Most of our patients will be dismissed in the late afternoon or early evening on the day of their procedure. Their go-home time will be discussed with you when the doctor gives you a call about their procedure once they're in recovery.

So some of the best things that you can do at home are to have had your pre-surgical exam with your veterinarian so that you know what to anticipate coming into the surgery. Also, you should have fasted your dog, not giving them food, the morning of the procedure. Those are some of the most important things. And hopefully, you have them willing to get in the car the morning of their procedure.

Great question. Sometimes we need to use sedatives or an anti-anxiety medication when dogs with behavior problems come here for their grooming or nail trims. The dog should be sedated versus to be struggling and potentially bite somebody. We don't want it to be a stressful experience for them. We want it to be pleasant, just like we wouldn't want to be stressed going to get our hair cut or something like that. So you'd have to talk with your vet about that and decide what's necessary or what would be recommended to take the edge off for some patients. Not everybody's going to need that. But you'd have to talk with your vet and your groomer about what the dog is doing. So are they trying to bite? Are they just really fearful? Are they wiggly? And then, we can make a plan on what would be best for that pet.

I think all groomers around here do require vaccines. You would have to ask your specific groomer about their protocol, but we’d definitely recommend it because they will be around other dogs and cats. Whether they're in a cage or whether it's more of a cage-free environment, they're still going to have interaction. They're still going to be breathing the same air. So yes, it's recommended. As far as flea control goes, of course, we always recommend all pets be on flea control year-round. Where we live in San Diego, it's just flea time. We see it all the time. So we recommend that they be on it year-round. Again, I don't think it's required in a lot of places but recommended.

That depends on the dog, but also you. So if you have a bad back or you have trouble getting the pet in and out of the tub, of course, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself doing it at home. But if you have the supplies, you feel comfortable doing it; you know what you're doing; I think it's OK to do the bathing at home. That's what I do for my dogs. But if you have a certain breed that requires haircutting, you need to go to a groomer. Because obviously, they're trained to do that. They have the right equipment. One thing I do want to mention for sure is you never, ever want to use scissors on your pet at home. I've seen a lot of pets come in with cuts on their skin, especially cats. Their skin is just so thin and you don't realize that you're pulling up on it to cut out a mat. Just never, ever use scissors. It's just really scary. And sometimes, I have to put stitches in these cats. So be careful.

I would say no unless your dog has very sensitive skin. You can cause irritations if you're using harsh shampoos or leave on conditioners. I have seen a few dogs have a reaction to certain types of shampoos. And if you're doing it so often that you might dry out their coat, I guess so. I really haven't seen that. It's a lot of work to bathe the dogs, so I don't typically see people overdoing it. But just use your best judgment. If you feel like the coat's looking dry and flaky, you might want to cut back a little bit.

Heart rate dropping and blood pressure dropping are two possible risks from surgery. And sometimes, if they have an underlying condition that we weren't aware of, anesthesia could make that worse. Afterward, the side effects might be swelling, pain, and other things that we'll want to control with either laser therapy or medications.

Much like they use in human medicine, our monitoring equipment helps with measuring. We also have them on a ventilator to breathe during anesthesia, so we don't have to worry about them not taking breaths or not breathing well. And then I think just the personal touch of having a trained staff member together to monitor your pet. So not only do we do a complete physical exam before the surgery and monitor them during, but we also have someone watching them during recovery.