Adopting a Pet? The Health Records Checklist to Request Before You Leave the Shelter

Adoption day is emotional and fast. You're signing forms, watching your new pet nervously explore a strange room, and trying to absorb everything the adoption counselor is telling you. It's not the ideal moment to think clearly about records.

But the records you leave with, or fail to get, will matter within weeks at your first vet visit and for years after that. Here's what to ask for before you go.

The adoption records checklist

Ask the adoption counselor to walk through each of these with you. If a document exists, get a copy before you leave. If it doesn't, write down that it's missing so your vet knows where the gaps are.

• Vaccination records. Which vaccines were given, the dates, and any boosters during the shelter stay. Your vet uses these to figure out what's due and when, so the exact dates matter more than you'd think.
• Spay or neuter certificate. The date and the clinic or vet who performed it. Future vets will want to confirm the surgery happened rather than repeat the workup.
• Microchip number and registration status. Get the chip number and confirm whether it's registered to you. A chip that isn't registered with your contact information won't help anyone reunite you with your pet. More on this below.
• Deworming and parasite history. What was given, and whether a specific parasite was treated. This tells your vet whether a follow-up fecal test makes sense.
• Heartworm test result, for dogs. Knowing whether a dog has tested negative, and when, shapes how soon prevention can start.
• FIV and FeLV test result, for cats. These viral screens are standard at many shelters and worth having on file.
• Any other surgical or medical records. Dental work, injury treatment, or anything beyond spay and neuter. Past procedures can explain things your vet sees later.
• Behavioral assessment notes. How the animal did with handling, other animals, and people. Useful context for training and for your vet.
• Current medications. Names, doses, and the reason for each. If you can't read a handwritten label, ask the counselor to confirm it in writing.

When the shelter can't provide something

Plenty of shelters don't have complete records, especially for strays brought in off the street or animals transferred from overcrowded shelters in other regions. That's common, and it's not a reason to walk away from a good match. A few things help fill the gaps.

• Ask whether a foster family had the animal. Fosters often know behavioral and medical details that never made it into the file, and many are happy to share.
• Request contact information for any rescue the animal passed through. A transferring organization may hold records the receiving shelter never received.
• Tell your vet the history is incomplete at the first appointment. They can recommend baseline testing that makes sense given what's unknown, rather than assuming prior care that may not have happened.

Register the microchip

This is the step adopters skip most often, and it causes the most heartache later. A microchip is only useful if its number is in a registry alongside your current contact information. The chip itself stores an ID number, not your phone number, so an unregistered chip points a shelter nowhere.

Ask the shelter whether they've transferred the registration into your name. Some do it for you; many leave it to the adopter. If you're not sure which registry the chip is in, you can enter the chip number into the AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool. It doesn't show owner details, but it tells you which registry holds the record so you know where to update your information. If the chip turns up unregistered, it defaults to the manufacturer, and you'll need to register it yourself.

Common registries include AKC Reunite, HomeAgain, Found Animals, and 24Petwatch, which moved to PetPlace.com in 2026. Pick one, register the chip number with your name, phone, and address, and keep that contact information current if you move.

Start the health record on day one

Once you're home, the shelter's adoption paperwork is the seed of your pet's record. Keep the original email and attachments somewhere you won't lose them. Every future vet visit, vaccine booster, and prescription builds on that starting point, and having it all in one place saves you from rebuilding the history later under pressure.

Wagabond Pets gives each pet its own forwarding email address. Forward the shelter's adoption email and the app reads the attachments, pulling out vaccination dates, the microchip number, medication history, and procedure dates into an organized record. From there you can track vaccine expiry countdowns, share a secure link or QR code with a sitter or boarding facility, and export a clean PDF when a vet asks for one. Setting it up the day you get home means you never start from a folder of loose paper again. Wagabond Pets is available on the App Store for iPhone.

If you're also weighing pet insurance, the records you gather now feed straight into an application. We cover that in the records you need for a pet insurance application.