had a really rough first visit at a new vet last week and i cant tell if the practice is bad or if i am being unfair, looking for help thinking through whether to switch or give it another chance

Background. Mosby is our 7yo cavalier king charles, we have had him since 9 weeks, he has been a patient at the same family practice his whole life. our previous vet retired in march and her practice was acquired by a larger group. we tried to stay because we knew the techs but the new lead vet did not feel right and after one visit we left to find somewhere else. our friend recommended a practice 15 minutes from us that she has used for 8 years, said the vets are great. i booked our first wellness exam there for last wednesday. it did not go well and im trying to figure out whether what i experienced was first visit growing pains or actual red flags about the practice.

What happened. We were 5 minutes early for a 2pm appointment. checked in, sat for 35 minutes before being called back. when we got into the room the tech took mosby vitals fine, friendly, no complaints there. then we waited another 25 minutes for the vet. when she came in she had clearly not read his chart, asked me twice what breed he was, asked if he had ever had any health issues (he has a known grade 2 heart murmur our previous vet had been monitoring for 3 years and it is in the records they were sent). when i mentioned the murmur she paused, said "let me listen," listened for maybe 15 seconds, said "i hear something, we should probably look into that." i told her again it had been monitored for 3 years and we had an echo last june. she said "oh okay good." she did the rest of the exam in about 4 minutes, recommended a dental cleaning quote i was not expecting, and we were out the door. total visit was over an hour, of which maybe 8 minutes was actually with the vet.

Where i am stuck. on one hand, every practice has bad days, the front desk seemed overwhelmed, maybe they had an emergency in the back, maybe she had a 5 minute window between cases and i caught her at a bad moment. our friend swears by them and her dog has had complicated stuff handled there beautifully. on the other hand, the not reading his chart thing really bothered me. his murmur is the kind of thing where if you do not know it is there you might escalate diagnostics that we did not need, and if you do not know it is there you might miss the actual signs of progression. it felt like she was meeting a brand new dog and i had to be the one to give her the history myself. i also did not love being out of the room within 8 minutes for a senior preventive exam.

What i actually need help with. how do you tell, from one visit, whether a practice is worth a second chance or whether you should cut bait now. what specifically would you look for on a second visit if i give them one. and if you have switched vets and known immediately, what was the moment you knew. i can keep looking but i am tired and mosby needs his vaccines updated and a dental scheduled within the next two months. cavaliers do not get years of "shopping for the right vet" time given their health profile and i would rather make this decision once