Can You Give Your Dog Water Before Surgery?

If your dog or cat is going to have surgery, it is natural to want to treat him or her a little extra special beforehand, which may temp you to want to dish out a treat or two or at least make them plenty comfortable by offering a little water. But generally speaking, your BC veterinarian will likely advise against giving your pet anything before cat surgery or dog surgery, largely due to potential complications that can occur due to the anesthesia. It is best to have your pet's stomach as empty as possible, which means in most cases no food or water-- not even a small treat-- should be given to your pet before any procedure for several hours before any scheduled surgery.

Risks of Food and Water Before Surgery

While holding back these things may seem harsh to many pet owners, at Cambie Animal Hospital is Vancouver we have good reasons for making this restriction. The biggest reason is avoiding the possibility of aspirational pneumonia. This can occur if your pet has a reaction to anesthesia which causes him to vomit during the procedure, and the vomit travels into the lungs rather than through the stomach and intestines. Before your cat surgery or dog surgery we will make sure to explain how these risks may potentially affect your pet based on their general health and the type of procedure that is to be performed, and will give you specific instructions based on this information

Type of Surgeries

If your pet is scheduled for dog surgery or cat surgery, whether your Vancouver vet decides to go ahead with their procedure or opts to reschedule it may depend of the type of surgery.

Elective

In most cases elective procedures such as spay or neuter surgery, ear or tail docking, or some removal surgeries can wait until your pet is better prepared to go through the operation without complications.

Non-elective Depending on the severity of the situation, some non-elective surgeries can still be put on hold. For example, having a foreign body inside a pet or a benign growth may be uncomfortable, and might potentially pose a long term threat, but may not require immediate removal. At Cambie Animal Hospital we will look at your pets personal history and general health in order to decide whether to proceed with the operation or wait for another day.

Emergency

In some cases, emergency surgery is needed as soon as possible, such as cases where poison has been ingested, or if your pet has been hit by a car and fractured bone is causing damage, or in cases of bloat. In these true emergencies, it is important to communicate as much information as possible to your BC veterinarian so that proper precautions can be made to ensure your pet's safety.

Pre-Surgery

At Cambie Animal Hospital, we want to make sure you and your pet is as prepared as possible for a procedure so that our surgical team can be prepared as well. Before surgery, we will give you specific instructions, which you should take care to follow the best you can. If you do slip and provide food or water outside of the guidelines we give you, it is important to let us know so that we can take any necessary steps to ensure your pet's safety,

Anesthesia

Because pet's can't understand why they are in surgery, they will almost always need anesthesia to make sure they sleep through their procedure. To make sure you pet is safe, we will conduct an assessment in order to understand what your pet can handle.

Fasting

Your pet's need to fast may vary. Some pets require a full day without food and several hours without water. If their nutritional needs require it, we may allow small meals for some animals, but it is best to follow our recommendation.

Post Surgery

After surgery your pet will need special care to recover. It is up to you as a pet owner to see that they leave their incision site alone in order to prevent infection. If there is a chance of post surgery complications, we will review these with you in order to ensure your pet's safety.

If your pet needs cat surgery or dog surgery, we can help you both get through it. Contact Cambie Animal Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia at 604-321-6600 to schedule a consultation.