Service Reminders: Vaccines, Dewormings and Grooming

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The list builds itself: Every time you record a vaccination, a deworming or a grooming service and fill in the next date, that record shows up in your reminders automatically. There is no second list for anyone to maintain.

How to access reminders

Module Navigation

Reminders live on the Home screen, inside the Clients tab. Scroll to the Service reminders section. It is not a separate screen — it sits where you already land every day.

Which services create a reminder

Three recurring services feed the list. Each one carries a field for the next date on its own form:

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Vaccination

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Deworming

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Grooming & spa

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No next date, no reminder. The field is optional on purpose: if the vet decides no follow-up is due, the system does not invent one. Filling in that date is the single step your team needs to turn into a habit.

How the list keeps itself current

A reminder belongs to a pet and product pair, and only the most recent record for that pair stays live.

So when you administer the same vaccine to the same pet again, the previous reminder retires automatically and the new one takes its place with the following date. Nobody has to cross off rows or clean the list.

Two more rules worth knowing:

Only active pets appear. Deactivate a patient and its reminders stop showing.
Each product runs its own cycle. A pet with three different vaccines can hold three independent reminders, each with its own date.

How to read the list

Each row summarises one pending follow-up:

Column	What it shows
Pet	The pet name and its owner. Clicking it takes you straight to the patient profile.
Type	Vaccination, Deworming or Grooming & spa, each with its own colour and icon.
Due	The suggested date and how urgent it is: Overdue by 12 days, Due today, Due tomorrow or In 8 days. Overdue rows carry a warning.
Contact	The owner email and phone, both clickable to write or call on the spot. With neither on file it reads No contact.
Status	Pending or Sent, depending on whether you already logged the contact.

Search filters by pet, owner, email or phone, and the list sorts and pages like every other table in the system.

The three actions on every row

Action	What it does
Book appointment 📅	Turns the reminder into a 30-minute slot on your calendar without leaving the screen. This is the action that actually closes the follow-up.
Send email ✉️	Emails the reminder to the owner and marks the row as sent. It only appears when the client has an email on file.
Mark as sent ✅	Records that you reached the owner some other way: phone, WhatsApp or over the counter. It can be undone if you tapped it by mistake.

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Vetzilla never sends anything on its own. There are no scheduled or automatic sends: you decide who to contact and when. The system keeps the list live and ranked by urgency; the decision to reach out always stays with your team.

What the reminder email contains

The email is short and to the point. It greets the owner by name, states which service their pet is due for, and shows a detail box with three fields: pet, service and suggested date. It closes by inviting the owner to get in touch with you.

Where your clinic name and phone come from

Configuration → General configuration

The clinic details that appear in the email are not typed on each send: they are pulled from your configuration. Check them once and they stay right from then on.

Field	Where it appears in the email
Name	In the header, under the title, and again in the footer. It is what identifies the email as yours.
Phone	In the closing line, so the owner knows where to call to book. Leave it empty and that line goes out without a number.
Reminders email	It is not displayed, but it is where owner replies land. When a client replies to the reminder, their message reaches that address.

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Check the reminders email before you send the first one. It is the inbox that will receive your clients replies. If it points somewhere nobody reads, you will lose exactly the appointment confirmations you were after.

The language of the email also comes from your configuration: it goes out in the branch language.

Frequently asked questions

I recorded a vaccine and no reminder appeared

Almost always the next date field was left empty. Open the vaccination record, fill in the following date and save: the reminder shows up immediately. Also check that the pet is active.

Can I send reminders over WhatsApp from Vetzilla?

Sending from inside the system is by email. For WhatsApp or a phone call, use the contact shown on the row — it is clickable — then mark the reminder as sent so it stays on the record all the same.

I marked one as sent by mistake

Press the button again and the reminder returns to Pending. Nothing is lost.

Does the old reminder stay there forever?

No. As soon as you record that same service for that same pet again, the previous one retires on its own and the new one takes its place with the following date.