A sitter staying in your home works from whatever paper or screen you leave behind, and she cannot fill gaps in a treatment record from memory that is not hers. Your cat, meanwhile, will be living with a new person in her own territory, so the record has to carry the full story on its own. Updating it before you leave is a short job, but it is a different job from a routine tidy-up, because every entry now has a second reader who was not present when any of the treatments were given.
What the Sitter Needs Each Entry to Say
For each type of prevention, the entry has to show what was given, the date it was given, and the next due date, written in full words rather than in shorthand that only makes sense to you. An entry that reads as a product nickname and a circled day on a calendar tells the sitter nothing she can act on, while a complete entry lets her check at a glance whether your cat is covered for the whole stay. Work through the flea entries and the worming entries separately, because they run on different cycles and a gap in one is easy to miss when the two are lumped together on a single line. If you find an entry where the date given is recorded but the next due date is blank, fill that blank from the packaging or receipt you filed, or ask your practice to confirm it, rather than leaving the sitter to guess.
Flagging What Falls Due While You Are Away
Once the dates are current, read them against the dates of the stay itself, because that comparison is the point of this update. Anything whose next due date lands inside the stay needs a clear flag at the top of the record, not a quiet line buried among older entries. For a flagged item, write out what the sitter is being asked to do in plain steps, and be honest about how your cat usually takes that treatment, whether she accepts it in food, needs gentle restraint, or hides the moment she sees it coming. Just as important, state what she should not do: she administers nothing that your vet has not already prescribed for your cat, she does not substitute a product she uses on her own animals, and she does not double up a treatment because she is unsure whether one was given. If a due date falls just after you return, say so in the record too, so she does not treat a near date as an overdue one.
Agreeing the Stay on Paper
Prevention dates sit inside a wider handover, and the terms of that handover belong in writing before the stay begins. Confirm in writing what the sitter is paid, which tasks are included, what happens if your cat needs a vet during the stay, and who authorizes and pays for that visit, so a stressful evening never turns into an argument about what was agreed. Leave the refreshed record where she will actually use it, beside the food and the litter supplies rather than in a study drawer, and walk her through the flagged entries in person while your cat is calm and present. Show her where the carrier lives as well, because a cat who needs a vet visit mid-stay is rarely a cat who waits politely to be found. When you come home, ask what was given and when, update the record from her report the same day, and clear the flags so the next reader never inherits a stay that has already ended. A record maintained that way stays truthful long after this particular stay is over, especially when it is held in Pet Passport, the portable packet KinsLe keeps for exactly these handover moments.