Post Surgical Drinking/Urination

Wee girl had surgery (was to be spayed but vet found that she had already been, thus incision only) and dental cleaning yesterday.

She's been home about 12 hours and had a small supper but very little to drink -- couple of spoons of water, not interested in dish. (Elizabethan collar making things more awkward -- reaching water bowl, sniffing "good spots" outside.) Hasn't urinated at all, though she has sniffed around a bit outside. It's cold and very icy right now.

Just wondering what experiences others have had with drinking/voiding after surgery. (Vet opens in two hours so i can call them, if necessary.)

I always put a few drops of concentrated home-made [salt-less] chicken broth in their water dish to tempt my girls to drink. Three times with Little One [spaying and two dental treatments] and just once with Pereg after spaying.

Hello Laura is there some reason you can't take the elizabethan collar off when you are there to watch your dog to allow her to go out to relieve herself and to drink.
I always do and only use the collar if I can't watch a dog.

With regard to drinking for sick or post operative dogs I melt a little honey in warm water and top it up with cold. This usually tempts a dog to drink.

I don't think it's that unusual to refuse both food and water for a while after surgery, as that aneasthetic takes a while to get out of their system, some more than others.

I'd be inclined to make some chicken broth, boil up some chicken and let the stock get cold and see if she'll drink some. You can freeze this in ice cube trays for future use, or just drop one in the water bowl to see if it temps her further with her drinking.

Good luck, I'm sure she'll be back to normal in 24 hours.

got my girl back from the vets after being spayed last week at 5pm she whent out for a pee would not look at food or water untill the next evening then drank the well dry and eat all her tea then decided it was play time, aye right she only now getting a bit of freedom on the long lead and still not happy and its only because of the other dogs want to play with her, hard job getting her back into the pack without out her getting hurt

Decided against taking off Elizabethan collar because Clicquot has issues biting if i touch near her mouth. (Working on it *seriously*.)

Clicquot hadn't voided by 4:00 pm (two walks last night, three today) so the vet had me bring her in. Her bladder was full and nothing else wrong. Said she'd "let go" eventually but offered to take her "out back". Success!! (i'm guessing that even given today's ice, the smells if all the vet hospital's dogs proved enticing.)

She's had a good meal -- still not drinking terrifically but not too badly. We're both going to nap, now!!

Hi Laura that's good Clicquot has 'been' . When dogs have a protective collar on it can restrict their vision, if you can't take it off for a moment I would find a small utensil of some kind like a ramekin and hold it inside the collar to give your little dog the opportunity to drink.

She had a bit of ice cream off a spoon but turned her nose up at the water. Ha. Ditto syringe. She *did* have a bit from a small dish when my mum added a bit of gravy.

i bought a couple of small tins of veterinary "recovery" formula, tinned food. Just a little extra moisture but no huge worries because her kidneys are working just fine.