Florida Veterinary Controlled-Substance Log Requirements

Controlled-substance records

Florida veterinary medical records: at least 3 years. Florida requires an individual medical record on every patient examined or treated, kept not less than three years after date of last entry. Longer than the federal two-year CS minimum, this covers the full chart (history, exam findings, diagnoses, and drugs prescribed, administered, or dispensed with route, strength, and dosage). ¹

Practice relocation or closure (Florida adds): a veterinarian or entity that terminates or relocates practice and is no longer available to patients must retain the records at least 3 years after last entry and, within one month, either publish newspaper notice that the records are available (plus a two-consecutive-week publication before any destruction after that period) or send electronic notice (email or text) to all clients seen in the last 3 years, stating the records' location and a 2-year destruction date. ²

Controlled-substance records: Florida's minimum is 2 years, matching the federal baseline — compliance with the federal recordkeeping requirements is deemed compliance with Florida's Section 893.07(1) recordkeeping duties. Florida also requires a biennial inventory of controlled substances on hand. Where both rules touch the same document, keep it for the longer period. ³

Inventory and state-specific controls

No separate state controlled-substance registration. No Florida statute in Chapter 893 creates one for veterinarians; the operative credentials are the Florida veterinary license and federal DEA registration — Chapter 893's "practitioner" definition covers a licensed veterinarian "provided such practitioner holds a valid federal controlled substance registry number". A veterinarian may prescribe, administer, dispense, mix, or prepare controlled substances for use on animals only. The $100 dispensing-practitioner registration reaches only dispensing "for human consumption". ^{4 5 6}

Theft/loss add-on (beyond DEA Form 106): report theft or significant loss of controlled substances to the county sheriff within 24 hours of discovery. ⁷

Fla. Stat. 893.03(1)(c) lists xylazine in Schedule I ("37. Xylazine."); no federal schedule lists it. The 893.05(1)(c) veterinary authority states no schedule restriction. This SOP's DEA-based sections do not reach xylazine; treat stock as a Florida controlled substance: keep 893.07 records and biennial inventory (newly controlled substances "shall be inventoried"); store in the locking, secure cabinet; apply the 24-hour sheriff theft/loss report. ^{8 9 5 3 10 7}

PDMP context

Florida veterinarians are outside E-FORCSE's mandatory reporting and query duties. Florida's prescription drug monitoring statute imposes its reporting and consultation duties only on a "dispenser" or "prescriber," and both terms are defined by reference to a "health care practitioner" — which the statute lists as practitioners licensed under Chapters 458, 459, 461, 463, 464, 465, or 466. Chapter 474 (veterinary medicine) is not in that list. ¹¹

Reporting: the duty to report each dispensed controlled substance to E-FORCSE by the next business day falls on the "dispenser" and does not attach to a veterinarian's own dispensing to animal owners. When a pharmacy fills your written prescription, that pharmacy reports it as the dispenser. ¹²