What You Need to Know Before Your Pet's Surgery

For the safety of your pet, other hospitalized animals, and our staff all animals that come in for surgery are required to be current on vaccines and have had a stool check. Required vaccines, at least 7 days prior to surgery, include distemper, rabies, and bordetella for dogs. Dogs must also have a negative heartworm test before being anesthetized. Cats must be current on distemper and rabies at least 7 days prior to surgery.

We hope the following information will help you and your pet prepare for surgery. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to call us with any questions about your pet's procedure.

What Do I Need to Do To Prepare My Pet For Surgery?

It is important that surgery be done on an empty stomach to reduce the risk of vomiting during (which could lead to aspiration) and after anesthesia. You will need to withhold food after 10pm the night before surgery. Water can be left down for the pet.

We start all patients having a dental on antibiotics the day before the procedure. Your veterinarian performing the dentistry will prescribe the antibiotics. These need to be picked up a few days before the procedure.

When you bring your pet in for surgery, we will need 10-20 minutes of your time to fill out paperwork and have a veterinary assistant or doctor talk to you about the procedure. In order to facilitate a faster check in procedure, we offer our surgical release form online. When you pick up your pet after surgery you can also plan to spend about 10-15 minutes to go over your pet's home care needs.

We will call you the night before your scheduled surgery appointment, to confirm the time you will be dropping your pet off and to answer any questions you might have.

How Is The Safety of My Animal 
Maintained During Anesthesia?

Today's modern anesthetic monitors have made surgery much safer than in the past. We take every precaution to ensure your pet will have a safe anesthetic experience. We have trained assistants helping our doctors with surgery and dental procedures. They monitor your pet's temperature, oxygen saturation level, heart rate and other vital signs from the time your pet is anesthetized until they are fully awake.

We do a thorough physical exam on your pet before administering anesthetics. We also adjust the amount and type of anesthetic used depending on the health of your pet.

Preanesthetic blood testing is important in reducing the risk of anesthesia. Every pet at Danada Veterinary Hospital receives blood testing through our laboratory before surgery to ensure that the liver and kidneys can process the anesthetic. Even apparently healthy animals can have serious organ system problems that could cause anesthetic or surgical complications. These problems often cannot be detected without blood testing. If serious problems are found, surgery can be postponed until the problem is addressed.

We also start each animal on IV fluids during the surgery. This helps keep your pet's blood pressure normal throughout the procedure. An IV catheter already in place is also extremely beneficial should your pet experience an anesthetic emergency which would require immediate intravenous medication.

Will My Pet Have Stitches?

Many surgeries, especially spays and tumor removals, require skin stitches. If there are pink skin sutures, these will usually be removed 10 to 14 days after surgery. Some surgeries like neuters and declaws use absorbable sutures in or underneath the skin. These will dissolve and do not need to be removed later. With either type of suture, you need to watch the incision for swelling or discharge as well as monitor monitor whether the pet is licking or chewing at the incision. In some instances we will send your pet home with an e-collar he/she wears around the neck; this is often called a 'lampshade!'

How Is My Pet's Pain
Addressed After the Surgery?

Anything that causes pain in people can be expected to cause pain in animals. Pets may not show the same symptoms of pain as people do; they usually don't whine or cry, but they feel it. This is why we ask you to keep your pet quiet for 7-10 days after surgery. We want to make sure the tissue has time to heal and no damage to the area takes place. Pain medications dispensed will depend on the surgery performed. Major procedures often require more pain relief than minor procedures. However, we always make every effort to take each individual animal's pain tolerance into consideration when prescribing the type and duration of pain control. Animals receive pain medication prior to surgical onset to help prevent pain before it even starts.

For dogs, we may recommend an oral anti-inflammatory after surgery to lessen the risk of discomfort and swelling. We use newer medications, which are less likely to cause stomach upset. We also may use a narcotic patch for some surgeries.

Because cats do not tolerate standard pain medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or Tylenol, we are limited in what we can give them. Recent advances in pain medications have allowed for better pain control in cats than ever before. We administer a pain injection prior to the procedure. After surgery, pain medication is usually oral and given on a case by case basis. Any animal that appears painful will receive additional pain medication.

Providing whatever pain relief is appropriate is a humane and caring thing to do for your pet.

What Other Decisions Do I Need To Make?

While your pet is under anesthesia, it is the ideal time to perform other minor procedures such as nail trims and implanting an identification microchip. Nail trims are included free of charge for all animals having surgery. Microchips are permanent identification that can greatly facilitate the return of your pet should he or she ever get lost.