Removal of pets from household while drains are in

Anonymous

Removal of pets from household while drains are in

ChiAlli

Hi everyone. Mostly a lurker, although I had to take a break from anything/everything breast cancer for a while. Diagnosed in February, originally misdiagnosed with ILC, changed to IDC.

Had DMX in late March and attempted to start reconstruction then. Literally, while in pre-op about ready to be rolled to the operating room a nurse said "Your cat is out of the house right?" First time this had ever come up. Needless to say, cat was not out of house. My surgeon (reconstructive, not mastectomy doc) apparently is very opinionated as to the risk of infection caused by the mere presence of my cat at home while I had drains. I had my cat removed one week after surgery for two weeks because said surgeon was putting the fear of God into me that I was going to get a horrible infection otherwise. Post DMX, I had a lot of complications-necrosis, expander replacement and skin removal three weeks later, drains for 5 + weeks, followed by fluid build up that resulted in an expander poking through. Lived with a hole in my chest for over a month while that healed. The whole time was on an assortment of oral and IV antibiotics. Cat came home after skin removal/expander replacement and was with me throughout the fluid/expander poke/hole drama. Never actually had an infection. Eventually both expanders came out and I just recently am now trying again with reconstruction.

Expanders back in last Wednesday the 13th. Two drains that won't come out until next week as I'm still draining about 55ml a day. On oral antibiotics preventatively. At today's post op, again my doctor was very upset with me about my cat not being out of the house. This is an entirely indoor cat and I also had her tested for anything test-able at her annual appointment in August-everything was negative. I'm not touching her, letting her lick me or handling the litter in any way.

I have spend hours upon hours trying to find ANY concrete information about the risk of pets in the home while drains are in. I've seen nothing on these boards that address this specifically. I've seen almost nothing in medical journals accessible online other than one case of an expander infection likely caused by a cat with some sort of weird bacterium licking an open wound (yeeech). I can't find any discussions about pets post surgery other than the typical "get someone to walk your dog or scoop the litter box" directives, mostly seeming to be directed at mobility issues. I have read very general articles about pets causing infections in people (not specficially related to surgery) but usually it was in the context of being bit or scratched or toxoplasmosis risk for pregnant women scooping the litter box.

When I asked my surgeon today for a more detailed explanation of his cat-itude, he did admit that this is his opinion/preference but that he's seen otherwise healthy people get infections from the natural bacteria present in cats. My surgeon is very well regarded and is known for fixing a lot of other peoples mistakes, but this anti-cat/pet stance seems unnecessarily severe, given that I have made some changes and am on antibiotics already. Cat has no where to go until my drain pull appointment next week anyway so she stays.

Anyone have a similar experience? Or people with pets, especially cats, what are your thoughts? Is this just one doctor's eccentricity or should I be more worried? As I wrote above, I never had an infection last spring despite a multitude of things going wrong.

VegGal

In my opinion, your surgeon is nuts!

Simple hygiene is all that is needed.

KCMC

I had a double mastectomy with immediate DIEP Flap in May. The only concern the Breast and Plastic Surgeon had was they asked if I had a big dog that might jump on me.

Your Plastic Surgeon wouldn’t like me I have 3 cats and one bird lol! My husband changes the litter. My drains were in for 2 weeks and my wounds are still open - I am slow to heal. My cats and bird were great company during this whole process!

SummerAngel

That's absolutely ridiculous! I had a dog, a large (20 lb) cat, and a rabbit in the house with me throughout my treatments, no issue. I've never heard of a doctor saying such a thing, either. I have a friend who's had many surgeries and has always had dogs and has never been told to keep her pets away after surgery, either.

bew66

I agree with the other ladies....your doctor is nuts!  Maybe he got bitten as a child.

Icietla

Hi ChiAlli. There is sound basis for your Surgeon's advice. The Pasteurella germs in cats' mouths are some of the meanest, fiercest, most wicked germs on the planet. Because cats typically lick their fur all over, you can fairly expect that any hair on or shed from a cat is covered with Pasteurella germs.

We have an indoor-only special needs cat. We have kept him with us except for a time this past summer when he was hospitalized for surgery and other treatment for pancreatitis and enteritis. He was able to come home for his last three days on IV fluids before any feeding was to be attempted. We would not think of displacing him unnecessarily.

I had four surgeries last year, three of them on my chest, two of them with some drains time following. I kept the area around my dressings regularly cleaned with rubbing alcohol, and except for those cleaning times and drains maintenance times, I kept my dressings and surgery regions covered with clean clothing. My healing went very well, with no infection.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/83/topics/853751?page=1#post_4934252

farmerlucy

Five dogs and a cat at home while I healed. No issues. I did have a dressing changing station set up in our bathroom. God knows no animal of mine would go near the bathtub or bathroom voluntarily. My incisions were completely covered until they were entirely healed. Drains were always well covered, too.

drdolittle

I am a small animal veterinarian and I worked during the reconstruction phase with drains. I wore appropriate coverage - camisole top t shirt blouse and scrubs. Usually several layers and had help holding animals and used normal good hygiene. You have enough on your mind ignore this order from your doc.

EastcoastTS

I agree with VegGal, your surgeon is nuts. (And I bet doesn't have any animals!) LOL

ravzari

Your surgeon is being a bit paranoid.

The only things I was advised after my surgery in regards to my pets:

For the cats: No lifting them and no letting them lay on/near my surgical sites for 3 weeks. No cleaning the litterbox (have someone else do it) and, if I absolutely had to do it myself, wash my hands and arms VERY well afterward. Wash hands after petting.

For the dogs: Wash hands after petting, don't let them on/near the surgical sites for 3 weeks. I was also advised to have someone else walk them, especially if they're over 20lb. We have a fenced yard, so that wasn't an issue.

For the reptiles: Strict no handling unless some emergency requires it (reptiles are frequent vectors for salmonella; keepers often develop a tolerance to salmonella because of that) and, if I absolutely, in a medical emergency for the animal, had to handle it, wash hands and arms very thoroughly afterward. I had a, "Maybe wait 5-6 weeks" on those and one snake was incredibly angry as she was used to being out every single day but is a two person snake due to her 9ft size.

For the birds: No allowing them to sit on/near the surgical sites.

There's no good reason I can think of that your cat or dog would need to be out of the house, as long as you exercise caution at not letting them on/near your surgery sites and you wash your hands after petting them if you're going to be working around your surgical sites (dressing changes, drain stripping, etc...) but you should be washing your hands before doing that regardless of whether or not you have pets.

Spookiesmom

The only time I was told to stay away from small children and pets was after one of the radioactive tests. We even adopted a second dog right before my BMX. I was fine, no infections.

Your dr might be animal phobic.

mustlovepoodles

I agree with all of the above: your surgeon is going off the deep end about this cat. Assuming that you employ basic hygiene skills and your house is clean, your cat shouldn't be much of an issue. I'm sure you are already immune to any cat germs he might carry.

Libber

I had 2 pups while going through chemo. 1 of them slept in bed with us. My chemo nurse said no issues. Your body is used to that home based flora and fauna in your home. Never an issue and my baby boy yorkie cuddled with me while I was resting and recovering

IntegraGirl

I think that's a bit OTT. After my surgery, my 4 dogs and 1 cat were a huge support

NotVeryBrave

Wow! Talk about an extremely opinionated doctor! Yes - must be animalphobic or something.

No one ever mentioned anything about my pets. Not the BS or PS or MO. I'm a nurse and I didn't worry about it.

Common sense about washing hands before and after any manipulation of dressings or drains or surgical sites. And yes - you're probably already exposed to anything your kitty might have and you're fine!

chronicpain

This is not standard advice. However, after one cat jumped right on the area of my wound where the drain was ( fortunatelycovered by a top) two days post-op to remind me that I was ignoring her, she got banned from the bedroom, it hurt too much to risk repeating and I did not want the drain to get dislodged.

ShetlandPony

Maybe that doctor had a bad experience with a patient who had a problem with a cat, and now he is kind of overreacting. A very human reaction, though maybe not very scientific, statistically speaking.

ChiAlli

Thanks for all the responses! My doctor is known for taking extremely complicated and difficult cases so I think he's just being waaay cautious. He sort of admitted as much. I will say this back and forth with him has made me particularly careful with my drains. I'l continue my system of not touching or letting poor Princess get too close to me until the drains come out Wednesday.

ruthbru

That is goofy. I had four cats and the only thing I wasn't supposed to do was change the litter while on chemo.

Lily55

5 dogs and 4 cats, apart from not changing cat litter I lived as normal...........the stress of being parted from them would have affected me more than any infection risk, my cats dont bite.......bit over the top your surgeon

Denise-G

While I had drains in, I kept pillows over my body so my cat wouldn't hurt me or drains if she jumped on me.

It worked.

As a lot of others, my chemo nurse told me not to change cat litter. Well, there was no one else to change it but me,

so I had to do it. I wore a mask and rubber gloves. No problems. My sister had a dog and a cat, lived alone, she did everything through chemo and reconstructive surgery. No problems, no infections.

houmom

I was told to make sure that the pets weren’t anywhere near my bed after surgery, but that’s all.

Adrielle

Your surgeon needs a psychiatrist!