Curious on extent to which house sitters have been given temporary guardianship of pets.
At current housesit, we have faced a new thing. Not bad in any way. Just new. Pet parent gave us a signed, vet-provided form ‘temporary guardianship of pets’ that, for duration of housesit-
confirms pet parent accepts all financial responsibility for costs, if attempts to contact them for permission are unsuccessful
gives us authority to make medical decisions in regards the pet, with specific permission for decisions including enthanasia
requests that efforts be taken to keep vet costs below a specific monetary amount (thousands of dollars)
We applaud the forethought, transparency and trust of this pet parent. We are responsible people. Over dozens of housesits, we have never had cause to take a pet to a vet. Hopefully we will have no cause to use such authorization.
Have other housesitters come across vet-provided forms, of whatever name, that provide temporary authorization for pet medical matters?
We always inform our vet that sitters will be taking care of our cats, we have the name(s) of the sitter(s) put in their file with the mention that they can approve treatments and they have our credit card information on file as well to pay for any fees. We do tell our sitters to communicate with us (we’re always reachable, day or night) should anything happen so that we can advise them. If I was a sitter I wouldn’t want to have the responsibility to decide to euthanize a pet even if the pet parents had given me the authority to do so. So at least we keep the burden of such a decision and we only ask the sitters to communicate the decision to the vet should it ever happen.
No never, and I don’t like that at all. Despite the fact THS policies suggest the sitter might pay vet fees and claim them back from the home owner, I expect the owner to have an account with the vet and would be unhappy if they didn’t. In over 100 sits I’ve only had to take one dog to the vet’s and he was kept in for treatment. 2 days later the owners returned and settled the fees. They had also spoken to the vet before returning. I agree with @gchampagne and would not want to have to decide on euthanasia and am sure most owners wouldn’t want a sitter to have that burden. Nowadays it’s very unlikely you won’t be able to contact an owner if their pet becomes ill.
One of the first questions I ask a homeowner is, do they have an account and authority set up with their vet and if not, they need to. Only ever had one occasion to visit a vet and he actually liased directly with the homeowners via Whatsapp when they were out of the country so no life threatening decisions had to be made by me. No way could I do that. I had to do it only weeks ago for my sister, make a life or death decision, and certainly don’t ever want to go through that again. (Thank God she pulled through)
Yes, I have @GotYourBack had owners provide a vet authorization form they have developed and, yes, I have had the need to use it. However, in that instance, it was 3 way communication between owner, me and vet. I often provide a template of a similar form for owners to use and some take me up on it which I appreciate. They usually have had it put in their pet’s file at the vet’s plus a hard copy at home for me. I only wish more owners would do the same. I have probably had about 8 visits to the vet with pets in my care. Fortunately, none have required me to pay upfront as owners either had an account, paid over the phone or left a credit card. None involved thousands of dollars!
It’s not a vet form, but I have a signed letter with the same information, as well as my pet insurance form, for sitters to bring to the vet. Also provide payment means.
In most of the US, there are regular vets and emergency vets (24/7). Emergency vets will never keep payment information, forms, etc as they operate like a human ER. So providing flexibility to go where needed is important. Most regular vets won’t keep payment information on file either as they don’t want to be responsible for a data breach.
I have never come across this kind of form but I think it’s an excellent idea.
Of course, having to make life of death medical decisions is something I would rather avoid and I raise this concern with HOs, who usually provide emergency contacts for that purpose, should they be unreachable for some reason. Unfortunately, not everyone has that kind of contact and I accept the responsibility if that’s the case.
At my very first sit, we specifically discussed the possibility of having to euthanize a cat, the HO informed me that she knew this possibility was getting closer and closer and that when the sit started I might have to look after 4 cats instead of 5 or might have to deal with that situation. I verbally accepted to deal with it if necessary, although telephone contact was expected. The vet had my name and accepted to be paid by the HO on her return.
We require HOs to name a local ‘decision maker’ in their Welcome Guide and provide details as well via WhatsApp comms. I also make it clear that I won’t ever pay Vet bills so they need to make their own payment arrangements with a friend/relative/decision maker or directly with the Vet. I’m pretty clear on these two points.
I would be OK signing that form as some vets might request it before they will treat. They may have asked the vet’s office and this was told to them by the office. Otherwise they may not treat if you are not on file. In the US it is sometimes required with children. I didn’t read that you pay and they reimburse you. I would just make sure they have a card on file. I had to take a cat to a host’s vet. They did inform me they had a card on file. The office did call them and said, we would like verbal permission to bill your card on file.
I had a difficult situation not long after I started sitting with THS where I had to rush a cat to the vets but the vets wouldn’t accept the owners card details over the phone as they didn’t have an account set up. I didn’t have a card that would cover the amount needed so there was a stressful day where lots of communication happened between the owner, the vet and I. In the end the vet relented and agreed to invoice the owner.
Since then I always ask owners on the pre sit video chat what happens in the unfortunate situation I need to take a pet to the vets during the sit. Many owners are glad I raised this. I’ve had vet account details left for me, money left for me and a virtual credit card also left.
@Newpetlover, interesting - thanks for sharing.
On our form, the euthanasia authorization section was optional. Makes sense as suspect some pet parents may wish to pre-authorize vet care but expressly exclude euthanasia matters.
My vet does not provide a form, and I would not ask for one.
I do leave my sitter’s name and dates on file with a credit card, with sitter allowed to authorize up to a certain $, and a family member able to authorize anything over that. This is to remove life-and-death decisions from the sitter’s responsibilities, as it’s not fair to them. My family has a good sense of what I would want, and if they somehow make the “wrong” call, I’m still going to love them.
I’ve had HOs give me a letter for the vet indicating I’m authorized to take the pet to the vet to seek treatment and I always make sure they have an account at the vet. However, I would not take responsibility to making decisions about major pet health situations, particularly for euthanasia. Typically, HOs are reachable and could discuss it with the vet and make the decisions themselves. If they are going to be completely unreachable during the sit they should designate a family member or friend to make those types of decisions. How could I possibly know what HOs would prefer to be done in different scenarios when I barely know them?
We leave guidance to follow vet recommendations, but prefer to be contacted first, or our emergency contact be contacted. But, an emergency contact is not a 24/7 corporation - they are friends/family with their own lives to live. I always check that they aren’t travelling themselves, but they work, could be in meetings. Could be at a show with their phone silenced.
As a sitter, I would ask how to handle pet illnesses with a HO directly. I would not count on an emergency contact parachuting in at the perfect moment for a decision.
I ask them to do so even if they’re not expecting to be unreachable. As @Felinelover mentions, they could at some point have
No battery, no signal, phone not working properly or not at hand, etc. This could also happen to the contacts but it’s more unlikely that it would happen to both at the same time.
I’m not expecting someone to jump in and save me. I’m expecting HOs to take responsibility for their pets. THS is just a matching service, not a professional pet sitting service. As an unpaid sitter with zero legal protection, I shouldn’t be the one making a decision between a $10,000 surgery vs euthanasia. What happens when the HO decides they would have made a different decision? The entire point of an emergency contact is so there is someone to contact should the HO be unreachable in an emergency. I would think in most cases either the HO or the emergency contact would be reachable.
Possibly, but emergency contacts, again, are humans. So maybe they are indisposed at a critical moment.
If you can’t cope with making decisions, maybe travel via Air BNB? House/petting carries responsibilities, even paid pet sitters have to deal with these. If you want to be free of any decisions in this regards, maybe don’t pet sit?
And I make it clear in the letter I leave what dollar amounts I’m ok spending, leave a payment means, leave my number and an emergency contact - who I know would step in when she can, pay anything, take the pets, etc. She is also working, a busy attorney, and can be on meetings for hours at a time. Also as a normal human, she sleeps (shocking). So emergency contacts doest mean a 24/7 to response line to sitters, either.
This is my preference as an HO as well - but most of my trips I’m in a wildly different time zone. My family emergency contact is probably easier to reach than I am for something that needs an immediate decision.
Of course, this is also why I’m always yammering on about letting HOs know sooner than later when things go wrong or if someone is unsure if there’s a pet health issue, because something that seems small can turn into something huge unexpectedly.
