Before Surgery
Bathing: Be sure your pet is bathed and/or groomed sometime in the week leading up to surgery. This will cut down on the risk of infection that can happen with dirty skin or hair.
Crate or enclosed rooms: Please help your pet get accustomed to either a crate or an enclosed room where there is no opportunity to run, jump or tackle stairs. Your pet will most likely be on strict rest and always wearing a cone for 2 weeks post-op, so please plan accordingly for this.
Transportation: If you need help at the post-op or once you get home with your pet, please plan accordingly as your pet may need to be lifted out of your vehicle depending on the surgery they have.
Food: We will have you feed your pet dinner the night before surgery like normal, however all food should be pulled by 10pm the night before surgery. We want your pet on an empty stomach for surgery, so they aren’t negatively impacted by the side effects of anesthesia, and we are able to keep them safe.
Water: Your pet can have as much water as it wants before surgery.
Surgery Drop-Off
Morning consultation: You will meet with one of our technicians and our doctor to go over your pet’s surgery plan including any options, risks, possible outcomes and the estimate. This is a great time to ask questions or address concerns that you might have. Once your consultation is complete, we will take your pet back and start their surgery day.
Payment: There are two sources for no interest payments you can make over a 6-month period with either Care Credit or Scratch Pay if you qualify. Please visit their websites for more information or scan the QR code below. If you pay privately, we will collect the low end of the estimate as your deposit for your pet’s surgery before you leave, and any balance will be collected at pick-up.
Morning Pre-surgical Diagnostics
CBC (Complete Blood Count): Your pet will undergo this standard blood test in the morning to ensure there are healthy red and white blood cells, enough platelets, signs of anemia or any signs of infection.
Pre-surgical panel: In addition to the CBC, this panel will evaluate your pet’s organs and ensure they are functioning properly. If anything comes up in either of these tests that is concerning, the doctor will call you and go over those items.
X-Ray/Ultrasound: Depending on your pet’s reason for surgery, we will often take x-rays to rule out anything we can’t see from the outside. We also might perform an ultrasound which is different than x-ray in that it gives us a clearer view of the organs and soft tissue areas of your pet.
During Surgery
We are happy to call you once surgery is underway, just be sure to tell our front office that you would like someone to call you when your pet’s surgery is started.
Animal surgery is much the same as human surgery! The doctor will have determined the best anesthesia for your pet. We will first pre-medicate your pet to sedate it and be able to prep for surgery and anesthesia. Under sedation, it will be prepped for surgery by shaving and thoroughly cleaning the area of surgery as well as the area on the leg where we place their IV. We may also need to shave an area on the lower back for the epidural. The next step is to intubate which maintains an open airway and allows the oxygen and anesthesia to do its work. Once on the surgery table and underway, we are constantly monitoring your pet’s vital signs including heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen, temperature and other key vitals. Your pet is not in any pain during surgery, we are monitoring their anesthesia to ensure that. Once the surgery is complete, we move your pet to the recovery area and closely monitor them while they wake up until they are extubated and alert.
When the doctor is done with surgery, they will call you to let you know how the surgery went and set up a pickup time with you for the afternoon.
Surgery Pick-Up
When you arrive at your pet’s discharge appointment, you will first meet with one of our techs to go over all the post-op instructions. There is a lot of information given at discharge so please be sure to listen carefully and ask any questions you might have. If you think of questions later, we want you to call or email us with those. We want to ensure that your pet is recovering the best that it can so please don’t ever hesitate to reach out to us, even if it’s multiple times a day. You are also encouraged to send us pictures via email if you see anything that might be confusing or concerning you. Once we are done going over the instructions and medications, we will bring your pet out to you. Your pet will most likely still be groggy for 24-48 hours after surgery so please be aware of any unsteadiness or disorientation and reassure your pet that you are there for them.
Post-op At Home
The real work begins at home. Recovery is the most important piece of full recovery for your pet. No matter what surgery your pet has, there are key elements to recovery that all pet owners need to know after they get home. Our front desk will call you the next day to check on your pet’s recovery.
Eating/Drinking: Your pet may not be hungry or thirsty when they get home and that’s normal. This is due to medications/anesthesia in their body and IV fluids received during surgery. There is no need to worry if your pet doesn’t have an appetite when they get home. We advise you to try and offer them about half as much as you would normally for dinner. If they eat that half, wait about an hour to make sure they don’t vomit it back up and then offer the other half. Your pet will start to get back to their normal appetite 24-48 hours after they go home.
Bathroom Habits: Your pet will take some time to get back to their normal routine when it comes to urinating and defecating. Because of the anesthesia and medications received, it can delay that first bowel movement they have. It can take up to three days for them to defecate, they should urinate within 24 hours of getting home from surgery. If they have not defecated in two days, we do recommend starting on Miralax twice a day, the dosing will be on your discharge sheet for your pet’s weight. If your pet has not defecated in three days, please call us.
The Cone: We don’t call it the cone of shame; we call it the cone of savings! We can’t tell you enough stories of owners who have felt bad for their pet because they don’t like the cone, remove the cone and are then back in here needing their incision stapled or sutured again. Not only that, but the incision will most likely get infected which then requires a culture and more or different antibiotics than what they went home with. This all adds up to much more than you were planning on spending if you just kept the cone on. We realize that your pet doesn’t like it, but it’s what’s best for your pet’s recovery. If you are standing over your pet while they are eating, you can remove the cone to make it easier on them. If you take them out on a supervised leash walk in the backyard, you can remove the cone then. Giving them breaks in these situations is fine if you are strictly monitoring them. Anytime you are not and especially at night, the cone needs to be always worn with no exceptions.
Activity Level: Most surgeries require your pet to be in confinement for 2 weeks until they are back here at the center for their recheck. This is where crate training is important because being in a crate is what’s best for your pet during this period. There is normally no running, jumping or the use of stairs in recovery. Even potty breaks are to be on a short leash in the backyard.
Incision Monitoring: Normally, your pet will go home with a large band-aid over its incision called a Tegaderm (all surgeries vary but you will be aware of your pet’s specific needs at discharge). That Tegaderm will stay on until 24 hours after discharge. We will send you home with an adhesive removal pad to help get the Tegaderm off. Once that is off, you will monitor the incision by looking at it at least twice a day to ensure that everything looks good. Anytime there may be some discharge as long as it’s fluid, clear or light pink or red like blood. It should not be gushing or flowing out at any time. If it’s green, yellow, puss like or a foul odor with it, please give us a call right away.
Medications: You will go home with several medications in most cases. It is important to follow the detailed directions with each medication in your discharge papers. Pets are very good at hiding pain, so never assume your pet doesn’t need medication because they seem fine.
If you are in any doubt, call us! We love when our owners call and email us with questions. We know that this is unchartered territory for many pet owners, and we want you to reach out to us anytime you have questions or concerns. Hopefully our discharge instructions that we send home with you address most of the questions you will have, but don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would rather have you call us endlessly instead of taking concerns into your own hands.
Follow Up Visits
Please be sure that your follow-up appointments are scheduled. When we call you to check on your pet the next day, we will set those follow-up appointments with you. Some surgeries require none, some require one and others require multiple depending on the type of surgery.