Changing practices is the one moment when a vaccination record either moves as a complete, checked document or quietly loses pieces along the way. Your job is records only: rebuild her record so every entry can be trusted, hand it to the new practice, and leave every decision about timing and boosters to the vet who will now care for her.
Rebuild the Record From Her Certificates
Work from her certificates, not from memory and not from an old summary. For each vaccination she has received, the record needs three things together: the day it was given, the protection it provided, and when the next booster falls due. Lay the certificates out in date order, copy each entry exactly as printed, and then read the finished record back against the certificates one line at a time, because a single transposed date can shift a due date by a full year.
If a certificate is missing or an entry cannot be read clearly, write that gap into the record honestly instead of guessing. A note that one early vaccination is documented only by the old practice tells the new vet exactly where the uncertainty sits, and the old practice can often confirm the missing detail when the history transfers. Never fill a gap with a date that merely sounds right.
Hand the Record Over and Confirm Receipt
Ask the old practice to transfer her full history to the new practice, and give the new practice your rebuilt record as well, so the two versions can be compared. Then confirm, with a named person at the new practice, that the record actually arrived and was filed under her name. Transfers fail silently more often than owners expect, and a record that was sent but never received protects nobody.
Hold a copy of your own at home, on paper or photographed clearly, so one version always stays with you and depends on neither practice. If the new practice spots a mismatch between your record and the transferred history, the certificates at home settle the question. The new vet sets booster timing from this completed record at her first visit, and that is the right order: the record informs the vet, and the vet sets the plan.
Photograph every certificate as well, straight on and filling the frame, and keep the photographs beside the written record rather than buried in a general camera roll. Paper fades, ink smudges, and practices merge or close; a clear photograph taken today is often the only surviving proof of an early vaccination years later. If the old practice has closed, ask where its records went, because successor practices and record services commonly hold transferred files, and note in the record itself whom you asked and what you recovered.
Keep the Record Current From Now On
After every future vaccination, add the new entry the same week while the certificate is still in your hand: the day it was given, the protection provided, and the booster timing the vet gives you. File the new certificate with the older ones in date order, and update your home copy at the same time so the copies never drift apart.
Review the record once whenever anything else changes, such as a new address or a new emergency contact, because the vaccination record usually sits at the front of her file and stale details there get copied everywhere else. Her record travels inside Pet Passport as a checked, certificate-matched packet, so KinsLe lets any new clinician begin from her verified history on day one.