How to prepare a pet sitter for medications
Handing your pet to a sitter is easier when the medication routine is clear on paper and the sitter has seen it done. Most problems come from small gaps: a bottle in the wrong cupboard, a time that was only in your head, or nobody knowing whether the morning dose was already given.
This guide walks through how to prepare. A free printable pet sitter sheet covers the details in one page.
Start a few days ahead
Do not brief a sitter at the door with your suitcase in the car. Give yourself time to write things down, and give the sitter time to ask questions. If the sitter has not met your pet before, arrange a visit before you leave.
Do a practice run together
If your pet takes medication, let the sitter watch you give it, then let them do it while you are still there. Explain how your pet takes it best, whether that is hidden in food, held gently, or offered by hand. Some pets are easy with you and difficult with a stranger, so it is worth finding that out while you can still help.
Write it all on one sheet
Verbal instructions are forgotten fast. Put the essentials on one page the sitter can keep in the kitchen:
- Who to call: you, a backup contact, your vet, and the nearest emergency clinic, with phone numbers.
- Feeding times and amounts, written in your own words.
- Each medication with its name, the time it is due, and how your pet takes it. Copy the amounts from the label or your vet's instructions. Your vet decides the amount, and the sitter should never adjust it.
- Quirks and habits that make life easier: where your pet hides, what frightens them, what calms them down.
- Allergies and a clear do-not-feed list.
Set up the medications so they are hard to mix up
- Keep every medication in its original, labeled container.
- Put them all in one place and show the sitter where it is.
- Remove anything the sitter does not need to give, such as old bottles.
- If people in the home take their own medication, keep it out of reach and away from your pet's.
Ask the sitter to log every dose
This is the most useful habit of all. Ask the sitter to write down the time and their initials right after each dose, on a medication log left next to the bottles. It answers the "did I already give that?" question, and it tells you exactly what happened while you were away. Show the sitter how to fill it in during the practice run.
Explain what to do when something goes wrong
- If a dose is missed or the sitter is not sure it was given, do not guess and do not give extra. Call you or your vet for guidance. Our guide on what to do if a dose was doubled or missed explains why.
- If your pet seems unwell, the sitter should call you and your vet.
- For anything urgent, or if nobody can be reached, go to the emergency clinic listed on the sheet.
It also helps to tell your vet in advance who will be caring for your pet, so a call from the sitter does not come as a surprise.
Paper sheet, phone app, or both
A paper sheet is the simplest way to brief a sitter, and it works with any phone or none. If you keep your own records in PetDose, each entry carries the name of whoever recorded it, which is helpful when more than one person in your home gives medication. Its records stay on the phone where the app is installed, so a paper sheet is still the easiest way to brief someone outside your household. PetDose is free to track. Get it on the App Store.