Good log or journal system?

[mayabear]

I keep a notebook to track my cat’s behavior, health, anything remarkable... I like writing things down, but I would also like to organize the notes to easily follow patterns or to be able to refer to something quickly.

Does anyone have an efficient system or app they use for this?

Thank you in advance!

 

[sidneykitty]

Hi there! I'm watching this thread as I'm interested, too.

Since my cat gets chronic constipation I need to keep a close eye on her eating and pooping. For the last couple of years, I have had a notebook designated as Amber's poop diary.

Within, I just write an entry each day with the date, if she pooped (and how good it was), and what she ate and what supplements or meds were given (as well as a time if relevant). Each meal or note gets its own line in the notebook. Its probably not the most robust system and could be better organized, but it works for me. I can also keep track of her weight in this.

Recently I'm having to make more detailed notes as she's been unwell, so I'm including notable behavior and a more detailed record of time throughout the day when she's eating, getting meds, playing, hiding under the bed, etc.

I know some people use Excel but I spend so much time looking at Excel at work I don't want to look at it in my spare time too! I just leave the notebook out near her feeding station so I remember to record. I don't doubt there are apps out there as well but I am not that tech savvy. I wish you luck in finding a system that works for you!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I use MS Excel. There are so many sorting/re-sorting options that you can perform to check on various patterns/data/etc. And, the nice thing is adding a column, for additional information if you determine you need it, is pretty simple to. Even if you decide that you want data you recorded in a single column to be split into two columns, in many cases, that can be handled fairly easily as well. I can get averages on weights, calories, and any other numerical tracking that I want to do. It might take a few renditions before you get a spreadsheet that covers all your bases, but so far, Excel has worked for me.

 

[daftcat75]

I keep a thread here for Krista that's effectively been a poop journal lately. I use a lot of emojis so that I can skim through the pages looking for events by emoji without having to read what I wrote until I get to what I'm looking for. Like the last time she . Then I can read the posts before that to see if I can figure out why she did. If I was keeping a journal by hand, I'd probably use different color highlighters or stickers to do the same thing--give me the high level overview without having to read the whole thing.

If you're a disciplined journalist, look up Bullet Journals for ways to organize your journals and make them easier to review. Or even without going through all of that, I would leave several pages in front of your journal blank to create a table of contents as you go. Number and date every page. Then when you have incidents or accidents, add another entry to your table of contents with the date and page number. Then you can use highlighters to color code your table of contents to further aid in finding things and also looking for patterns.

I've done a similar system with her food journal in Google Sheets. I was tracking how much she ate, what she was eating, and whether it caused a reaction. I recorded a week at a time and copied a new sheet into the workbook each week. Here too, I used colors to denote the reactions and I recorded notes in each cell.

 

[LTS3]

A binder-type notebook will work. You can use index dividers to separate the sections into whatever you need (diet, behavior, medicines, daily notes, etc). I was using the Arc notebook system for awhile: https://www.staples.com/deals/Staples-ARC/BI1414809

 

[Jem]

Pets Tracker - Pet’s Activity and Health Manager by LINKLINKS LTD

I found this app, it seems pretty good.

 

[Jem]

And this one...
Pet Care Log by Manu Gupta

 

[Jem]

There are a bunch more on this site.

Track Your Pet's Health With These Apps

This one specifically says it can track peeing and pooping, among other things of course.
My Pet - The Pet Record Maker by MindIT

 

[Tobermory]

I use the calendar on my iPad, which also, of course, syncs with my iPhone and Mac laptop. Each cat has her own color, and one color is for items that pertain to more than one, like arthritis meds for Lily and Iris. The way the calendars work on Apple devices, I can select the color for one cat only if I want, for example, to show the vet that cat’s litter box habits. Or I can print it to give him a copy for their records. When I create a new calendar item, I can also enter info in the notes section. And I can search on an item, and all of them show up (as long as I’ve used the same wording).

I started doing this when Iris was vomiting frequently, and I needed to track when it was happening and what she had eaten. Then I started to track Lily’s peeing and pooping because she was having issues with both.

I think we all develop the system that works best for us! When my boy Max was still alive, I tracked his insulin shots and blood glucose in a small notebook. That worked better than the electronic calendar because I was focused just on managing his diabetes and not multiple issues.