Your pet's vaccinations, deworming doses, sterilisation date, microchip registration and routine vet checkups, all tracked in one place, with overdue reminders surfaced automatically. The PetGuru Pet Health & Vaccination Calendar is built into every pet profile and free for every PetGuru pet owner. No spreadsheet, no fridge magnet, no missed booster.
What the Calendar Tracks
Nine event types are supported out of the box, covering everything a SA vet typically schedules across a pet's lifetime, and a tenth "Custom" type for anything specific to your pet (allergy injections, dental cleans, breed-specific health screenings, etc.).
- Rabies Vaccination: legally required in most provinces; first dose at 12 weeks, booster at 1 year, then every 1 to 3 years.
- DHPP (5-in-1 distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus): the core puppy vaccine series.
- FVRCP (rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, panleukopenia): the core kitten vaccine series.
- Kennel Cough (Bordetella): required if your dog visits boarding, daycare or training classes.
- FeLV (Feline Leukemia): recommended for cats with outdoor or shared-household exposure.
- Deworming: monthly through the puppy/kitten stage, then every 3 to 6 months for life.
- Sterilisation: spay or neuter date and any post-op follow-up.
- Microchipping: date of implantation and the chip number itself, so you've got the lookup details on hand if your pet is ever lost.
- Vet Checkup: routine annual exams or specific clinic visits.
- Custom Event: anything else you want on the timeline. Set your own label.
For the full SA-specific schedule of when these vaccines are typically given, see our Vaccination Schedule guide.
Where to Find It
The calendar lives inside your authenticated dashboard, alongside the rest of your pet management tools. There are three quick paths in:
- Direct link: log in, then head to "My Pets » Health Calendar" from your dashboard.
- From any individual pet profile: on a pet you own, the "Health Calendar" tab takes you straight to the events filtered for that pet only.
- From the dashboard sidebar: the My Pets section has a Health Calendar link that includes overdue counts at a glance.
You need a PetGuru account and at least one registered pet for the calendar to be useful. Signup is free and takes about a minute.
How to Use It
1. Adding an Event
Click "Add Event" on the calendar page. A form lets you pick:
- Which pet the event is for (drop-down of all your registered pets).
- Event type: one of the nine fixed types above, or "Custom" with your own label.
- Due date: when the next dose / appointment / follow-up is scheduled.
- Vet (optional): pick from your saved vets or any vet in the PetGuru directory. Helpful for keeping a per-vet history, especially if your pet sees a specialist alongside a regular practice.
- Notes: freeform field for batch numbers, dosage details, side effects you want to remember next time.
- Receipt or certificate (optional): upload the vaccine certificate, invoice, or after-care document. Lives on the event so you can pull it up at any future vet visit, boarding sign-up, or sterilisation deposit refund.
2. Marking an Event Complete
When the appointment happens, click "Mark Complete" on the event. The calendar automatically reorders your timeline: the completed event slides into your history, and the next due event for that vaccine type becomes your top-priority reminder.
3. Filtering & Finding Things
Two filter chips at the top of the calendar:
- Filter by pet: useful if you've got a multi-pet household and only need to see one animal's schedule (e.g. just the new puppy's vaccine series).
- Filter by event type: e.g. show only deworming events to plan the next round, or only vet checkups to see the year's pattern.
The calendar always sorts overdue first, then by upcoming due date. If anything is past its due date and not marked complete, you'll see it at the top in the overdue colour scheme so it can't be missed.
Why It Matters
Reminders Travel With Your Pet
If you ever sell, rehome or surrender your pet, the health-event history can be exported as a PDF "Pet Health Card" to hand to the new owner or shelter. They start their version of the calendar with the full backstory: no gaps, no forgotten boosters, no expensive duplicate vaccinations because the previous record was on someone's old phone.
Vet Visits Are Cheaper When You Come Prepared
SA vet consultation fees average R450 to R750 per visit. Showing up with a complete history means the vet doesn't have to re-do bloodwork "just to be sure", doesn't have to redo a deworming because there's no record of the last one, and doesn't have to call the previous practice to verify a vaccine. You save a consult fee or two a year, often more.
Linked to the Microchip Lookup
If you record your pet's microchip event in the calendar with the chip number, it can be matched against our Found-a-Pet lookup tool. When someone finds your pet and submits the chip number, you're notified instantly with their contact details. The calendar entry doubles as the registration record.
Sterilisation & Listing Health Badges
If your pet ends up listed for adoption or rehoming on PetGuru, the sterilised / vaccinated / microchipped / dewormed flags on the listing card are pre-populated from your calendar. Buyers see green health pills at a glance, which materially improves listing conversion compared with no health info.
Privacy & Data
Your pet's health events are private to you and visible only inside your dashboard. They're not shown on the public pet profile, the social feed, or any listings unless you elect to publish a specific record (e.g. attaching a vaccine certificate to a listing). Uploaded documents are stored on the platform's secure local disk, not the public CDN, so they never get served to anyone outside your account.
See our Privacy Policy for the full rundown on what we store and how, and our POPIA Notice for your rights under South African data-protection law.
Quick Tips From Our Vet Network
- Set the next due date the moment you mark one complete. The vaccine the vet just gave will need a booster, so ask before you leave the practice and add it to the calendar before you forget.
- Photo the vaccine card the moment you get it. Upload it to the event so you never lose the batch number. SA vets occasionally need to verify which exact product was used (especially after a shortage); a clear photo saves an entire appointment.
- Don't lump deworming into one event for multi-pet households. One event per pet means you can stagger if needed (large-breed dewormers are weight-dependent and sometimes you'll redose the heavier dog a week earlier).
- Use the Custom type for breed-specific screens. Hip dysplasia checks for large-breed dogs, eye exams for Persians, dental cleans for small breeds. The standard types don't cover everything a responsible owner schedules.
Questions or feature requests? We actively iterate the calendar based on owner feedback. Let us know what would help you most.
