SubscribeThe Day(s) Before Surgery – Preparation and What to Expect – Dog Surgery Checklist
Just like any surgical procedure, knowing that you’ve got to send your dog in to undergo an invasive surgical procedure can be very traumatic for both you and you pet. It’s very important that you try to keep things “normal”, or as normal as possible prior to surgery. Your dog will obviously know that something is wrong by the lack of use, of the leg, and probably from the restricted activity, but it will be very important to keep everything else as normal as possible. Same feeding schedule, same sleeping procedure, etc.
We only had about 4 days of downtime between the injury and the surgery, so we just kept our dog restricted in the house and backyard. Since we had a 2 year old puppy who constantly wanted to play, whenever we had to leave the house for an extended period of time, we’d leave the puppy out back and leave Roxy inside. Though we had a few people tell us she should be in an crate or pen
While we were home, we went about our normal routine. Both dogs had access to the house and the backyard, but rather than leaving the doggy door open as we usually did, we instead left our sliding glass door open in order to make it easier on Roxy with her injured leg. We worried about her trying to squeeze through the doggy door and getting stuck, or worse yet, bumped by our puppy causing her to do more damage to her injured leg, or even worse, injure the other one.
While you try to keep things as normal as possible, your dog will most likely sense that something is wrong. Roxy seemed to get a little bit stir crazy by being left in the house, and our puppy really had no idea what was going on, he had never been left outside alone and now, we’d split them up anytime we had to leave the house.
Day of Surgery: Short Checklist
- Make sure that your dog hasn’t had anything to eat or drink in the last 12 hours.
- If your dog has had any food or water in the last 12 hours, make sure to inform your veterinarian.
- Most vets will ask you to bring your dog in prior to normal operating hours in order to avoid distractions. Arrive on time, whenever that may be.
- Sometimes, depending on the vet, type of surgery, length of surgery, and/or length of recovery at the vets office, you may be asked to bring in a blanket for your dog to rest on post surgery.
- Stay calm, act normal. No need for long, dramatic goodbyes. That can only upset your dog.
So, has the surgery taken place? Which procedure do you go with? How did you select your surgeon? How is your dog doing?
This is a great blog topic. Cruciate ligament injuries are incredibly common in dogs, and many people are a bit lost on how to do about getting their dog diagnosed and then taken care of.
I hope you plan to continue to blog throughout the recovery process this will be a great resource for a lot of people.
Wishing you and your dog the best!
Hi Cheree -
The surgery has taken place…. about 2 years ago now.
We went with the traditional surgery (extracapsular imbrication). Our surgeon selection wasn’t really even a selection. We had a friend whose dog suffered the same injury and they had an appointment with a surgeon who flies into the area once per month to perform 2-3 surgeries in a day, he had a cancellation, so we scheduled our dog without researching other surgeons or options. We really couldn’t be happier with the results. Our dog is doing great! She’s 8 now, but she still runs around plays like she’s a puppy.
Thanks for your comment!
What type of dog do you have? We think our dog – Wheaton – might need the surgery and we are thinking we would prefer the traditional one. How soon did your dog start walking on the surgical leg? thanks
Hi Jane –
We have a pit bull terrier. If we would have let her, she probably would have been walking on the leg after a month or 2, however, we stayed very strict per the surgeons directions and kept her penned up for about 4 months. He wanted us to keep her penned longer, but we just couldn’t do it, and she seemed to be getting around fine after 4 months. We just eased her in, and now she’s doing great – 2 years later, we take her on 1-3 mile walks every day, she runs around and plays.
If your dog is the appropriate size/weight for the traditional surgery, I’d highly recommend it as our experience has been very positive as of yet.
Best of luck!
My maltese is going in for the cruciate ligament construction tomorrow. The vet did say that once we bring him home he will need to be in a confined space for about 6 weeks with very little space to move, jump or run.
I would really appreciate some advice as to how I can restrict the space in which we put him in. He is as mentioned a male maltese with an abundance of energy. I do not have a small courtyard, I have a small garden but he tends to run and chase the birds all day so that would not be an option. I can leave him inside the house during the day where he would mostly lie and sleep. How do I prevent him from trying to jump on the couches besides putting the against the wall, but I’m still afraid that he will attemp to jump.
Please throw any suggestions you may have as I would hate to see him hurt himself all over again.
Your comments would be appreciated.
Distressed,
Pretoria
Hi Tina -
The best way is to keep your dog in a crate or pen during the duration of the recovery. It’s definitely not easy, but is much better than taking the chance of re-injury.
View the link above, the are a lot of good crates and pens on Amazon.com. Please give us updates and let us know how the recovery process goes.
Good luck to you and your dog!
Thank you very much Kenneth. I can’t see myself leaving my baby in one of those small things all day as both me and my hubby work. We have decided to close off the dining room which is very small so he won’t be able to run or jump while we’re not there. Thank you for the advice!
Take care
Yeah, I totally agree… confining an injured dog to a crate is brutal! Best of luck with the recovery, and I hope you’ll keep us posted on your dogs recovery.
Hi There
My baby is recovering very well. He’s almost back to his old self. He’s barking and getting excited and moving around. It was great to hear his first bark after a week or so! His stitches will come out this evening and I’m sure he’ll be very happy when we can take the bucket off his head. Will have to monitor that too though! Thank you for the support! It’s much appreciated!
Have a wonderful week ahead!
Hi
We are having a hard time chosing surgery over not going it. What scares us the most is the recovery. We have a Husky mix we think is wolf and he a beauty not because I am his pet mom. We are very scared with him not being ok not being able to run in the long run. He is overwight 88lbs. We have pen him now and only goes out 3x aday to relieve. The vet scared us on the recovey that we have to carry him to releive himself. How much in pain is he going to be? As it is he is having trouble eating. He does not eat eveyday. We do give him pain meds. for now He is heavy and we don’t know what to do? Can any one help.
Explanation of recovery time step by step please. So we can prepared our selves. We have also put him on a diet.
What is the best and most successful surgical procedure for the repair of a injured cruciate ligament in an extremely active Staffordshire Bull Terrier who is only 2 years old and 40 lbs??