Every second opinion, insurance claim and clinic move runs through the same little errand: getting the records. It is usually one polite email. Here is the exact ask, what you are entitled to, and the escalation path for the rare clinic that makes it hard.
Email the clinic: "Please send me a copy of [pet]'s complete clinical records, including consultation notes, lab results and any imaging, as digital files. Thank you." No reason is required. If you are more comfortable adding one, "for our records" or "for a second opinion" are both normal and complete.
Australian veterinary guidance treats the physical records as the clinic's property, but you are entitled to the information in them: copies of notes, results and imaging on request, and it is routinely provided. X-rays and scans should come as actual image files rather than photos of a screen; clinics can export them, and imaging done recently often lives in an online portal you can be given access to directly. Vets also transfer records clinic to clinic constantly; asking your new vet or second opinion provider to request them is a legitimate shortcut that skips you entirely.
Send what your vet said and quoted. A veterinary surgeon reads it and comes back to you with what they can do and what it would cost, before you pay anything. A written second opinion is from $250.
Most Australian clinics send records free or for a small administration fee, usually the same day or within a few business days. A modest copying fee is legitimate; a punitive one is unusual and worth querying politely. For urgent second opinions, say so in the email: "surgery is scheduled for Friday" moves most front desks immediately.
Once the files arrive, keep your own copies forever: a personal folder with every record, result and image. Owners who hold their own records get faster second opinions, smoother insurance claims, and better answers from services exactly like this one.
They can ask; you do not owe an answer beyond what you are comfortable giving. Curiosity is human and mostly benign. Records requests are so routine that most staff process them without a second thought.
Either works: your GP clinic usually holds copies of reports and often the images, and the imaging centre can export originals. For an online opinion, the original files matter; screenshots lose the detail a surgeon reads.