Removal of pets from household while drains are in

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

Your surgeon needs a psychiatrist!