Share or transfer pet records to a vet

VCA Animal Hospitals says most U.S. states and Canadian provinces require the owner’s permission before a clinic shares records, so ask your previous vet to send them before the appointment.¹ Invoices list the vaccines and medication your pet received, but not exam findings, test results, or what you discussed with the vet. Ask for the record itself. For a pet adopted from a shelter, VCA says the shelter will often provide the history from its care.

In Ontario, the College of Veterinarians of Ontario says a request can be made by phone, email, mail, or in person, and that a complete record should be transferred within two business days.² A clinic may charge a reasonable fee for the copy, but it must not hold the record back over unpaid fees. Elsewhere in Canada, check your provincial veterinary college. British Columbia’s college says a vet must give you a copy or a summary on request, and Québec’s Ordre des médecins vétérinaires says a vet must respond within 20 days.^{3, 4} Rules differ by state and province, so ask the clinic how it handles requests.

Ask the new clinic what it wants before you send a stack of files. For a referral, AAHA’s referral guidelines say the specialty clinic should tell you what to bring, including medication and supplements, so the label can confirm the dose.⁵ Ask the new clinic three things.

• Whether records should arrive before the appointment or come with you.
• Which upload, email, portal, fax, or paper the clinic accepts.
• Whether another clinic must send the official record itself.

Start with the reason for the visit, current medication, the recent changes, and the official documents that belong with them. A focused record is easier to read than every file you have ever saved. What belongs in the record is in What to include in a pet health record. The physical bag is the packing list.

A day or two before the visit, call the new clinic and ask whether the record has arrived and whether anything is missing, such as lab results or imaging reports. Cornell’s release form lists laboratory results and imaging reports as separate items from the entire record, so a partial copy is possible.⁶

Check the recipient before you send anything. Use a private link you can turn off, and turn it off when the visit is over. Cornell’s record-release form is one example.⁶ It names the recipient, what the release covers, when it expires, and how to revoke it, and says the hospital may charge for copies. Your clinic’s form may differ. Follow that form when the official record has to move from one clinic to another.