A year into tracking Arya’s medications every day, I felt like I had things under control. The app was doing its job. I had not missed a dose in months. The refill alerts were saving me from last-minute pharmacy runs. The whole daily medication thing was solved.

Then I got a call from the vet.

“Arya is due for her annual vaccine. It has actually been over a year.”

I had no idea. I had been so focused on the daily pill routine that her care calendar had completely slipped. When was the last deworming? Was her booster up to date? I had no answer for any of it. Some things were in my phone’s calendar app, some were in old WhatsApp messages with the vet, and the rest lived in my memory, which turned out to be the least reliable storage option of the three.

That is when I built a calendar into Arya.

Medications and care events are different problems

A medication reminder is about today. Did she get her pill this morning? When is the next dose? How many are left in the bottle?

A care calendar is about the bigger picture. When did she last get dewormed? Is she due for a vaccine? Did I schedule her grooming this month?

These feel similar but they require completely different tracking logic. Medications are high-frequency and repeating. You deal with them every day. Care events are lower frequency but higher stakes. Missing a vaccine or going too long between vet checkups has real consequences that do not show up right away. By the time you notice, you are already behind.

Solving one does not solve the other. I had daily meds handled. The rest was a mess.

What the calendar actually does

The Calendar tab in Arya shows a monthly view. Days with scheduled events get a colored dot so you can see at a glance where things are coming up. You tap a date and see the full list for that day.

Events cover most of the things that actually come up with a dog: vaccines, deworming, baths, vet appointments, and a catch-all category for anything else. You pick the pet, pick the type, set the date and time, and it is done.

The part that makes it genuinely useful is recurring events. Annual vaccines, monthly flea treatments, every-six-months deworming, weekly baths. Set it once and the app handles the scheduling from there. When Arya completes an event, the next occurrence is generated automatically. I do not have to remember to reschedule it. I do not have to set a new entry every time.

The notification side of things

A calendar is only as useful as how well it actually reminds you. The app sends a notification one hour before each event by default, which covers most situations.

For things that need more lead time, there is an advance reminder option. You can set a second alert for one day, two days, three days, one week, two weeks, or a month before the event. Annual vaccines especially benefit from this. A reminder a month out gives you time to schedule the vet appointment. A reminder the day before makes sure you actually show up.

I have Arya’s annual distemper booster set with a two-week advance reminder and a same-day reminder. I have not missed it since I set it up.

Everything together on the Today screen

The piece I use most in practice is the Today screen. It shows the day’s pending medication doses alongside any care events that are due. Doses and events, both visible in one place without switching between tabs.

If Arya has her pill at 8 AM and a grooming appointment at 11 AM, both are visible right there. Completing an event is one tap. Recurring ones reschedule themselves automatically.

This is the part that actually makes the app feel like it covers the full picture of her care rather than just one slice of it.

A note on how the subscription works

One thing worth mentioning if you have been using the app for a while: the annual subscription is gone. The app moved to a one-time lifetime purchase. You pay once and that is it. No renewal reminders, no billing cycles, just access to everything including unlimited scheduled care events.

If recurring billing was the reason you stayed on the free tier, that reason no longer exists.

The honest version

I built the calendar feature because I needed it. Tracking Arya’s medications was solved. Tracking everything else was not. Having both in one place, with notifications that actually fire when they are supposed to, is what made managing her health feel manageable instead of just less chaotic.

If your dog is on any kind of regular medication and you are not also tracking their care events, the gap is probably bigger than you think.

You can download Arya on iOS and Android. The calendar feature is included in the free tier for a limited number of future events, and the lifetime upgrade unlocks unlimited scheduling. 🐾