More PETs stuff
 

Sorry, you know life is never simple when it involves me figuring out the PETs stuff....

Has anyone brought back a pet BEFORE the end of the PETs process? It looks like Suzy and I may travel a few days before her 6 mths is up (i.e., a little less than 6 mths from the blood draw for her rabies titer test). In fact, if we do end up on the QM2, her 6 mths would elapse while she is mid-Atlantic ... so she may end up spending a few days in jail before she can be released.

Anyone have any ideas how complicated that might be?

p.s. I'm trying not to jinx myself, but it's almost "all over bar the shouting", i.e., other than a couple of technicalities it looks like I have a job to go back to. Now all I have to do is tell my boss ...

Re: More PETs stuff
 

I asked the same question of the very nice man in Nottingham who looks after all the overseas bookings for QM2 clients. The QM2 will not take your dog unless the six months post titer has elapsed. That, coupled with the requirement for all children to be over a year old, scuppered my QM2 plans. :(

Re: More PETs stuff
 

Thanks - and awwwwww, shucks. :(

Her 6 mths would run out the very next day after sailing July 8, and the next cruise (2 weeks later) is getting a bit late to be arriving for my new job (plus starting 2 weeks later would mean a few hundred in lost wages).

So we could end up flying after all ... in which case I can wait until after her 6 mths elapses.

And I was getting so excited about the QM2, too.

Re: More PETs stuff
 

Oh what a pity Dunroving!

Re: More PETs stuff
 

Little puzzled what the time prob has to do with the QM2 re PETS, I assume this is 1/a health and safety issue onboard, or 2/('scuse my nautical naivety) is the QM2 considered as a UK territory? or 3/do you not meet Customs on arrival? I would be interested to hear prev. experiences.

You can enter early by other methods, pooch goes to jail for balance of 6m, then apply for 'early release' (it wasn't automatic when I worked in Q.- it may be now)

Good luck all, G.

Re: More PETs stuff
 

I am really not sure what the deal is - I think it is the fact that the dogs can be released and walked and therefore might pose a risk if they were actually infected? But dunroving...one day is hardly an issue - I would try and ask them to fudge it if I was you. In my case, my hound would only have been two thirds through the six months and I had to get from BC Canada to New York by air/road. It just was not practical, but remains a lovely dream for the future. Best of luck on your return.

Re: More PETs stuff
 

Maybe as a private entity they have the right to set their own rules, whatever the reason is(?) I'm hoping that as she will literally be "all clear" overnight they might reconsider (so I haven't given up hope yet!)

I haven't even got to the point of picking up the phone yet (shipping, house sale, flight/ship home), in fact I haven't turned in my notice yet, but after final exams (2 weeks) I'll probably spend a whole day or two on the phone making enquiries (and hopefully even booking the QM2 as by that time I will know for sure my contract is done and dusted). I will post as to the dog situation as I find out things. I was just told by a BE member that the vet cert has to be USDA certified which may involve some additional travel - again, if we are on the QM2 when her 6 mths rolls over I;m not sure how that would work (so again, any guidance appreciated). I'll probably email DEFRA to get their feedback too.

Re: More PETs stuff
 

Good luck with it all dunroving!!

I have three cats and four kids and I'm hoping to go home on the QM2 when we do it, I'll be watching your progress with much interest :)

Re: More PETs stuff
 

If you do fly I can, without any hesitation reccomend Virgin Atlantic. They were outstanding. Remember that the tapeworm treatment MUST have Praziquantel in it or your dog will be held up for 24hrs at Heathrow while the vaccinate it (not cheap!)

Our dog has settled in here no bother at all...he's none the wiser!!

Re: More PETs stuff
 

Just to update those of you who are going through the PETs scheme, I received the following from DEFRA earlier:

The certificate must be in a single sheet, double sided not on 1 page.

You can obtain the certificate before the 6 month wait is complete and once the 6 month wait is complete the pet can enter the UK without quarantine.

So:

- the 3rd country certificate is a 2-page document (pdf) but you must print it on a single sheet (i.e., double-sided).

- also you do NOT have to wait 6 mths post blood-draw to get the 3rd country certificate. Among other things I have read on here is that the PETs scheme takes longer than 6 mths post blood-draw because you have to get the cert before you travel. That's true, but you can get it before 6 mths is up, then wait until 6 mths after the rabies blood draw to travel. The only thing you have to be careful of is that the certificate expires after a certain time so if you do get it too early.

- so, I will be getting Suzy's certificate late June and we will travel early to mid-July (her blood draw was on Jan 9th).

Re: More PETs stuff
 

The certificate expires in 4 months if I am not mistaken. We kept ours up to date by having the dog re-vacinated before her orignal jab time frame ran out....and having that jab recorded on the cert and a new cert issued with the new date. I wound up traveling back and forth several times to the USDA Vet several times to have her double check things because my own vet was worthless. He got a lil reprimand from the USDA Vet too in the end because he managed to so muck up things by his inability to know wtf he was doing.

Re: More PETs stuff
 

Just for everyone going through the PETs stuff, I thought I would recount the latest part of the saga.

I was about to send off the forms for the third country cert (certificate, signed by vet, plus ORIGINAL copies of vaccination record and rabies antibody test) to the USDA for endorsement ($76, thank you very much), when I realized what I had was a COPY (a fax, in fact) of the rabies antibody test results. I recalled that my vet had said "Do you want us to hold onto the original?" and so I said "Yes".

Went back to the vets today to get the original and the only "original" (noteable by the blue vet signature) had a BLANK where the results should have been!

Anyway, long story short, the Kansas lab is going to fax the results to the NC USDA so they accept that the results are true (i.e., that my copy is not a forgery). My guess is that they (Kansas lab) must have made a copy, and stamped the results on the COPY (which is what they faxed), and sent the "original" (with no results in the box!) back to my vet.

The Kansas lab said it will be "no problem" that I have only a copy when I go through Customs/Animal Center at LHR, they can just call the Kansas lab to confirm the results. Well, every time I have heard "no problem" in these situations, it usually ends up being "a problem".

Can someone who has recently been through Customs confirm whether you need the original rabies antibody test results with you? I am so friggin' tired of reading and re-reading through the DEFRA pages!

Re: More PETs stuff
 

[QUOTE] ]



For what its worth I would say yes.... The lady that is caring for our 4 felines said that the orignal copy of the rabies results along with info on up to date vacs all needs to be together... So Im guessing that all the paper work will be with the passports.
Just hope no one loses any of it!! :scared:

Re: More PETs stuff
 

I would say yes, definitely an original. What do they mean call....do they realise there is a 5 hour time difference?

Re: More PETs stuff
 

hey guys,
first post here. luxembourger living in the US and emigrating to the UK in september. i must say that this forum is extremely useful. we're in the process of getting the PETS documentation and already manymanymany thanks to dunroving for pointing out all the things that can go wrong (and there's a lot of them).
so, i've microchipped our cat last week. he's already vaccinated against rabies but apparently needs a new vaccination round since he got his vaccine BEFORE having been microchipped. alright, we've already sent a sample to Kansas for nothing then. i'm going to get him vaccined on wednesday (PureVax Rabies, Merial). does anybody know 1) if that vaccine is OK and 2) when we can draw blood for sending a sample to kansas? i'm going to write DEFRA about this too.

again, thank you so much for all the good advice.

oh and before i forget: is there any means to getting the certificate endorsed by the USDA vet without having to drive there? could we use Fedex/UPS with a return envelope to get it there and back?


ralph.