hypothermia during anesthesia is incredibly common in veterinary medicine. Even in short procedures like dentals, a patient’s body temperature can drop quickly.
There are several reasons for this:
Anesthesia suppresses thermoregulation. The body loses its ability to maintain temperature.
Hair clipping and surgical prep increase heat loss.
Exposure to cool surgical suites.
Contact with cold surgical tables.
Small body size, especially in cats and small dogs.
Most heat loss during surgery occurs at the point where the body contacts the table. That large surface area becomes a major pathway for conductive heat loss. When hypothermia sets in, it can lead to:
Slower anesthetic recovery
Increased anesthetic risk
Delayed drug metabolism
Longer hospitalization or recovery times
The Challenge With Traditional Warming Methods
Veterinary teams have historically relied on a mix of warming methods:
Circulating warm water blankets
Heated pads
Warmed IV fluids
Blankets and towels
Forced-air warming blankets
While these methods can help, many have limitations. Water blankets can leak. Heating pads can create hot spots. Disposable forced-air blankets can allow warm air to escape and require constant restocking. And most systems only warm one side of the patient.
That’s where the HoverHeat system takes a different approach.
How HoverHeat Works
The HoverHeat is a veterinary patient warming system designed to maximize heat transfer while minimizing the limitations of traditional warming tools.
Its design uses specialized internal components to create a cushion of warm air underneath the patient, effectively “levitating” the patient slightly while warm air flows beneath the body.
Why does this matter?
Instead of just heating the patient's top or small contact points, HoverHeat distributes warmth across a much larger area, helping maintain a more stable body temperature throughout the procedure.
Underbody and Overbody Warming
One of the most practical features for busy surgical suites is the ability to connect two HoverHeat units together.
With a simple connector, you can create simultaneous underbody and overbody warming with a single warm-air blower, increasing warming capacity by 50–75%. This means veterinary teams can:
Warm patients from below and above
Maintain temperature during longer procedures
Support smaller or high-risk patients more effectively
Importantly, the system is also designed so that airflow is directed away from the sterile surgical field, which helps maintain proper surgical protocol.
Warming Throughout the Entire Patient Journey
Another advantage is that it isn’t limited to the surgical table. It can be used during:
Pre-Operative Warming
Patients can be induced directly on the warming surface, allowing temperature management to begin immediately. Pre-operative warming has been shown to help maintain body temperature during surgery.
Intra-Operative Care
It works with most positioning devices and can be used during nearly any procedure, including surgery, dentistry, and endoscopy.
Post-Operative Recovery
Maintaining warmth during recovery can help decrease recovery times and improve patient comfort.
Imaging
Because of its design, the system can even be used during imaging procedures like X-ray and CT scans.
A Practical System for Veterinary Hospitals
For practice owners and managers, equipment decisions are always about balancing patient care, efficiency, and cost. HoverHeat addresses several practical concerns:
Compatible with existing warm air blowers: no need to purchase a new unit.
Reusable system: eliminates ongoing disposable blanket costs.
Easy to clean with standard germicidal sprays or soap and water.
Multiple sizes to accommodate patients from cats to large dogs.
The complete set includes small, medium, and large HoverHeat units plus connectors and adapters, allowing teams to warm nearly any patient that comes through the door.
Better Temperature Control, Better Patient Care
Every veterinary team member knows the feeling of watching a patient’s temperature drift downward during anesthesia. Preventing hypothermia can sometimes feel like a constant battle.
But with the right tools in place, maintaining normothermia becomes much easier and far more consistent. Because at the end of the day, a warm patient is a safer patient.
