Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello-

I am just curious if there are any shelters out there that send medical records directly to the adopted animal's vet after adoption? I feel like we should trust the adopter to get their records to their vet on their own... but I'm curious to see what you all think!

Thanks!

Amy

Our adopters get a copy of all the vet records that we have in their adoption folder so they can take them to their new vet.

This is Patti @Catmandu.  We give everything we have on any individual kitten/cat.   From time to time we'll get a call from a vet clinic asking for records which means the adopter has lost or misplaced the health records and/or vet records.

This is a topic that has come up at our rescue. We do give the medical records to adopters to bring to their vet, however, following the standard practice the records would be sent directly to their vet. The complications I see are: adopter may not have a vet yet, this animal or the person is new to the vet and records will not get filed correctly, and the time to locate the vet's fax number and have adoption counselors send the fax would slow down the adoption process. For now we are continuing to send adopters home with their animal's medical records.

We give the records to the adopter. New adopters often don't have a vet when they come to us.

As someone who works in a vet office I know there are several problems with sending adoption records without request. Some were mentioned already. I would add, some clients don't have  a file at the vet yet. Some pets get a new name. Someone might change their mind and go to a different vet. I spend a good amount of time trying to find a "home" for unknown pet records, and we are all digital with good search options. Overall, I would recommend: give the adopter a hard copy, and be prepared to fax or email records upon request if needed.

As a cat rescuer, whenever I bring a cat to our shelter, I make an effort to find out as much as possible, so that the shelter gets medical history. Recently I was asked several times to catch cats left behind after their owner passed. With a bit of investigating and questioning relatives, I was able to find out which vet they were seeing, and provided the shelter with medical records. (I also let the clinics know of the passing, so they can inactivate the client).

We give records directly to the adopter, but we also have had occasions where a new adopter's vet will request records from us because the adopter didn't provide them. The best idea is to send out a communication to all of the area clinics/vets and let them know you are willing to provide them records directly if an adopter utilizes them as their veterinarian. In most cases this covers issues already raised and is very customer service positive.

We also give copies of vet records to the adopter so they have them as well as having their vet make copies.  I always tell adopters that if their vet wants more info from our vet, we can facilitate that.