Foster Carer Animal Record

Who this is for

The record that travels with an animal in foster care. It names the rescue and the carer, holds the feeding and medication instructions in the words they were given in, records the vet visits and the progress the carer sees at home, and lists the expenses to be claimed back at the end of the placement.

Foster carers taking an animal for a rescue or a branch, fostering coordinators handing an animal over, and anyone keeping a dog or cat temporarily for a friend, a hospital stay or a move.

What this helps you track

• Who the animal belongs to while it is with you, and who to ring about it
• Which vet the rescue uses and what it has authorised
• Feeding and medication exactly as the rescue or the vet instructed, with what was supplied
• What the carer sees at home, dated — the part a rehoming decision actually rests on
• Expenses paid out, with receipts ticked, ready to claim

How to use it

1. Fill in the animal, the rescue and the carer at the top, with the placement start date and the end date when it comes.
2. Write down the vet practice the rescue uses and what it has authorised the carer to do, in writing, before the animal arrives.
3. Copy the feeding and medication instructions into the instructions table in the words the rescue or the vet used, and tick what came with the animal.
4. Add a dated line to the progress log whenever something is worth knowing — eating, toileting, other animals, children, noise, lead work, nerves.
5. Record each vet visit with the date, what was done and whatever next date the vet gave.
6. List everything you pay for, tick the receipt, and hand the sheet back at the end of the placement.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Who decides what the animal is fed and given?

The rescue and its vet. Every line in the instructions table is copied from what they told you; nothing on the sheet suggests an amount, a food or a frequency.

Can I take the animal to my own vet?

Ask the rescue first and write the answer down. Most rescues use a particular practice and pay only for what they have authorised, which is why there is a line for it at the top.

Why keep a progress log at home?

Because the useful things about a foster animal are the ordinary ones — how it is with the post, the stairs, the cat, a child on a bike — and nobody remembers them six weeks later without dates.

Will the rescue pay my expenses?

That is between you and them, and it should be agreed before the animal arrives. The table records what you spent and whether you have the receipt.

What happens to the sheet when the placement ends?

Hand it to the rescue with the animal. It goes on to the adopter or the next carer, and it is the only account of those weeks that anyone has.