Leaving Your Diabetic Cat with a Sitter: How to Write Instructions That Help Prevent Mistakes

Sooner or later, every owner of a diabetic cat faces the same problem: you need to be away — a work trip, a family visit, a weekend somewhere — and someone else has to give the insulin.

The risks are not mysterious. A dose gets given twice because two people each assumed the other hadn't done it yet. A dose gets skipped because the sitter couldn't tell whether it had already been given. A note about “she didn't eat much” never reaches you, so a change you would have spotted goes unreported. One thing helps prevent almost all of these: a written instruction sheet, prepared before you leave, paired with the care log itself.

This page covers what that sheet should contain and how the handover of the log should work.

Please note: This page is about writing instructions and keeping records only. It is not medical advice. The dose, schedule, and feeding routine written on the sheet must be exactly what your veterinarian has prescribed — this page cannot tell you what those should be. Anything involving changes to the routine, a missed or doubled dose, or a cat who seems unwell is a question for your veterinarian or an emergency clinic, and your instruction sheet should say so clearly.

The golden rule of handovers

Everything in this guide hangs on one agreement, made explicitly with your sitter before you leave:

If it is not written in the log, it has not happened.

That single rule helps prevent both failure modes at once. The sitter never has to guess whether a dose was given — they check the log. You never have to reconstruct the weekend from text messages when you return — you read the log. Make sure the sitter understands that this rule protects them as much as the cat: the log is how they prove the routine was followed.

What goes on the instruction sheet

Keep it to one page if you can. A sitter mid-routine will not read an essay. The essentials:

The daily routine, in order

Feeding times, what food, and roughly how much
Injection times, and the exact dose as prescribed by your veterinarian, written out in full — no abbreviations the sitter has to interpret
Where the insulin and supplies are kept
Any other medication, with its time and amount as prescribed

Write the routine as a sequence of steps in the order they happen, not as a paragraph. Steps get followed; paragraphs get skimmed.

The log, and how to use it

Where the log lives (one fixed place, next to the supplies)
What to write for each dose: time, dose given, their initials
What to note each day: food eaten, water, litter box, anything unusual
A clear instruction: log each dose immediately after giving it, before doing anything else

Contact information

Your phone number, and when you will be reachable
Your veterinarian's name, clinic, and phone number
The nearest emergency or after-hours clinic, with its address
A note of what the sitter is authorized to do if the cat needs urgent care and you cannot be reached

What to watch for — and what to do about it

Give the sitter a short, plain list of observations that should trigger a phone call to you or the vet: not eating, vomiting, unusual tiredness, hiding, anything that seems “off” to them. Tell them explicitly that calling is always the right choice and never an overreaction. A sitter who is afraid of bothering you will wait too long; a sitter with permission to call will not.

Also tell them what not to do: never adjust a dose, never give an extra dose “to be safe” if they are unsure one was given, and never substitute foods or medications. If they are unsure whether a dose went in, the instruction is to write down exactly what happened and call you or the vet — not to guess.

Do a practice run before you leave

If at all possible, have the sitter do one full routine — feeding, injection, logging — while you are there to watch. Ten minutes of practice catches the misunderstandings that no instruction sheet can: where things are kept, how the log entries should look, what “a normal evening” feels like. It also means the first time the sitter does it alone is actually the second time.

If your sitter has never given an injection before, ask your veterinarian's clinic whether they can demonstrate the technique during a quick visit. Learning it from the clinic, in person, is far better than learning it from a note.

While you are away

Ask the sitter to send a brief daily message — even just a photo of the day's log page. It reassures you, and it means problems surface in hours, not at the end of the trip.
Agree in advance on what “urgent” means and make sure the sitter knows they can reach the vet directly if they cannot reach you.

When you return: read the log before anything else

The returning handover matters as much as the outgoing one. Sit down with the log and read the whole period:

Any missed, late, or uncertain doses?
Appetite, water, or litter box notes that differ from the usual pattern?
Any “she seemed off” notes, and what happened next?

Gaps and rough patches are not something to scold the sitter for — they are information about where your instructions were unclear, and they make the next handover better. Thank the sitter, note what to clarify next time, and fold the sitter's entries into your ongoing record so the timeline stays continuous for your veterinarian.

One log that everyone writes in

Handover problems multiply when each person keeps their own notes. One shared log — paper, a shared note, or a tracker app — means the sitter's entries sit in the same timeline as yours, before and after the trip, and nothing has to be copied or reconstructed.

That continuity is built into our Diabetic & Senior Pet Care Tracker: the insulin log records who gave each dose, the daily notes sit alongside meals, water, and weight, and the whole history reads as one clear record when you get home — or when your vet asks about the period at the next visit. One-time purchase, no subscription, and everything stays private in your own browser.

See the Diabetic & Senior Pet Care Tracker

A diabetic cat's routine can survive your absence just fine — as long as the routine is written down, the log is shared, and nobody has to rely on memory or guesswork.

Disclaimer: This article is about writing care instructions and record-keeping habits only. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations. Doses, schedules, and feeding routines must come from your veterinarian, and questions or concerns during a handover should go to your veterinarian or an emergency clinic.