- Your regular vet's number, saved, not searched for. Under contacts, not buried in old messages or a browser history.
- Your nearest emergency or out-of-hours vet, if different. Most regular practices close overnight, know where you'd actually go before you need to.
- Every current medication and dose. A vet treating your pet in an emergency needs this immediately, guessing wastes time that matters.
- Your pet's normal baseline. Knowing their usual resting breathing rate or weight lets you and a vet spot a real deviation immediately instead of guessing whether something's actually changed.
- Any known allergies or reactions. Especially to medications, since this can change what's safe to give in an emergency.
- A way to get there. Know in advance how you'd actually get to the emergency vet at 2am, a taxi number, a neighbour, whatever it is, decided before you're panicking.
Worth doing today: none of this takes long to put together, but all of it takes too long to find for the first time in the middle of an actual emergency.
Why "instantly" is the actual bar
The test isn't whether this information exists somewhere, it's whether you could recite or find every one of these in under thirty seconds, at 2am, while stressed. If the honest answer is no, it's worth fixing now rather than the next time something happens.
This guide is for information only and isn't veterinary advice. If you're ever facing a real emergency, contact your vet or emergency vet directly rather than relying on any checklist.
How we keep it ready
Halo keeps vet contacts, current medications, and vitals history together in one place, the same information that makes up the Carer's Pack for a sitter also answers exactly this list, ready the moment it's actually needed.