Prepare your house to keep your pet quiet for a week following the surgery. If you have a very active animal, make sure that you prepare a small room or kennel for him/her to be confined to. Post surgery patients should not jump, run or get too excited for 10 days. Quiet leash walks for bathroom purposes are allowed.

You may bathe your pet as regularly up until the surgery, but he/she cannot be bathed for 10 days afterward, or until the stitches heal.

Do not feed your pet after midnight the night before the surgery - even a small treat. This is very important, as animals with food in their stomachs can vomit during or after surgery. This food can end up in the lungs and cause death or pneumonia since animals under anesthetic drugs cannot control their swallowing or breathing.