# Bathing after surgery



## CoverTune (Mar 11, 2007)

It's been about 12 days since George had his surgery, any idea how soon I can give him a bath? He desperately needs it, after urinating on himself several times (accidentally). His sutures are under the skin, and dissolvable.

Obviously I wouldn't scrub the knee or anything like that, but it would get wet. I'll buzz the clinic tomorrow, but wondered if anyone here knew.


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## RedChase (Mar 13, 2011)

After 14days post Sx you can bathe your dog and gently bathe where he had surgery. If your dog is really stinky and dirty, i think 12 days is long enough. What type of surgery was it?


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## CoverTune (Mar 11, 2007)

He had a luxating patella repaired.


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## Maggie Girl (Feb 27, 2011)

I was told 10 days after my dog's neutering I could bathe him and to just be gentle on the surgery site. I think we actually did his bath at 8 days, though, b/c he'd gotten stinky rolling in something so I just basically just washed his back, sides and neck, ignoring his underneath as much as possible. Hope your pup is healing up well


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## CoverTune (Mar 11, 2007)

Cool, I'll probably go ahead and bathe him tomorrow then.

And thanks Maggie Girl, he's healing extremely well, the surgeon was very pleased at our visit last Friday! It's a huge relief.


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## Mr. V (Jan 28, 2010)

I think you've got a good plan there CT. Easy on the suture site and bathe the rest of him as you normally would. If you do bathe him in a tub or other slick surface, be careful so you don't cause him to contort his leg in any weird way - I dont know if he's a squirmer while getting bathed, but, I could see it being an issue and I know you dont wanna risk stressing the work your vet did. The skin I'm sure is healed over by now, but, to get to that groove under the patella your vet had to cut into the joint capsule which may not heal as quickly as the skin above it. If you feel like he will squirm too much and get too rowdy during a bath (as my dog does) then you can just try giving him the ol sponge bath. Good luck


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## CoverTune (Mar 11, 2007)

Thanks Mr. V, was kind of hoping you'd chime in. He's actually a very good boy in the tub, but I'll likely get my mum's help while she's here as well.

Is it strange that I'm excited to give him a bath now? lol Can't wait for him to be clean!


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## Maggie Girl (Feb 27, 2011)

To give him stability in the tub try laying a hand towel on the bottom of the tub so he's got some traction. Just in case he slips, like Mr. V said. Good luck!


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## Mr. V (Jan 28, 2010)

You're very welcome. Somethin else I thought of - careful when washing the other back leg. Not sure how you go through your bath time with him, but, when I am washin my dog I will often lift up one of his back legs to get a good angle at it so I can wash a little quicker. Be careful of lifting the alternate leg and thus transferring all of the rear load onto the surgery leg. It's not like that leg is now made of glass or eggshells so I don't want to be too dramatic about it, but, no point in playing with fire if you don't have to.


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