How To Feed My Yorkie After Surgery And Anesthesia

It’s a big day for any Yorkie owner (and the Yorkie, to be honest): your baby is undergoing anesthesia, having some sort of surgical procedure, and you are trying to prepare for what you can do once the pup is back home. As a veterinarian with over 20 years experience, the following information is based on my extensive experience and feedback from clients over the years.

It’s also based on my own experience with my 5lb Yorkie, Binky. I had to do some dental work on her a few weeks after I brought her home from the rescue. The picture below is what she looked like about an hour after we finished the procedure and woke her up.

Why Must I Wait To Give My Dog Dinner After They Get Home After Surgery?

Your Yorkie has been given various anesthestics and pain medicine that can affect the way its body works. Here are just a few of the potential side effects of getting anesthetic/sedating medications:

1. Reduced Gag Reflex and Swallowing Ability: General anesthesia can temporarily impair a Yorkie’s gag reflex and the ability to swallow properly. Eating too soon can increase the risk of aspiration, where food or liquids might enter the lungs, leading to serious complications like pneumonia. In a tiny Yorkie, this is a serious complication.
2. Nausea and Vomiting: Anesthesia and sedation often causes nausea and vomiting. Your may notice your Yorkie drooling after surgery and this is usually a symptom of nausea. If your dog is drooling excessively, wait to give water or food until this symptom has resolved.
3. Decreased Gastrointestinal Function: Anesthesia can slow down the gastrointestinal system. Even if your Yorkie comes home and acts hungry and wants to eat, doing too much too fast can cause bloating, vomiting, and potential aspiration.

Failure to follow the instructions that your vet gave you could result in all sorts of issues that will likely cause you to return to the office that same day or the next.

When Can I Offer Water To My Yorkie After Surgery?

Before you can even think to offer food, you have to make sure your Yorkie can drink water safely and without issue. The timing of when to offer your dog water depends on a number of factors: what type of surgery did they have, when did they wake up from anesthesia, and what kind of drugs they were given.

A general rule is that you can offer your little dog enough water that it just covers the bottom of their water bowl. Don’t try and force your dog to drink. Just offering it and letting your Yorkie decide if they are thirsty is good enough.

What you don’t want to do is fill their water bowl and leave it out. A thirsty dog recovering from anesthesia is prone to overdrinking which will lead to vomiting and bloating. Yorkies are already so small and delicate. Don’t push them.

Virtually all dogs get IV fluids while they are under anesthesia anyway. This will provide your dog with enough hydration to keep it from needing water for a while.

When Can I Offer Food To My Yorkie After Surgery?

After you’ve been home for a few hours and your little patient has calmed down from the day, then it’s time to try a little food. It’s best to have already put down that little bit of water we talked about earlier, but they don’t need to have drank any water in order to feed them.

I always recommended to my clients to feed no more than 1/2 of what they would normally eat for dinner.

Why Can’t I Just Leave Food And Water Out For My Yorkie After Surgery?

Leaving food and water out for your Yorkie after coming home from a surgery is like letting your dog make its own decisions when it comes to its own health. It’s simply not a good idea. I had owners do that and regret it. They usually called the office in a panic when their dog started vomiting and acting lethargic.

Why Didn’t My Vet Give My Yorkie Water After He Woke Up From Surgery?

For all the reasons listed above. I can’t tell you how many times clients thought it was weird that we didn’t offer any food or water to their dog after anesthesia. Trust your vet that they will do what they believe is the right thing for your little one physically during their stay.

What If My Yorkie Won’t Eat Or Drink After Surgery?

Don’t worry if your Yorkie doesn’t want to eat or drink after it comes homes after surgery. This is really only a concern if accompanied by vomiting. Each Yorkie is different in how they respond to the effects of anesthesia and pain medicine so yours might not follow the expected, “normal” course.

However, if by the next morning your Yorkie still doesn’t want anything, then it’s time to call your veterinarian. If there’s no vomiting, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong. The GI system may have simply not have kicked back into gear after the stress of the procedure and medicines.

What If My Yorkie Vomits After Eating Or Drinking Once Home From Surgery?

Vomiting isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it happens just once and is associated with the car ride home. As mentioned before, nausea is quite common after anesthesia and so one episode of vomiting isn’t by itself a bad thing.

However, repetitive vomiting is a concern. The forces involved with that level of abdominal contraction could put strain on any stitches in the abdomen (such as with a spay surgery).

If your Yorkie vomits two or more times within an hour, call your veterinarian and let them know.

Final Points

Your veterinarian gives you specific information about how to care for your Yorkie after they have had surgery. Please follow these guidelines to the letter. Failure to do so could result in a prolonged recovery time, complications that could require hospitalization, or (at worst) an expensive visit to the emergency clinic after hours.