kcarterx

Hi Guys,

Another question. How easy/difficult is it to bring your dog with you when you move to the US ( Florida ). We couldnt leave our dog behind, does anyone know what the guidelines are? How long are they in quarantine etc?


Thank you in advance

Pulaski

No quarantine, but it needs a rabies vaccination (of the right sort, different states specify a different type of vaccine). The shipping will likely cost around £2,000, possibly more.

scrubbedexpat099

How is your dog in hot weather.

petitefrancaise

It's not difficult to bring dogs here to the USA at all.

If you pay for a company to do everything for you then Pulaski's figure may not be far off. Someone else will come along with recommendations for companies that will transport your pet.

We brought our dog (and rabbit) from France to Austin via Munich. Cost would have been 340 euros had we stopped in Houston and driven. That was with Lufthansa and the dog was in the hold. Taking her on an internal US flight from Houston to Austin cost us another $400 (if only we'd known!).

You will need to find out the regulations for bringing a dog into Florida.
You will need a certificate of health from the vet - timing depends on which airline you use. Check the airline pet policy carefully and you will have to book the pet on to the plane. They only carry a limited number of animals per flight, so sort out the dog availability first.

On LUfthansa, our dog was classed as excess luggage, put into an IATA compliant dog cage, loaded on to the plane in France, taken off in Munich and put onto the next plane at Houston. At Houston we had to clear customs with her so we collected her from excess baggage, gave her a drink and put her cage onto a trolley. Went through customs presenting the vet certificate of health, she was given a cursory look and waved through.

However, from what I've heard, it's an expensive ordeal to take them back into the UK. So think carefully.

jellybean_17

We flew our dog from London to Orlando a few months ago with PetAir, we have also used them to Canada. Both times their service was excellent! They have different packages and the cost will depend on whether you need any collection services or overnight boarding. Both times we simply booked our dog with them, ordered one of their wooden crates, dropped our dog off with them at Cargo the morning of the flight. They handle everything from there onwards until you collect them after the flight. We used virgin for the flight, customs were processed for us so we simply went to cargo after, paid a fee and collected our dog - super fast process! We had the Silver package which was just 874.00 GBP (no pound sign on my laptop lol). There are restrictions flying into Florida during the summer months (June to Nov I think) - you can check this with the company/airlines. Rabies was required and a fit to fly letter from the vet, PetAir send you the document. I would also have your vet do a pet passport and microchip incase you need to bring your dog back to the UK.
Our dog is only small and I keep his coat short so he does well with the heat but the bugs have been bad for him, he has allergy tablets daily. That's the only issue, he loves trips to the beach and trails He's also flown cargo 3 times and handled it with no issues each time. If I can help any further you're welcome to pm me.

Pulaski

I believe there is a connection.

1969tonka

We shipped 3 dogs and 2 cats from London to Seattle in April 2017 and used Passport4Pets based near Heathrow . They sorted everything for us (apart from usual vaccinations and rabies jabs) and all the animals arrived healthy if not a little stressed. The grand total for the shipping came to approx £5000 and that included boarding the cats for 2 weeks as they followed us so we could have the house set up for them . I really can recommend them as they were very efficient and kept in touch with updates ( ask for Jan) . Hope this helps . James

aless02

I've read some utterly terrible reviews about them, so it's nice to hear some positives as they are much cheaper!

To the OP, it's really not too much hassle or difficult these days to bring animals over. Get them up to date with all vaccinations and microchipping in advance, send off for quotes from pet transport companies, and book when you're ready. Some people do it themselves (not using a company), which seems also pretty straight-forward as you only have to organize a crate and take the animal to the airport. We are using a company for our cat as we're a family of 4 and I cannot be dealing with cat paperwork AND 2 kids AND luggage at like 6am!

hannahc16

we flew our dog two weeks ago London to orlando with BA through passport for pets as they were coming out the cheapest. It was £870 but then obviously we had the rabies injection, fit to fly another £50 customs was $50 on collection.

Its not cheap but its obviously worth it she is an happy as Larry since she has been here and loves it only fallen in the pool once ha.

But one thing you must do on arrival is get her to the vets and get heartworm tablets as in florida this can be really bad for dogs.

if you need any info let me know as she only flew 2 weeks ago today, we had to take her to the airport the morning of the flight 4 hours before but BA have there own pens so she was able to run around before hand.

petitefrancaise

I would NOT get the dog microchipped prior to moving - you will need a chip that can be accessed by US veterinarians.

Check the vaccination requirements of the state you are moving to.

The dog should be taken to the vet asap after arriving and given heartworm meds.

I cannot state loudly enough that you should consider the difficulty and expense of returning the dog to the UK.

We live in Texas and our dog has not thrived here. There is no way we would have left her behind but her life here is not as good as France. Texas is not so different to Florida.

The heat - can't walk her on pavements or roads during the day - they are too hot and she overheats.
Insects. In spite of treating the grass in our garden, there are ants and other insects that bite. She will not lie on the grass anymore .
Allergies - never a problem in France but here her life seems to be a constant round of anti-allergy medicines. She could eat just about any dog food in France, here, I now have to buy vet-prescribed single protein food. Even the tick/flea treatment has to be a special one since most of them have beef flavoring and she is now highly allergic to beef and chicken. Pollen allergies have to be treated with zyrtec for months at a time.

I run with her in the very early mornings to avoid the heat and allergens.

aless02

That's really sad to hear and something I think a lot of people don't realize when they move a pet across. Are these issues that many dogs in Texas have or does the vet think it's because she wasn't born/raised there? (I grew up in Texas and we had dogs, but my memory isn't that good of health issues!)

petitefrancaise

Everybody has allergies inAustin!!! Or so I'm told. Touch wood, I don't.

The vet thinks a sudden overload of new allergens caused her system to become highly reactive. The hope is that a couple of years of treating her so that she doesn't react, keeping food allergens to a minimum will allow her to recover.

This summer so far has been better than last year, which was better than the year before. Do I even need to mention the cost of it all???? Funnily enough the regular veterinarian where we took her at first used to say that if it didn't get better then our dog would have to go to a derm vet but this would cost $$ so she would do her best. As it turns out, going to the specialist vet has saved us enormous sums of money since 1. their consultation fee is less than our regular vet, 2 she gets exactly the medicine she needs and the specialist vet will often tell me to go to walmart to get it which saves me money 3. the dog doesn't need so many visits.

sarasota chic

We used Petair UK to ship our Labrador over from the UK to Texas, their service was excellent they were always on hand to give advice. We had him vaccinated against rabies by our vet so no need for expensive quarantine. However the cost of shipping him door to door was £3,000 it's not cheap but we couldn't leave him behind.

Pulaski

Vaccination of dogs and cats for rabies is mandatory in most, if not all states anyway. I have never heard of a dog or cat being quarantined in the US.

Aoi

Since 6 April 2016 UK dog owners must ensure their dog is microchipped and their details are kept up to date.

A chip is required for an EU pet passport. Obtaining an EU pet passport before leaving the EU will make return simpler provided the rabies vaccination done in the EU is still valid (up to 3 years).

A microchip will be required in any case if returning to the EU. If the microchip is done in the EU you can be confident that it complies to ISO standards and can be read in the EU if the pet returns.

I experienced no problem having a microchip fitted in the UK read by a US vet.