we are moving across the country in three weeks and our eleven year old dog has a complex medical history across two chronic conditions and a previous surgery and i am trying to figure out the right way to set up the relationship with a new primary care vet so they actually engage with the existing record rather than effectively starting from scratch on a senior dog who does not have time for that

Some context on the dog and the situation so the question lands with the right detail. Hazel is an eleven year old spayed female lab mix, about forty seven pounds, who has been with us since she was eight weeks old and has been managed across the same primary care vet practice for her entire life. She has two chronic conditions her current vet has been managing for several years, the first is well controlled hypothyroidism diagnosed at age seven that has been stable on a consistent dose of levothyroxine across the last four years with predictable six month T4 monitoring, and the second is early stage chronic kidney disease diagnosed at age nine that has been stable at IRIS stage two across the last two years with a renal support diet, monitored hydration, and quarterly bloodwork that has stayed flat. She also had a TPLO surgery on her right hind leg at age six that went well, she has a small amount of post surgical arthritis in that knee that we manage with a daily joint supplement and seasonal NSAID support when the weather shifts. So the picture is a senior dog with a real medical history that has been managed thoughtfully but is not exactly low complexity, and the management has worked because the vet she has been with for her whole life has the full context and can adjust the plan as her numbers shift.

We are relocating from the southeast to the pacific northwest at the end of the month for my partners new job, the move is happening, that part is locked in. We have her current records in hand, the practice has been generous about giving us the full chart not just the summary, we have the original surgical report from the TPLO, the year over year thyroid panels, the quarterly bloodwork going back two years on the kidney monitoring, the diet history, the supplement history, and the notes from every visit going back to puppyhood. So the record itself is in good shape and not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is what i have seen happen to friends families when they have moved with a senior dog with a complex history, which is that the new primary care vet either does not engage with the chart at all and effectively restarts the workup, or engages with the chart at a surface level and does not understand the longitudinal trajectory the prior vet was managing toward, and the dog ends up worse off because the continuity is broken at exactly the moment her age means continuity matters most.

What the published material on transferring vet care says and what it does not address. The published guidance on moving with a pet is mostly about logistics, finding a vet before the move, getting records sent over, scheduling the first intake within a few weeks of arrival. That guidance is fine for a healthy young dog who has had two annual visits and a couple of vaccinations and where the new vet basically starts the relationship from a clean slate without losing anything. What it does not address is the case where the dog has years of careful management behind her and where the new vet needs to engage with that management as a continuation rather than as a starting condition, because the alternative is that the new vet treats the existing diagnoses as something to confirm with their own workup rather than as established findings to build on, and the consequence is that the dog goes through redundant diagnostics in her first month at the new practice that are not adding any clinical value and that are physically and financially costly at her age.

The specific questions i would like the thread to address. one, the practice selection question, for those of you who have moved with a senior dog with a complex history, what did you actually look for in a new primary care vet that turned out to be the right signal and what looked good on the surface but turned out not to matter. two, the intake structure question, did you do a long form initial consult where you walked the new vet through the chart and the management approach before the dog was even examined, or did you do a standard intake and let the new vet build their own picture from the bloodwork, and which approach produced the better continuity in the first year. three, the specialist relationship question, the current practice has her under their own primary care for the kidney monitoring rather than referring out to an internal medicine specialist because the numbers have been stable, and i want to know whether the move is the right time to add a specialist relationship for the kidney piece specifically given the higher complexity of senior care, or whether keeping it under primary care with the right vet is still the right call. four, the timing question, the move is in three weeks and her next quarterly bloodwork is due in six weeks, and i am trying to decide whether to do that bloodwork at the current practice before we leave so the baseline is fresh going in, or whether to use the bloodwork as the first real diagnostic touchpoint at the new practice so they have ownership of the result from the start. happy to share more detail on her current numbers or the management plan and to answer questions about the conditions, looking for the specific advice from families and vets who have walked through the senior dog move and what actually made the new relationship work