PREP GUIDE
🏠 Sitting & boarding
Farm animal care
On-site care for horses, goats, chickens, pigs and similar animals: feed, water, pens and a look-over, with anything unusual reported to the owner. Gates and water are where things go wrong.
🕘 Plan for about 60 minutes. PetHour keeps 15 minutes between a caregiver's visits for travel and handoff.
Before the booking
- Walk the caregiver through feed amounts, water sources, gates, fencing, and where the tools and feed are kept.
- Leave your large-animal vet's number and a neighbour who knows the animals.
- Write the routine down: meal times and amounts, treats, walks or play, litter or cage cleaning, where each pet sleeps — and what "normal" looks like for each.
- Leave food and supplies for the whole booking plus two extra days, in one place, with the scoop you measure with.
- Add your vet and your emergency contact to the booking, and tell your vet that a caregiver may bring your pet in.
- Pet-proof: close off rooms, secure the trash, put away cords, medicines and chewables, and check window screens.
What usually goes wrong
- Frozen or empty water
- Check each trough and bucket, break ice, and carry water in if needed.
- Animals get out
- Count, check the fence line, and close gates — then tell the owner which fence needs attention.
- A pet slips out of the door
- Doors are where escapes happen. Know where every pet is before you open one, open it slowly and block the gap, and keep a leash or carrier by the door.
- A cat seems to be missing
- Cats hide when routines change. Check closets, under beds, behind appliances and inside boxes, and shake the treat bag before you worry — then make sure you've seen every pet before each visit ends.
- Food runs out, or the wrong food is given
- Owners: leave more than enough, labelled. Caregivers: never swap foods without asking — a sudden change upsets stomachs.
- Nobody knows what normal is
- Owners: describe normal appetite, energy, litter or stool. Caregivers: note what you see in each visit report, so a change stands out.
If this happens
- A pet isn't eating
- One missed meal can be stress. Two missed meals for a dog, or a cat not eating for a day, means calling the owner — and possibly the vet.
- Something in the home breaks
- Leak, power cut, no heating: keep the pets safe first, then tell the owner. Don't arrange repairs unless the owner asks you to.
- The owner's return is delayed
- The owner arranges the extra care; the caregiver may keep caring at the booking's rate (ToS §4.9). Agree the plan in the booking chat.
🚨 Call a vet now if…
- A horse rolling, pawing or looking at its belly (colic); an animal down that can't get up; a goat or cow with a swollen left side (bloat) — call the vet now.
- A cat not eating for 24 hours, a dog refusing two meals, vomiting or diarrhoea more than twice, or blood in either.
- A male cat straining in the litter box with little or no urine — that's an emergency.
- Trouble breathing, collapse, seizures or suspected poisoning — call the vet or emergency clinic first, then the owner.
In an emergency, call the vet or emergency clinic first, then the owner — the vet details are on the booking (ToS §4.8).
These are general tips to help you prepare — not rules for how a caregiver must work, and not veterinary advice. Agree the details for each booking in the booking chat, so you both have them in writing.