This subject frustrates me a little bit because I am starting to see that there are soooooooo many vets that keep them overnight unsupervised.
She is your dog and this is your decision.
Yes, there is a risk if you bring her home but there is an even bigger risk if she is there alone.
Ellie was spayed and had a liver biopsy and didn't get out of surgery til after 3PM. She could've come home at 6PM but I left her there til about 7:30 just so she could be watched by them. Now this is a 24 hour vet hospital that has a vet and one or two techs there the entire time. So they could have requested that Ellie stay and I would've let her but they don't feel it is necessary.
The reasoning is that some dogs won't be allowed to rest if you bring them home and some owners just don't care about post operative care. If something happens at home that night the vet might be liable. What these vets aren't thinking about is that they will also be liable if something happens when the animal is unsupervised...
Some things you could bring up to your vet are:
-If she isn't coming out of anesthesia properly (too slow...), who will be there to catch it?
-If she is in pain who will help/medicate her?
-If she has her IV in, what if she rips it out?
-If she does NOT have an IV in how do we know she won't go hypoglycemic (since she won't have eaten all day)?
-If she gets to her incision through her e-collar (not unheard of), what if she rips her incision open?
There is no good reason to leave her alone.