Dear Miss Behavin’:
My two older cats are taking different medications at different times of day, and one needs to be weighed regularly. How do I keep track of all of this without mixing it all up?
It can be a little mind boggling at times just managing our own lives, let alone that of our companion animals, be it their food, medication, play-dates etc. A quick fix in managing your cats’ daily medications is to use a pill box similar to the one used by people, one for AM and one for PM. This helps keep the medications organized and serves as a visual reminder to you for giving them their medications.
You can also try using a hanging wall calendar located next to where you keep their medicine. Whether you have to give them medication in the morning or evening, try marking the calendar after each round of doses with whether the dose was successful or not. For this, you can use an abbreviation like “Fluffy AM meds done” versus “PM meds done”, or anything else that helps.
Another option is to have a daily planner or journal, where you can keep tabs on the doses for their medications, and manage the daily administration of the medication. This can also be a place where you note how much your cat weighed each month. In case your cat loses or gains weight and your vet needs a brief history of your cat’s weight, you’ll have an easy go to section that your vet can refer to.
Alternatively, you can also set a reminder on your phone for giving your cat their medication or for knowing when to weigh them. Using your phone’s calendar, you can store information about which doses you successfully administered and how much they weighed at that time. The easier it is to manage, the easier it is to do.