Do I really have to transcribe the whole booklet, or are the last few years enough?

For a working diary the last two or three years are enough, since they cover even the longest booster intervals. Do not throw out the older pages: photograph and attach them as a historical document so they stay readable without slowing down the entry. The one old fact worth transcribing is completion of the puppy or kitten primary course, because it changes how a lapse is caught up and no test can reconstruct it afterwards.

My old app will not let me export the data. What now?

It happens often, and it is one reason to favour tools that let you export whenever you like. If there is no export, open the main screens and take tidy screenshots of vaccines, treatments and results, then enter the entries that matter by hand from the images. It is slower, but once the core of the data is moved you will never have to go back into the old app.

How should I handle the import with several animals at home?

One animal at a time, start to finish, before moving to the next. Importing in parallel is the quickest route to giving one animal the other's treatment, especially when products look alike. Finish the first profile completely, confirm the reminders are linked to the right name, then open the second. Giving each animal a colour helps your eye keep the entries apart later on.

How often should I update the history after the initial import?

Day to day the history keeps itself current, because you log things as they happen, thirty seconds at a time. On top of that a review every six months is worth it to realign the diary with any new booklet pages and reports received in the meantime. The review takes about ten minutes and fits neatly with the change of season, when you are already revisiting parasite control and check ups.

Using Animiyo40 minLevel: BeginnerUpdated on August 19, 2026

Importing your pet's health history into Animiyo without losing anything

Move vaccines, medicines and lab results from a paper booklet, PDFs and an old app into one diary: what to gather, the order to enter it and how to check it.

Audience: Pet owners, Breeders
Species: Dog, Cat, All species
Scope: Valid everywhere, Italy, European Union

What you need before you start

Il libretto sanitario o il passaporto europeo dell'animale, anche se incompleto
L'accesso alla vecchia app o al gestionale da cui vuoi trasferire i dati, se esiste
Una cartella con le foto delle etichette dei vaccini e degli esami recenti
Trenta minuti tranquilli e la scheda dell'animale già creata nel diario

When you open a new health diary the animal's profile is empty, but its history already exists: it lives broken up across a booklet in a drawer, a few PDF results in your inbox, messages with the clinic and maybe an old app you no longer use. Importing that history does not mean copying everything blindly, it means deciding what deserves a place in the diary, the order to enter it, and how to flag whatever you only half remember. This guide lays out a three stage path, gather, enter and verify, meant to be done once in half an evening and to leave you with a diary you can genuinely rely on when it matters, rather than an archive full of data you are not sure you can trust.

Why a single history is worth the effort

A history split across several places is not just inconvenient, it is dangerous: at the moment you need it you open the wrong one, find an old date and make a decision on stale data. Pulling everything into one diary gives you a single source of truth that anyone caring for the animal reads the same way. The import work happens once, and after that the diary keeps itself current through everyday use.

What to gather before you start

The number one cause of a botched import is starting to type before the sources are in one place. Spend the first ten minutes only collecting material, entering nothing: it saves you from discovering halfway through that the very page with the vaccine dates is missing.

The booklet or passport, photographed page by page, including the vaccine stickers with brand, batch and expiry.
The most recent blood and urine results, as PDF or paper, with the date clearly legible.
The list of current medicines, with dose and frequency, plus recent ones now stopped.
Known allergies and adverse reactions, even merely suspected, because that is the fact that saves time in an emergency.
Surgeries and significant hospital stays, with at least an approximate date.
An export from the old app if you used one: look for export, backup or download my data in the settings.

Enter the data in the right order

Order matters because some entries depend on others: enter the profile and weight first, and every reminder is born already linked to the right animal at the right weight. Follow the sequence below and do not backtrack, since each step rests on the one before it.

Complete the profile and weight first
Check that name, species, breed, date of birth and microchip number are correct, then log today's weight with today's date. Many doses and growth curves start here, so a wrong weight at the outset spreads errors downstream.
Enter vaccines from the most recent backwards
For each entry record date, vaccine type, product and clinic. Start with the latest and work back: if time is short, the last two or three years already cover every interval you need to work out the next due dates.
Add current treatments and their reminders
Log every active medicine with dose, time and duration, and switch on the reminder for the next dose. Stopped treatments go into the history with an end date, so there is a record of what the animal has already had.
Attach lab results and reports
Link the result PDFs to the correct date and transcribe only the two or three values you track over time, such as the kidney markers. The full document stays available as an attachment without being retyped.
Record allergies, reactions and procedures
Put known allergies and adverse reactions in a clearly visible field, not buried in a free note. Add major procedures with the date, even approximate, and a line on how recovery went.
Review the due dates it generates
After entry the diary proposes the next dates: check each one against the booklet. Fix anything that does not add up straight away, before it becomes a reminder you later trust without a second thought.

Handling incomplete or uncertain data

No real history is complete, and that is fine: the problem is not the gap, it is a gap dressed up as certainty. A date you half remember belongs in the diary as exactly that, with a note, because whoever reads it after you, your vet included, needs to tell documented facts apart from memory.

How to treat information you do not have precisely, without either discarding it or passing it off as certain.
Situation	What to enter	How to flag it
You recall the month, not the day	The first day of that month	Note: date approximate to the month
Vaccine given but product unknown	The date and type, without the brand	Note: product to confirm with clinic
Test with no report but recalled result	Only the date and the result in words	Note: value not documented
Past treatment of uncertain length	Known start and estimated end	Note: end estimated, not confirmed
A figure appears twice and disagrees	The version from the more reliable source	Note: attach both and flag the doubt

Verify and maintain the history

The import ends with a check, not with the last entry typed. A ten minute reread catches duplicates, typos in dates and reminders that landed on the wrong animal when there is more than one at home. After that the history has to be kept alive, or within a year it drifts back out of line just like the booklet you started from.

Reread every date in chronological order: an event out of sequence is almost always a typo.
Hunt for duplicates, common when you import from both the booklet and the old app, and merge repeated entries.
Confirm each future reminder is linked to the right animal and the right product.
Check that allergies and reactions sit in the dedicated field, not lost in a free note.
Export a first backup right away, so you hold a copy of the freshly consolidated history.
Set a review every six months to realign the diary with new pages in the booklet.

Frequently asked questions

Do I really have to transcribe the whole booklet, or are the last few years enough?: For a working diary the last two or three years are enough, since they cover even the longest booster intervals. Do not throw out the older pages: photograph and attach them as a historical document so they stay readable without slowing down the entry. The one old fact worth transcribing is completion of the puppy or kitten primary course, because it changes how a lapse is caught up and no test can reconstruct it afterwards.
My old app will not let me export the data. What now?: It happens often, and it is one reason to favour tools that let you export whenever you like. If there is no export, open the main screens and take tidy screenshots of vaccines, treatments and results, then enter the entries that matter by hand from the images. It is slower, but once the core of the data is moved you will never have to go back into the old app.
How should I handle the import with several animals at home?: One animal at a time, start to finish, before moving to the next. Importing in parallel is the quickest route to giving one animal the other's treatment, especially when products look alike. Finish the first profile completely, confirm the reminders are linked to the right name, then open the second. Giving each animal a colour helps your eye keep the entries apart later on.
How often should I update the history after the initial import?: Day to day the history keeps itself current, because you log things as they happen, thirty seconds at a time. On top of that a review every six months is worth it to realign the diary with any new booklet pages and reports received in the meantime. The review takes about ten minutes and fits neatly with the change of season, when you are already revisiting parasite control and check ups.

What to do next

Gather every source first without typing anything, then enter in the order profile, vaccines, treatments, results and allergies, flagging as uncertain whatever you only half remember and never inventing a date. Close with a chronological reread to catch duplicates and errors, export a first backup, and set a review every six months to keep the diary aligned with the booklet.