Preparing for Your Pet’s Anesthetic Procedure
We know that anticipating and bringing your pet in for an anesthetic procedure can be scary. We
hope the information below helps you prepare and helps alleviate some of the anxiety that you may
have by giving you a better idea of what to expect on the day of your pet’s procedure and in the days
afterwards.
We will give you a treatment plan which includes what care we anticipate providing and what the
expected costs will be. We will also give you an anesthesia and surgical and/or dental consent form to
read and sign. Please let us know if you have ANY questions about the information in these forms.
We are happy to address them.
The night before your pet’s anesthetic procedure
Please do not feed your pet after 10:00pm. Be sure to pick up any food that is normally
left out.

Do leave water available.
The morning of your pet’s procedure
Check with us in advance to see if you should give your pet any regular morning
medications on the morning of his or her procedure.

Do not feed your pet.

Give your pet a chance to urinate and defecate before you come in.

Feel free to bring a favorite blanket or an item of your clothing to stay with your pet (as
long as you do not mind if the item becomes soiled or stained).

Allow 15 minutes when you come in to go over paperwork with us.

We will admit your pet between 8:00-8:30 am. Before we start the procedure, the
veterinarian will do a brief exam, we will administer pre-anesthetic medications to
alleviate anxiety and reduce pain, and we will place an intravenous catheter.
While your pet is with us-

We usually perform anesthetic procedures between 9:30am and 3:00pm and usually
discharge patients between 4:00 and 6:00pm.

Please feel free to call at anytime for an update.

We will call you if your pet needs unexpected extractions, or if we have any concerns, or if
we are recommending any additional care beyond what was on your pet’s treatment plan.

We will call you when your pet is awake from anesthesia and will schedule a discharge
appointment with you at that time. We keep our patients under close observation after
anesthesia for at least 3 hours.
When you pick your pet up
A hospital team member will review what care your pet received during the day and will
go over all home care instructions, medications, and needed follow-up visits with you.

We will schedule your follow up visits and collect payment.

The veterinarian will be available in person or by phone to answer any additional
questions.

Your pet will be happy to see you, but may also seem anxious, sleepy, agitated, wobbly, or
disoriented when you are re-united. There will be a shaved area or areas on your pet’s
legs where we placed an intravenous catheter. Your pet’s eyes may look different because
of eye lubricant that we put in during anesthesia and because some anesthetic and pain
medications cause the pupils to be larger than normal.

If your pet is a dog, give him or her a chance to urinate or defecate before getting into
your car.
When you get home
Your pet may be disoriented, wobbly, anxious, restless, and/or lethargic the first night.
This is usually due to the medications that were given to your pet to control pain and
induce anesthesia. If you have any concerns about whether what you are seeing is normal
or not, call us or, if we are closed, call ACCES at 206-364-1660.

If your pet wants to eat, feed a small meal, no more than ¼-1/2 of the normal amount that
you would feed. If your pet does not want to eat the first night at home, do not push
them to.

If your pet seems disoriented, keep him or her confined to a small, quiet area. Do not pick
them up or try to hold them unless they actively seek that out. Be sure to keep your pet
away from stairs, decks, or any other area where he or she could fall.
The next day
Most patients will be back to normal or close to normal the day after their anesthetic
procedure. Your pet should be eating, drinking, urinating, comfortable, and well oriented.
If this is not the case, please call us. A few patients take longer to return to normal
behavior.

It may take your pet a couple of days to return to normal bowel movements. Do not be
concerned if your pet does not have a bowel movement the day after a procedure.
If your pet had surgery
After surgery, there will be an incision or incisions that need to be protected from your
pet licking or scratching at them. You must also ensure that any other pets in the home
can not lick at the patient’s incision(s). And your pet must be prevented from soiling the
incision outdoors or in the litterbox.

Elizabethan collars are often used to protect a patient’s incision(s) from licking and
scratching. It may take your pet (and you..) a few days to adjust to an Elizabethan collar,
but they are often the most effective way to protect incisions. If you need help with the
adjustment to an Elizabethan collar or if it does not seem to be the right size, call us and
we can give you suggestions and/or re-evaluate the collar’s size. Some pets need custom
adjusting of the collar. Other options for protecting incisions include post surgical
garments or inflatable collars.

If your pet goes home with a bandage it must be kept dry, clean, and intact and your pet
must not be allowed to remove it. We can provide you with a bootie to cover the
bandage or Elizabethan collar to prevent your pet from reaching it. The bandage will need
to be removed or changed by us within a few days. We will let you know when to
schedule it.

After most surgeries, some amount of rest/exercise restriction is needed. The amount
and length of rest/exercise restriction will vary, depending on the type of surgery, but you
should always plan on at least 2 weeks of no running, jumping, playing, wrestling, or
strenuous activity. To accomplish this, you may need to confine your pet to a crate, small
pen, or small room. Dogs will need to be taken out on leash and should not be allowed
outside off leash for at least 2 weeks. You should have an area set up for your pet’s
recovery prior to the day of the procedure and be sure that he/she will be comfortable
resting there.

Check your pet’s incision at least twice a day and call us (or, if we are closed, ACCES)
immediately if there is increased swelling or bruising, any bleeding or drainage from the
incision, or any opening of the incision.

Most incisions will have staples or sutures holding the skin together. There are usually
also deeper sutures holding deeper layers of tissue together. These deeper sutures will
dissolve. Sometimes the skin itself is closed with buried sutures which dissolve. If your
pet has visible sutures or staples, these will need to removed 10-14 days after surgery.
We will schedule the appointment for you at your pet’s discharge appointment.

If your pet had biopsies done, results are usually expected back in 2-5 days.
If your pet had a dental procedure
If your pet had dental extractions or a biopsy was done in your pet’s mouth, there may be
slight bloody drool or drainage the night of the procedure, but this should not persist into
the next day.

If your pet had dental extractions, there will usually be sutures in his/her mouth. These
will dissolve within several weeks.

We will have you feed a soft diet for a week if your pet had dental extractions. If your pet
usually eats dry food, soak the dry food with warm water for 10-15 minutes before
feeding it to your pet. You can also feed canned food, but this may cause digestive upsets
if your pet is accustomed to dry food.

If your pet had extractions, do not lift their lips, try to brush their teeth, give them chew
treats of any kind, play tug, let them chew on or carry toys, let them retrieve, or handle
their mouth for at least 10-14 days.

We will schedule a dental follow-up to assess the extraction sites usually 10-14 days after
the procedure.
We hope this information will prepare you so that the day of your pets’ procedure and the days after
are as easy as possible for you and your pet. Please do not hesitate to call us with any additional
questions that you may have.