After spay or neuter surgery: turn the discharge sheet into a home plan

Before you leave the clinic

Discharge happens fast, often with a drowsy pet in your arms. Ask the team to go through these, and check each one is written on the sheet:

• Each medicine: name, dose, times, with or without food, and for how many days
• When the first dose at home is due
• Activity limits: walks, stairs, jumping, play, and for how long
• Cone, recovery suit or neither, and when it may come off
• How to check the incision, and what it should look like
• When and what to feed tonight
• Bathing and swimming rules
• The recheck or stitch removal date, if there is one
• Whom to call with a question, day and night

Day by day: write the plan into a schedule

A sheet in a drawer is easy to forget by day three. Copy it into a simple schedule, one row per day, from surgery day to the recheck. For each day write the medicine times, the activity allowed, cone on or off, and a box for notes. Tick each dose as it is given, with your initials if more than one person helps.

If your clinic’s instructions and something you read online disagree, follow your clinic. They know what was done and how your pet is.

Keep them calm and quiet

The AVMA says that after surgery you will be asked to keep your pet calm and quiet for a few days while the incision begins to heal. Your clinic will tell you how long and how strictly. In practice that can mean short lead walks only, no jumping on furniture, no rough play with other pets, and a quiet place to rest.

Plan the first evenings before surgery day: who is home, where your pet will sleep, how you will stop the zoomies. A bored dog on rest is a real challenge; ask your vet which calm activities are allowed.

Watch and write down

Check the incision when your clinic told you to, and write a line each time: how it looks, eating, drinking, toilet, energy. Notes with times are far more useful on the phone to the clinic than “she seems off”. A photo of the incision each day can help the clinic compare.

Your clinic’s sheet lists what should make you call. If anything worries you, or you are not sure, call. Clinics expect these calls after surgery.

Weight after spay or neuter

The AVMA notes that spayed and neutered dogs and cats are at higher risk of becoming overweight, and that your vet can give food and exercise advice to help. Weigh your pet before surgery if you can, then every few weeks afterwards, and ask at the recheck whether the daily food amount should change.

How to keep track in Keepie

1. 1

   Add each medicine as a course with an end

   Add a Medication with its dose and times, and set it to end after the number of days on the sheet. Each dose time gets its own reminder and its own row on Today.

2. 2

   Put the recheck in

   Add the recheck as a vet visit, or set the next visit date on the surgery visit, and turn on a reminder.

   How Health works
3. 3

   Write daily notes

   Add a note when you mark a dose done, or log what you noticed: appetite, energy, discomfort, with a short note.

4. 4

   Share the recovery

   On a pet shared with a Care Team, caregivers see each dose on Today and who marked it given, so nobody doubles up.

A printable recovery plan

The medication chart prints one row per day from the start date you choose, with a tick box and space for initials for each dose time. Put the activity limits and cone rules in the medicine’s notes, and keep a separate page for how the incision looked each day.