Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Animal Records - A Simple Method

Since many of you that read this blog are Animal Lovers like me, I thought I'd pass on a tip that might help you keep track of their health.

Records. If you are like many people, you jot on your calendar, day runner (or maybe on your smart phone) when your dog/cat/horse/parakeet needs its shots/wormer/flea treatment/etc.

Or, maybe these dates get lost in the daily shuffle of things, and you sit around scratching your head, mumbling "When was it that Frodo got his last vaccination?"

Maybe because I'm a writer, I like to actually Write Things Down. Ha!

Maybe I'm super-organized. Not!

Maybe I've just had lots of pets/livestock over the years, and sometimes it gets really hard to remember.

So I've came up with a really simple system to keep track of everyone.

First, whenever we welcome a new animal into our family, I make a folder for them, which I keep in my file cabinet. Then, I make a little chart to go inside. At the top, it lists Name/Age/When We brought them Home. (We've had Frodo for 6 years? Really?)

I take a clean piece of paper - like this:


You can do this yourself in about 30 seconds, and mark your columns however you like:

Vaccinations/Worming/Shoeing-Trimming for a horse or donkey.

Vaccinations/Worming/Flea Treatments for a cat or dog.

Or whatever works for you and your animals. Yes, if you take them to the vet, the vet writes this stuff down (and sometimes sends you reminders.) But because I do a lot of these things myself, I like to remember when Frodo had his last treatment/shot/etc.

Hope this helps some of you take good care of your animals!

Kisses to all of your horses, cats, dogs, or parakeets (actually, I've never had a parakeet, do they get shots?)



2 comments:

Patricia said...

I have all my dogs' info in a file folder but, Linda, it is so bulging with dog information since 1902 that I'm afraid to look in it! Just kidding about the date, but you get what I mean. I DO keep the everything and anything about them under "DOGS" but, my oh my, I should clean it out!
Patti

Linda Benson said...

Ha! Yes, I tend to do that also, Patti. I still have records from dear animals that have died, because sometimes I can't bear to throw them away. Sentimental much?