Colony Care- Record Keeping?

[marmoset]

I'm just curious to know what organization system others are using to track members of a colony. Right now I have a file folder with individual folders holding paperwork for the few cats I've had medical work done on. Tracking when my own cats need their shots is enough work (they have folders with the colony cat filebox as well) but the whole thing is getting messy because we have a lot of cats that look similar- or we only see them in the dark (so they look identical).

How do people track which cats need retrapping for rabies vacs or dental checks and how do you ensure you have the right cat?

I'm looking for ideas for an actual system- done on computer or using a book or files. I figure I could learn as I go but getting some input on what works from other people would save me some aggravation as I'm normally an everything out- disorganized person

 

[surya]

I'm not very organized either. You could email yourself every time you have something done at the vet with the relevant information and save all those emails in a folder. Then when you have free time, you could make an excel spread sheet, with a picture of each cat and their medical history with dates. I do keep a spreadsheet with pictures of all my colony cats. And I also have pictures of the one's that are in foster care and awaiting adoption at a shelter. Then I remove them as they get adopted.