Senior Dogs: Why a Medication Chart is Important

by Christy Caplan | September 10, 2018

So I look at this medication chart and I know it’s overwhelming. But Bruiser has Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) and there are A LOT of meds to keep track of. Plus, I’m not the only one medicating so it makes sense to have a medication chart for each day for both my husband and me to follow. The chart has some medical dosing verbiage as it shortens some of the sections but you can adjust this to whatever works best for you.

For Bruiser I split it between heart and GI medications as clearly the heart medications are the priority. That way – if for some reason, we have trouble getting a pill in Bruiser it’s obvious which drugs NEED to be dosed and which could be skipped (with a Vet’s approval) and in our case, we have to get Bruiser to take Pimobendan (heart med) every 12 hours but if he skipped Omeprazole (Prilosec) it isn’t a crisis.

You can find tons of different chart templates online and a colleague also created one for me but as the meds were added I went ahead and created a daily sheet. I know this is a lot of paper! It’s nice though so I can check off boxes and add notes at the bottom when I run out of medication and it’s all on one sheet. Check it out here:

Some additional tips I’ve learned over the past six months when Bruiser was diagnosed:

• It’s easier to just put all your animals on one medical chart or it gets confusing
• Include supplements too. Even those these aren’t considered medication it’s nice to have these on a chart (for example, Walter takes Desquan and Denamarin so these are reflected)
• I do include the amount of medication like 1/2 tab or one capsule even though it’s written on the bottle. be sure to double check this though as I messed up one version and confused my husband who thought perhaps the dose was increased!
• It has been six months and I have the meds down by memory BUT it’s still crucial I use this chart. Just in case I need Mike or our pet sitter to step in it’s obvious where I left off
• I also “journal” some things including how much Bruiser ate in the a.m. since his appetite increases throughout the day

Perhaps add a column for notes and tips!

IF your dog has heart failure you should also add a column for weight and Respiratory Rate (RR’s). Daily RR’s are KEY when it comes to identifying any issues. Here’s an article I wrote about CHF that goes into more detail on this and why you should track this daily.

This may seem over the top for some which I can appreciate! But I hope it’s helpful for some people that need some help organizing daily medications for their animals. We find it super helpful and it actually makes things easier when we’re busy. Let me know what you think below!

If you’d like a template I’d be happy to share a word doc that you can tailor.

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