Health

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Health brings together the health follow-up of the aviary. From this section you can see which birds are in treatment, which treatments are scheduled or pending review and the full health history of each specimen.

Health is a module under Settings → Modules and is on by default. If you turn it off, its screen, its side menu entry, the Health section of the records and its items in the calendar disappear, and its alerts stop, but nothing is deleted: when you turn it back on, everything is still there. Feeding lives inside Health.

Health

Overview

The Health screen is organised into three tabs, or four with the Feeding module:

My Birds: shows all the birds with their health status: in treatment, treatment scheduled, with history or no records.
Treatments: groups active, scheduled, finished treatments and those that need review.
Feeding: feeding and supplement plans and what is due today. See Feeding.
History: shows a timeline with the existing health records.

From any card you can open the bird's record to view or edit the detail. On the My Birds tab you can also export a specimen's health history as a PDF.

Treatments and events can be edited or deleted if you need to correct a date, complete notes or remove an entry created by mistake. When you modify a treatment, the app re-syncs its alerts and its presence on the calendar.

Creating from Health

You don't need to open a bird's record first to register health information.

From the global Health screen you can create:

a treatment;
a health event.

When creating the record, choose whether you want to apply it to:

a specific bird;
a whole cage;
the entire aviary.

The main flow is Create treatment. Everything added in this form is kept as one treatment, even when it contains several schedules. When editing it later, you can add, change or remove any schedule.

Each schedule has its own product, dose, duration and notes. If there is more than one, choose how they run:

At the same time: all schedules start on the initial date.
One after another: the next schedule starts when the previous one ends. This is ideal for staged treatments, quarantine routines or pre-breeding preparations (e.g. 2 days of medication, 5 rest days, 2 days of medication). To record rest or break periods, simply add a schedule with "Rest" (or clean water, vitamin B complex, etc.) in the product field and specify the duration in days.

If you pick a cage or the whole aviary, you can indicate whether the routine applies to All, only Males or only Females. This is useful for vitamins, deworming, vaccinations or check-ups of a whole group.

Under Repeat, choose Do not repeat for a single cycle. If you choose Repeat, define when each new cycle starts in one of two ways:

By interval: number and unit, for example every 15 days, every 1 month or every 1 year.
By weekday of the month: for example “the first Saturday of every month” (or the second, third, fourth or last, with whichever weekday you prefer). Very handy for weekend health routines.

The app creates one calendar event and alert for every day of every schedule. The first day is labelled Start and subsequent days Day N of M, for both simultaneous and sequential schedules.

Health inside a bird's record

Each bird's record keeps its own Health block. There you can add new treatments, edit existing ones, mark them as finished or delete them if you registered them by mistake.

You can also add one-off health events to record check-ups, diagnoses, vaccinations, deworming, weight checks or observations. These events do not generate daily calendar alerts: they work as the bird's health history.

Health events accept attachments, for example photos, lab results, vet reports or receipts.

If you edit or delete an event with attachments, the app keeps the documents that are still associated and cleans up those you have removed.

The global Health screen acts as the aviary control panel, while the bird's record keeps the individual detail.

Adding a health event

On the global Health screen, tap + and choose Create health event; inside the Health block of a record, tap Event. Fill in the data you want to keep:

Type: check-up, diagnosis, vaccination, deworming, weight/check or observation.
Event: short title to recognise it in the history.
Date: day it happened.
Next review: indicative date if it is worth looking at the case again.
Weight: weight in grams, useful for periodic checks.
Veterinarian: professional or centre associated with the record.
Notes: observations, results or instructions.

Events appear on the History tab of the global Health screen mixed with the treatments, sorted by date.

Exporting health history

On the My Birds tab of Health, use the PDF icon on a card to export that specimen's health history.

The PDF includes:

basic bird data;
recorded treatments;
health events;
dates, statuses, medication, dose, weight, vet, notes and associated attachments.

This document is handy to take to the vet, to print or to keep an external copy of the health follow-up.

Adding a treatment

Tap Create treatment on the global Health screen to schedule one or more routines for a bird, a cage or the whole aviary. Fill in the information you have:

Treatment: short name to identify it quickly.
Reason: why it is applied, for example diarrhoea, preventive check, wound or altered breathing.
Treatment schedules: product, dose, duration and notes for each phase. If the treatment alternates medication with rest days (e.g. 2 days of medication, 5 rest days, 2 days of medication), add a schedule for each stage and enter "Rest" as the product name during pause days.
How to apply the schedules: At the same time or One after another.
Administration route: water, paste, oral, topical, etc.
Start: day on which the first cycle begins.
Time: preferred time of day for notifications.
Notes: any extra indication.
Repeat: Do not repeat for a one-off treatment that finishes after its last day, or daily, weekly, monthly/yearly and by weekday of the month when it should recur cyclically.

Duration is set separately for each schedule. In sequential mode, the app chains dates automatically and calculates when each stage begins by adding previous durations. A one-off treatment no longer shows as “every X” because its summary explicitly says Do not repeat.

Inside a bird's Health block you can also create an individual clinical treatment with start and end dates. That form represents a continuous period and appears on every day in that range; it is separate from the scheduled multi-step treatment on the global screen.

Deduct the product from Inventory

If the Inventory module is enabled and you have a product with stock, the treatment form adds the Deduct from inventory drop-down. Choose the product you are going to use and enter the quantity you use, in the product's unit: when you save the treatment, the app automatically deducts it from the stock, starting with the batch closest to expiry.

It is a convenient way to keep your medicine cabinet true to reality without extra steps: you record the treatment and the stock is updated at the same time. For example, if you treat a cage with 5 ml of vitamins, those 5 ml disappear from the inventory in the same go.

If you do not want to deduct anything, leave Don't deduct selected. The deduction is offered when creating the treatment; editing it later does not change stock again.

Treatments on the calendar

Individual clinical treatments created from a bird's record appear on the Calendar every day from the start date to the end date, with a daily alert while they remain active.

Treatments scheduled from Health show every day in each schedule. The calendar, notification bell and Google Calendar use the same breakdown: Start on the first day and Day N of M afterwards. Do not repeat creates one cycle only; recurring treatments calculate the following cycles without creating duplicate treatments for future years.

When you tap the calendar event, a quick card opens with:

the affected bird;
the treatment name;
period and time;
status;
medication, dose, frequency and route if you have filled them in;
notes;
shortcut to the bird's record.

This lets you review what is due today without opening each bird.

Finishing or pausing a treatment

A finite treatment remains active throughout its last day and the app marks it Finished automatically the following day. This check runs when the app opens or resumes and when the date changes; it applies both to clinical treatments in a bird's record and to Health plans whose end can be calculated.

Use Finish when you need to close it early: today becomes its actual last day and future alerts are cancelled. If you stop it temporarily with Paused, it will not finish automatically after its date; it remains ready for review until you resume or close it. A recurring plan with no end date cannot finish automatically either.

From a treatment's full detail you can also edit or delete it if you need to correct anything.

Practical tip

Use short and clear titles, for example:

Respiratory antibiotic
Post-breeding vitamins
Foot care
Vet check-up

Then leave the detail in medication, dose, frequency and notes. That way the calendar stays easy to read.

Feeding

With the Feeding module on, Health gains the Feeding tab, for the aviary's feeding and supplement plans: seed mixes, egg food, sprouted seeds, fruit, pellets, vitamins… The app does not give diets or doses: you write everything yourself. Medications stay in Treatments.

Turning on the module

Feeding lives inside Health and is on by default: with Health on, you already have the tab. To turn it off or back on:

Go to Settings → Modules.
Right below Health, turn Feeding on or off.
Open Health and go to the Feeding tab.

With Health off, Feeding cannot be turned on, and turning Health back on also turns on Feeding. When you turn it on, if Inventory is off, the app offers to turn it on too, just once (see The pantry). Turning the module off cancels its reminders and deletes nothing: the row in Settings says how many plans you have saved.

Creating a plan

In the Plans section of the tab, tap New plan (or the + in the bar, which on this tab creates a plan) and choose what to start with: a type (Seed mix, Egg food, Sprouted seeds, Fruit and vegetables, Pellets, Supplement or Minerals) or Blank. Templates only set the type and a suggestion for how it is given, with no ingredients or amounts, and the note “For guidance only; check with your vet.”

A plan has:

Name and Type, in free text. The name is what you will see on each bird's record, for example Moult mix.
What's in it: with Add ingredient, each ingredient with its amount and unit (%, parts, g, kg, ml, l, spoonfuls, drops or units) and a note (“a handful”). With percentages, the app shows the total (“Total 95 %”) without stopping you from saving.
Ration and How it is given (in the feeder, in the drinker, in the egg food, separately…), also in free text.
One or more Who and when blocks, and some notes.

As you type the name, the type or an ingredient, the app offers what you already wrote in other plans. The Preview says who the plan reaches today (“Today: 34 birds in 12 cages”). You can also start a plan from a bird's, a cage's or a pair's record, with Plan for this bird, Plan for this cage or Plan for this pair: it starts already aimed at it.

Each plan's menu lets you Edit, Duplicate (handy for another season's mix), Pause, Archive and Delete, with Undo. If the plan already has history, the app suggests Archive instead: deleting it means the birds' records stop showing what they ate with it.

Who and when

Each block says who the plan goes to and when, and a plan can have several: the same egg food can go to the hens in pre-breeding and to the pairs with chicks in breeding without copying what it contains.

Under Who, Add group offers these groups, which add up:

Whole aviary: all the birds and the chicks in the nest.
Cages: whatever is in each one, including the pairs and chicks that live there.
Pairs: all active ones, only those laying, incubating or with chicks, or specific ones. With Include the chicks they raise, also the chicks they raise, whether their own or as fosters.
Chicks by age: in the nest or already registered, by their days of life. Enter From day and, if you like, Up to day (optional). Hatching day is day 0, and without “up to” the plan reaches them until the season they were born in ends. If that season has a chosen year and is still open, this carries on past 1 January.
Specific birds.

Chicks in an incubator get nothing, and those raised by a foster eat in its cage. A chick counts as a nest chick for its first 90 days: if after that it is still in the clutch without a record, it stops receiving plans and its pair is no longer With chicks. With Only… you filter by Species, Sex and Lipochrome (colour canary), and the filters combine with the groups. An unsexed bird, like the chicks, only gets in with sex set to All.

Under When you choose Always, In some phases of the aviary, Every year (from one day to another, even across the new year) or Between dates. The Frequency can be Every day, Some weekdays, Every N days or N days on, M off, and with First days only (optional) the plan is only given at the start of each period, like an initial course.

Under Reminders you decide what the daily alert says about that block: Remind when it starts (on by default), Remind when it ends, Remind on the days it is due (for anything not daily) and, some Days before, an Advance reminder with your own text, such as “Start sprouting”.

Aviary phases

Plans set In some phases follow your aviary's calendar: each phase —pre-breeding, breeding, moult and rest— starts on a day and month, lasts until the next one starts and repeats every year. At the top of the tab, Aviary phase says which phase you are in and when the next one starts; tapping it opens the calendar. Until you set it up, the card says Set your aviary's phases and phase plans are not given.

The first time you can start from the Northern hemisphere template, the Southern hemisphere template (the app suggests the one for your country) or By hand. With the Light plan in Artificial mode you can also Use the Light plan dates: they are copied only once, so if you later change the light plan the calendar does not follow it, although it warns you if today's two phases do not match. A phase you don't use stays Not used.

Due today and the round

Due today gathers what is given today. At the top come the new things: what starts, chicks reaching an age, what is due on a single day, what needs preparing and the phase change. Below, two views:

By plan: plans with something new first and, folded, the everyday ones.
By cage: the round, space by space and cage by cage, saying who it is for when it is not for everyone (“the female”, “3 chicks · 5–9 days”) and No cage at the end. Only what's new leaves only what changes today.

If a bird gets two plans of the same type at once, for example two seed mixes, Due today warns you without blocking anything. Below, Tomorrow previews the next day's news.

Tapping a plan opens What's in it: the ingredients (with the stock and expiry of Inventory items), the ration, how it is given, who and when, Why it gets it if you open it from a record or from the round (“Because it's in cage C05”) and Upcoming reminders. From there you can edit or export it.

On records and on Home

Bird: in Bird Details, the Feeding row shows its plans for today and opens its sheet, with what it eats Now and its History. See Your birds.
Cage: Today in this cage. Since the cage QR opens its record, doing the round with your phone is just scan and look. See Cages and spaces.
Clutch: Chick feeding, the only place where you see what a chick that is not ringed yet eats.
Pair: the plans due for them today, next to its cage.
Home: the Due today tile, with how many plans are due today and, separately, the day's news.

The daily alert

Feeding sends a single alert a day, and only on days with news, at the Reminder time in Settings → Notifications; everyday items do not alert, because they would come up every day. It says, for example, “Moult mix starts”, “7-day-old chicks: Egg food with pigments” or “In 2 days: Start sprouting”, and tapping it opens Due today. The same days appear in the Calendar and in the Home bell.

The app schedules the next alerts every time you open it: on Android, up to 31 days with news; on iPhone, up to ten, because the system limits pending alerts. If they run out before you open it again, the last one asks you to. Due today is always up to date.

The pantry

The pantry is the Inventory. Each ingredient in What's in it can be linked to an item: with Choose from inventory you pick one you already added or, if it does not exist yet, create it from the same sheet with the name already filled in. Nothing is bought and no expense is recorded from Feeding: choosing or creating an item does not touch Income & Expenses, and purchases are still logged in Inventory. Nothing is deducted by itself either: record what you use with Use on the item.

With a linked item, What's in it shows its stock and expiry, and warns you if a batch expires before the period ends. The tab's Pantry card gathers the items in your plans that expire soon or are low on stock. Without Inventory, everything is written by hand, and Turn on Inventory switches it on with one tap.

Export

With Export (the share icon) you get your plans as PDF, CSV or HTML: from What's in it, the plan you are looking at, including an earlier version as it was; and from the Plans section, all of them except the archived ones. If any plan has earlier versions, you can tick Include previous versions. The PDF opens in the preview, where you can share, print or save it.

Plans and the phase calendar go into backups and into the aviary CSV/Excel package and, if you use the cloud, travel to your other devices.

Weighing

Weighing is a submodule of Health (since 6.4.3) to keep track of your birds' weight. Each weighing is a health event of type Weight/check with its grams: it also shows in the health history, goes into backups and travels through the cloud like any other event. It comes on with Health and can be turned off separately in Settings, under Modules; with Health off there is no weighing.

Where you weigh

In the bird's record, the Weight row shows the last weighing, when it was and how it compares with the previous one; tapping it opens the bird's weighings, with the chart of its progress, the metrics and the list. With no weighing yet, it offers to add the first.
When adding or editing a bird, the Weight (g) field: a new value creates a weighing dated today; the history is not rewritten.
When ringing a chick from the clutch, the Weight at ringing (g) field leaves its first weighing.
In the Weighing tab of Health, with Weighing session you weigh several birds in a row: tap each one, type the grams and Save and next moves on to the next bird not yet weighed.
When adding any health event with grams (a check-up, for example): those grams count as a weighing.

The chart and the metrics

A bird's weighings are drawn as a line over time, with a dot per weighing (red for those with an alert) and, if its species is in the reference table, a green band with the normal weight for the species. You can see the last three months, the last year or everything, and tap a dot to see its grams and date. Below: the current weight, the change since the previous one (in grams and as a percentage), the 30-day average, the minimum, the maximum and the trend over the last 90 days (stable, rising or falling, with grams per week).

Loss alerts

If a bird loses more than a given percentage since its previous weighing, the app marks it in red in the record and in the tab, and Home says how many birds have lost weight. The percentage is chosen in Settings, in the Weighing row (10 % by default; it can be turned off). A bird below the normal weight for its species also triggers an alert. Alerts are shown only in the app: there is no notification.

The Weighing tab

It sums up how many birds in the aviary have been weighed and how many have an alert, opens the Weighing session and lists the birds with their last weight, their change and a miniature line of their weighings; the ones with an alert first, biggest loss at the top. The chips filter by With alert and Not weighed, and the search box by ring or name. Tapping a bird opens its weighings; a bird not yet weighed, the new weighing.

Weights are shown and typed in grams or ounces, according to the Weight unit in Settings, under Modules; it is proposed from your profile's country and does not change with the language. Internally they are always stored in grams, so changing the unit touches no data.

Reference weights per species are indicative (26 common species). If a species has no reference, there is simply no band and no low-weight alert.