It’s time for the task I was dreading… organizing all their healthcare stuff!
I started with this.
Yuck. A big, overstuffed folder of who-knows-what. At least it was sorted by animal…
What precipitated this particular project was, first, that I needed to register the whole herd with the parish (Louisiana’s version of a county) which included sending along their vaccination records and, second, inspired by Amy at GoPetFriendly.com, I wanted to scan their crucial documents to a USB to put in our hurricane evacuation kit.
So I dug in! This turned out to be a simple project that I completed in 3 steps:
1. Dumped everything out.
2. Paged through all the documents and PURGED.
3. Hole punched all the important pieces for a 3-ring binder.
All told, it took less than two hours, including a coffee break. AND!! There was an unexpected GEM discovered in the piles. More on that later…
Here we go in detail:
1. Dump everything out.
Empty the contents of the files, folders, or bins where you’ve been stashing all your vet records. This is sort of like the emptying process we went through in the “stuff” organization process. At this stage, I assembled my supplies: my label maker, an old binder, and a set of dividers.
2. Flip through every single page and get rid of what you can.
I saved every single credit card receipt (I toyed with the idea of tallying them as I cleaned it out, but… I couldn’t bring myself to do it). Those were the first to go. I also saved all the purchase orders for their monthly medications. Those went in the recycle pile, too. As I sorted, there was an odd quantity of duplicates. I’m not sure how it happened, but we ended up with two copies of a lot of records. All the doubles went in the toss pile.
This part took the longest, but there was an unexpected gem in the pile. I can’t believe this myself…
When we adopted Emmett (July 2006), the shelter faxed his paperwork to us – back when people still faxed! ha! – but the fax didn’t come through all the way. Several pages were cut off, so they dropped a copy in the mail. The cut-off pages didn’t contain his health info, so we were able to give them to his new vet and move on. When the mailed copy came, I stuck it in my Emmett file and never looked at it.
Well, wouldn’t you know… In that file is a letter his foster mom wrote to the shelter about what he was like as a foster. It is the most touching, heartwarming letter EVER about Emmett’s time at the county shelter, then her pulling him out and keeping him until FOHA had space for him… and it includes her return address!! I got teary eyed when I realized that I can write her a thank you note! So happy!
3. File!
Because the huge chunky file took up significant real estate in our filing bin, I decided to go with a 3-ring binder instead. It fits neatly on a shelf, and it’s simple to add papers as we go along. On the inside flap I stuck their official parish licenses in case I need to access those quickly.
Their rabies certificates are the first document in each of their individual sections. And, because I’m nutty about these things, I found a printable binder cover on Pinterest to make it cute! 🙂
Bonus Task
Because I wanted to take the extra step to put these documents on a USB for our hurricane evacuation kit, I scanned in the important docs: rabies certificates, shot records, and parish licenses. Then it occurred to me that I need to find some sort of waterproof container for the drive…
Which leads me to my next pet care organization project: emergency preparedness! Coming next week! 🙂
In the meantime, are you taking on any pet care organization projects? Have you sorted through your pet’s medical files in a while? Is it time? Who knows… you might uncover an unexpected treasure!
That’s SO cool about finding that letter from Emmett’s foster momma! And she’s prolly gonna be SO excited to get a letter back from you and find out how good he’s doing.
Mom says you’re inspiring her to get more organized. Although she thinks it might be easier just to fly you out here and have you do it for her.
Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie
Mayzie, you tell her I would love to do that! It would be so fun! 😉
I want to be second on your list to be flown out to give us encouraging noises as we attempt to do this.
You got it! And since I’m all about positive reinforcement… click and treat with wine?
I have a really cool organization folder that I picked up at Staples that I have all of our pets health stuff in; it’s really handy when I have to speak with the vet – which isn’t often. Since this is a rare occasion, it’s nice to be able to quickly access our pets’ health records.
That’s a great idea!! Having something that can travel with you is key. You never know what information you need at your fingertips. Also, I can’t help it with my obsession with office supplies, but a really cool folder from Staples sounds perfect to me! 🙂
I am sure that Emmett’s foster mom would love to know what a blessing he has been to everyone that has ever had contact with him. He really has been a “gift” to all of us!
What a sweet sentiment! I’ll be sure to include that in the letter!!
I LOVE that you found that letter from Emmett’s foster mom. We have the hand-written note that Bella’s rescuer sent with her to the States and it is a treasured possession.
I also love your binder. I’m a bit of an organizational freak myself so I have all of Bella’s paperwork stored (albeit not as neatly) in folders (by illness/injury – eek) but I really like your idea of putting them on a thumb drive. I have an app on my phone that allows me to scan my ‘store cards’ so I don’t have to carry them around any more. I wonder if such a thing exists for pet records? (I’m sure it does, I just have to find one, right?
Thanks for the tips. And congrats on the find. 🙂
I think because I don’t have an iPhone, it never occurs to me to think of an app, but… I did a quick Google search and came up with quite a list! http://ruffhaus.com/blog/2013/04/our-favorite-apps-for-pet-parents-in-2013/
That is so awesome you found that letter, Maggie! I have all my pet files in boxes by years, with all other bills, etc…..not always the best system when I’m trying to look up something from the past and I have to go through several boxes. I’d like to dig them all out and organize them by pet. Just need to get myself motivated!
You can do it! 🙂 I highly recommend a strong cup of coffee or a big glass of wine to keep you motivated!
My two favorite things….one of those should work!!
We don’t have an emergency kit (yet), but since you’re in an evacuation prone zone, don’t forget to include “lost” flyers with a cell number. During Katrina, my parents had to scour for a good picture of my aunt’s dog who got scared of thunder and ran away after evacuating. Thankfully, they had e-mail access to get the picture and printer access to make flyers, but I’m sure that’s not always the case!
GREAT suggestion!! Thanks for sharing!
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who was
doing a little homework on this. And he actually bought
me dinner simply because I discovered it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this….
Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this
subject here on your internet site.