How to Get Your Pet's Records When a Vet Clinic Has Closed
Clinics close. Vets retire. Corporate groups acquire and consolidate practices. Patient portals get migrated to new systems, or simply go offline. In each of these situations, pet owners can find themselves without access to years of medical records that they assumed would always be there.
If you are in that situation, there are steps you can take. If you are not yet in it, the steps at the end of this article are worth doing now, before access disappears.
When a vet retires
A retiring vet is required to make arrangements for their records. In most US states, veterinary records must be retained for a minimum of three to five years after the last visit, and the vet is responsible for notifying clients and arranging access. The retiring vet may:
- Transfer their practice to another vet or group, in which case records transfer with it
- Arrange with another local clinic to hold records for a period
- Use a records storage service
- Hold records themselves for the required retention period
If you received a retirement notice, it should have included information about how to request your records. If you did not receive notice and the vet is no longer practicing, contact your state veterinary board. They maintain licensing records and can sometimes provide contact information or advise on where records were transferred.
When a clinic closes unexpectedly
Unexpected closures are more complicated. Records obligations still apply but enforcement is harder. Your first steps are:
- Search for a forwarding notice. Some clinics post notices on their website or social media even after closing.
- Contact the building owner or landlord. If the clinic was a commercial tenant, the property owner may have information about where the operators went.
- Check if the clinic was part of a larger group. Corporate veterinary groups typically consolidate records; the parent company may be reachable even if the local branch is not.
- Contact your state veterinary medical board. Every US state has one. They can advise on what obligations a closing clinic has and may be able to help locate records.
State veterinary board contacts: The American Veterinary Medical Association maintains a directory of state veterinary medical and licensing boards. This is the right starting point if a clinic has closed and you cannot locate records through the clinic itself.
When the patient portal disappears
Clinics that offer online patient portals typically use third-party software. When that software is changed, the clinic migrates to a new system, or ownership changes, the old portal may simply stop working. Records stored only in that portal can become inaccessible.
If your clinic's portal has gone offline but the clinic is still operating, call them. The underlying records still exist in their system; the portal is just the access point. They can generate a PDF or printed copy of your pet's records on request.
If the clinic itself has closed and the portal is gone, you are in a harder situation. Follow the same steps as for an unexpected closure above.
When the practice management software changes
Clinics sometimes switch practice management software between different providers. During these transitions, records are typically migrated, but the process is imperfect. If you go to request records and the clinic says they cannot locate your pet's history predating a certain date, ask whether they changed software systems. Some clinics do not fully migrate historical records, leaving older data stranded in a system they no longer use.
If records from a specific period are missing, ask whether the old system's data was archived and whether a specialist can retrieve it. This sometimes requires a formal request and a waiting period, but it is worth pursuing if the missing period covers significant treatment history.
Reconstructing a history when records are gone
If records are genuinely unrecoverable, you can piece together a partial history from other sources:
| Source | What it may contain |
|---|---|
| Your own notes and photos | Dates of visits, medications, anything you wrote down at the time |
| Pharmacy records | Prescription history including drug names, doses, prescribing vet, and dates |
| Pet insurance claims | Diagnosis codes, treatment dates, and amounts paid — useful for reconstructing a condition timeline |
| Vaccination certificates | Paper rabies certificates are often issued separately and may survive when other records do not |
| Other clinics | If your pet was seen by an emergency clinic, specialist, or boarding vet, those facilities have their own records |
| Microchip registries | May have contact information from previous owners or registration dates |
Preventing this situation going forward
The most reliable protection against losing access to records is to maintain your own copy, independent of any clinic's system. After every vet visit, ask for a printed or emailed copy of the visit summary before you leave. Store digital copies somewhere you control, not just in a clinic's portal.
A pet health app that lets you scan and store documents means your records exist in a place that does not close, does not migrate to new software, and does not retire.
Keep your records where you control them
Scan vet reports, log visits, and store vaccination history in Pett. Your records stay with you regardless of where your pet receives care.