The discharge sheet is the document that governs the days at home, and it outranks any general guidance, including this article. The team who carried out the procedure wrote it for your cat specifically: what was done, which medicines were sent home and when they are due, what feeding should look like tonight, and the date of any recheck. Read it the moment you get home, while the clinic is still easy to phone with questions. Then set up a quiet room before your cat explores the house — a tray within a short walk, water close by, bedding on the floor rather than up on furniture, and a door that closes against bouncy housemates.
The First Evening Home
Expect a cat who wants to sleep, may wobble slightly when walking to the tray, and may ignore food at first or eat a little and then turn away. Anaesthetic effects fade across the evening, so dim light, a warm resting place and minimal handling suit most cats. If a protective collar was supplied, it stays on for the stretches the sheet describes, including overnight, because the hours you are asleep are the hours a wound gets licked undisturbed. Offer water where your cat rests. Follow the sheet on food quantities for tonight even if they look small; the stomach that has been fasted and anaesthetised does better with the clinic's pacing than with a full celebratory bowl.
The Daily Monitor Set
Check the same four things morning and evening, and write down what you find rather than trusting memory. Appetite and drinking: note whether your cat approaches the bowl, sniffs and leaves, or eats a real portion, and whether drinking has happened at all. Litter tray: look for urine passed, whether straining accompanied it, and whether stool has appeared yet. Wound site: look without touching — edges sitting together, skin dry, any bruising mild rather than spreading, and no wetness on the fur around it. Energy: judge the curve across days, not single moments. The shape you want is a slow bend upward — sleepy on day one, brighter and more interested each day after — and dated notes reveal that curve. A typical entry reads: appetite and drinking — half a small meal, two drinks; litter tray — urine passed, no stool yet; wound site — dry, edges together; energy — slept most of the morning, sat up to watch birds by evening.
The Call-Back Triggers
Keep this set separate in your mind from ordinary recovery, and phone the clinic the same day — sooner if the sheet says so — when any of them appears: no food taken by the following day; vomiting that happens again rather than once; the site becoming swollen, wet with discharge, bleeding, or gaping open at an edge; a cat who crouches and strains but passes no urine; breathing that looks faster, noisier or more effortful than the quiet pattern of the first evening; pain you can read in posture, growling at approach or hiding from touch; or withdrawal that deepens each day instead of lifting. Describing exactly what you saw, and when your notes say it started, is the whole of your job; interpretation belongs to the clinic.
Writing It Down as You Go
Two short entries a day take a minute each and repay you if anything changes, turning 'worse since Tuesday' into a timed sequence the clinic can act on. Note medicine times alongside observations so a missed or late serving is visible rather than guessed at. Photograph the wound site once a day in the same light if your cat tolerates it without a struggle; a short run of pictures shows change far more honestly than a single worried look at midnight. If nothing is wrong, the record still earns its place at the recheck, where the team can see recovery unfolding day by day.
The Pet Passport in KinsLe stores the clinic's own sheet beside those dated entries and photographs, so a single packet shows the procedure, the plan and the recovery in order.