I was very worried for my Casie who was spayed at 8 months, weighing just under 4lbs. I was with her all day the first day, but she had passed out in her crate and didn't move an inch that first day. I used a soft cone rather than the hard cone, but I don't think I actually needed it since I didn't see her lick herself (used it just in case though to prevent infection). I bought some newborn (human baby) onsies at Walmart (3 for $8) which worked great! There are buttons which perfectly wrap about the dog tail.
I also agree to bathe her before surgery. Casie got so dirty over the next two weeks and I couldn't wait to bathe her! By the end of two weeks, her incision had nicely healed and I got her nice and cleaned up
Make sure you check the incision daily to make sure it looks okay (I took pictures to keep track just in case it looked worse and I couldn't remember).
The second day I had to go to work, but I used this app called Presence (
Presence) to monitor her in the crate from work. It worked out great - she was just sleeping the entire day. By the time I got home, she was back to her regular self and was wanting to play and had a great appetite. Hardest part was keeping her from being active!