Pet Emergency Info Card

What the card is for

When a pet is suddenly ill or hurt, the person with it is often not the owner: a pet sitter, a dog walker, a neighbor feeding the cat. In those first minutes nobody should be searching through messages for the vet's number or trying to remember which tablets the dog takes. This tool turns the details that matter into one card you can print, cut out and keep where it will be found.

Fill in what you know, choose a fridge card or a wallet card, and print. Anything you leave empty prints as a line, so you can also print a blank card and fill it in by hand at a meet-and-greet.

What goes on it

The fields follow the contact and vet details in our meet-and-greet checklist for pet sitters and the emergency card in what to put in a pet first aid kit:

1. The pet. Name, species and breed, so a vet on the phone knows which animal it is about.
2. The owner and a backup contact. The backup should be someone who can make decisions if the owner cannot be reached, and who knows they have been named.
3. The regular vet and the nearest emergency vet, meaning a clinic that is open at night and on weekends. Check its hours and how long it takes to get there before you need it.
4. A local animal poison line. The tool does not fill one in, because the right service depends on the country you live in. Look it up on the service's own website and check whether it charges a fee; some do.
5. Medications, allergies and notes. Copy medications exactly as they appear on the pharmacy label or the vet's written instructions: name, dose and timing. Use the notes for health conditions, handling tips or a microchip number.

Your details stay with you

The card holds names, phone numbers and health information, so the tool treats it as private. Nothing you type is sent to PetCred, and nothing is added to the page address, which means a copied link always opens a blank card. If you tick "Remember this card on this device", the card is saved in this browser only, so you can come back and update it. "Clear card" removes it from the device. On a shared or public computer, leave the box unticked: the card disappears when you close the page.

Printing it

• Fridge card. A larger card in two columns, easy to read from across a kitchen. Stick it on the fridge or inside a cupboard door near the pet's food.
• Wallet card. Two panels the size of a bank card, side by side. Cut around the outside, fold along the dashed line, and keep it in a wallet, a lead pouch or a pet carrier.

Print a test page first and check that every phone number is readable. A card that has been laminated, or slipped into a plastic sleeve, survives a wet walk much better.

An example

A pet sitter takes on a new client with an older Border Terrier on daily heart medication. At the meet-and-greet, the sitter fills in the card on a tablet with the owner: the owner's mobile, the owner's brother as backup contact, the regular practice and the emergency clinic twenty minutes away. The owner reads the medication straight from the pharmacy label, and the sitter types it word for word. They leave the poison line for the owner to look up that evening and write in by hand.

The sitter prints two copies: a fridge card for the client's kitchen and a wallet card for their own lead pouch. They do not tick "Remember", because the tablet is shared with their family, and they press "Clear card" before they leave.

When not to rely on it

• It is not a consent form. Permission to seek treatment, a spending limit and the owner's wishes for serious situations belong in your signed client paperwork, not on a card a stranger could pick up.
• It is not a medical record. It summarizes; the vet holds the history. If medication changes, print a new card and throw the old one away.
• It does not replace first aid or the vet. A card tells you who to call. It does not tell you what to do, and it never lets anyone decide that an animal is fine without a vet. In any emergency, make the area safe and protect yourself first, then call the vet. In a suspected poisoning, do not make the animal vomit unless the vet or the poison line tells you to.
• It is only as good as its last update. Check it every few months, and whenever the owner moves, changes vet or changes phone number.

Learn more

Our guide to pet emergencies every professional should recognize explains which signs should never wait. For everything to collect from a new client, use the pet sitter meet-and-greet checklist, and to pack the kit that goes with this card, try the pet first aid kit builder.