For those of you who use pet sitters

What arrangements, if any, do you make for emergency care? Do you let your vet know that your sitter can make decisions about your cat's health? Do you make payment arrangements? If your regular vet is not a 24 hour facility, do you make the same arrangements with an emergency vet?

 

I generally contact the vet's office and give them the pet sitter's name, reminding them to bill me for any care, not to charge the sitter. I also volunteer to give my credit card number, in case it is needed (so far the vet has never taken me up on that). My situation is a bit different from that of most people on this board, as I don't have an active diabetic and I also have pet insurance. I remind the vet that I do have insurance on the cats and therefore any necessary treatment should be given without regard to cost. I leave treatment decisions up to the vet rather than the sitter.

 

I leave the pet sitter with a list of contact info of the vets I would like her to contact in case of emergency. I do not let the vets know I'm going to be out of town, as I would hope I would be contacted by phone to make any kinds of decisions that needed to be made.

In addition, my pet sitter used to work with/for our primary vet, which gives me some measure of reassurance for some reason.

 

I leave word with the vet that I am out of town but I provide the vet and the sitter with my contact numbers - a mobile number and/or the number at the hotel or friend's house.

The sitter has an instruction letter on the dining room table with the food (if it's canned). The letter covers my contact info, the vet's name, address and number, instructions to call the vet to let them know you are on the way, the emergency number and a clear statement explaining that I will cover costs for treatment. I thought I would add that so that there is something in writing so that they can take that letter with them to the vet if they feel they need it.

I also leave cash for cab fare so that they can immediately scoop the cat up and go if the cat is in distress. Not everyone has their wallet on them when they come to pet sit because they are neighbours. I try to imagine what I would want/need if I were the pet sitter.

In an emergency, we don't always think straight. To have clear and simple instructions left is appreciated by all parties.

 

I've only used a pet sitter once and that was just a few weeks ago. I got some great ideas from people here as far as what to do/leave, so I'll pass those along:

--I did tell my regular vet that we would be gone, for how long, and the pet sitter's name. They made note of it in all my kitties' charts. They said that they would bill me for any charges but would call to let me know what was going on before doing treatment (unless it were a life-threatening emergency). The pet sitter would have called us, too, of course.
--I did not make this arrangement with the emergency vet, however. It is close to the house and the pet sitter knows where it is so I wasn't worried about her being able to find it or anything.
--I left my vet's name, address, and phone number for the pet sitter. I printed out directions from our house to the vet's office and left them on the table.
--I made an info sheet for each kitty. This was the best tip I got, and I'm sorry I don't remember who told me about it to give credit, although I think it was Hillary and also JJ. The info sheet included each kitty's name, age, weight, sex, and spayed/neutered status. I also put the vet's info as well as our info on it. It had a section for "Major Medical Issues", just as an overview. This is so that in a real emergency, the vet does not have to wade through the complete records of the kitty (which I also provided) to see the major events. These sections were pretty short because luckily my kitties have not had too much go on with them. I listed Buzz's like so: "July 2009 Buzz was diagnosed with diabetes. On 8/10/09, switched to canned food and began insulin treatment. Remission was achieved Dec. '09." Obviously if she were still on insulin I would list the type and how much she gets per day. I had a section which listed medications, and one that listed food. I also noted in 3 different places that she was NOT to receive steroids unless there are NO other options.
--I put the full medical records, the info sheet, and the directions to the vet into a manila folder, one for each kitty. This way if there were an emergency, the sitter could just grab kitty and envelope and hotfoot it to the vet.

The info sheet was more for the ER vet, because obviously our vet already has the records and knows what's going on. It definitely gave me peace of mind. I like Vic's idea about leaving cash for a cab if it's your neighbors who are pet sitting.

 

I should add that I drafted a page with columns for test results and shot check boxes for if Sundance did need to be left at home with a sitter, but I never used it because she came with me on all my trips when she needed meds. I'll look for it and post it if I can find it. I will get my pet sitter instruction letter into a google.doc tonight and share that too. Then people can just copy and paste and edit for their own needs.

 

I am very fortunate that my pet sitter has a working relationship with my vet. She used to work there as a vet tech. She does use a form that gives her the authority to take a pet to the vet and that the client - not the sitter agrees to pay all vet bills.

We only had a situation once where she needed to use this authority - but it saved FF's life. Way back in the beginning of our FD journey, FF had her 2nd DKA event when we were traveling. The sitter got a hold of the vet (at home) on a saturday night of a holiday weekend and he met her at the clinic. They didn't even charge me extra for the after hours emergency!

It's very important to have a sitter and a vet who are willing to work together in a situation like that!

 

I often travel out of the country so what I do is:

I give the pet sitter the vet info.
The person (My godmother) responsible for making decisionsfor my cat is my godmother so the petsitter gets her info as well for the vet.
My dad's info so he can pay the vet. (he is responsible for paying the vet) (I will reimburse him).
My hotel phone number (for extreme emergencies because it is out of the United States)
My email address for extreme emergencies because I cannot check it regularly thus my godmother is the one who will make decisions for me.

If I am traveling in the United States or locally:

I give the pet sitter the vet info.
Hotel or where ever I am staying (often it is either at my mom's or dad's) phone numbers and addresses.
My cell number.
My email address.

ER vet is also at the same place where my Vet is and my Vet is also an ER vet so that is a bonus for Molly.

Kate and Molly (not diabetic)