Accessing veterinary records?

[starryeyed]

We've been having some ongoing medical issues with one of our horses who is currently under investigation from our vet but whatever is causing problems isn't anything obvious or simple. What would be really useful would be access to her past veterinary records, to see if there was anything at all there which could point us in the right direction - we did get her fully vetted and she passed with flying colours, but she was purchased from a dealer who would obviously not know her whole veterinary history.

But (possibly stupid question so please forgive me!) - do the records belong to the horse in the same way that a passport does (therefore we would show proof of ownership to her old vets and ask to see medical notes?), or to her previous owners? (in which case I imagine client confidentiality would put a stop to any of this!) - I'm assuming it would be the latter..

I've found out her old veterinary practise from looking through her passport but I'm not sure whether it would be worth contacting them or not.

Thanks in advance x

 

[Dottie]

Hi, you would need permission from the previous owner to obtain your horses clinical history when she was under there care. You could try contacting her old vets and they may ring your horses old owner to try and get permission for her history to be released. Good luck.

 

[chorro]

I run a kennels and when have to speak to a vet about an animal we often need the owners permission.
Apparently it is to do with data protection

 

[twiggy2]

O at time that any history was recorded has to contact vet and give permission to release notes, they belong to the person who paid for them but are held by the vets.

 

[starryeyed]

Thank you all - thought that would probably be the case!