The post-operative recovery period is a critical welfare window for cats, and evidence-based home care practices significantly affect pain management, complication rates, and quality of recovery.
Post-operative home care is the final link in the perioperative welfare chain, and it is frequently the weakest. Owners discharged with poorly understood instructions, inadequate analgesic supplies, or no guidance on pain recognition often fail to provide adequate recovery care not from neglect but from lack of knowledge. The welfare consequence is cats recovering in unmanaged pain, with owners interpreting behavioral changes as normal post-anaesthetic effects rather than pain signals. Veterinary practices that invest in clear discharge communication, take-home pain assessment tools like the Feline Grimace Scale, and accessible follow-up channels produce demonstrably better recovery welfare outcomes. Owner education about feline pain signs and the importance of the full analgesic course is as important as the prescription itself.