missionuk

Hi

I arrived at Gatwick on March 11th with my cat and dog and everything went to plan. Only because I was extremely meticulous in ensuring their documents were 100%. I took the whole thing into my own hands because my vet was failing me.

You wont believe the measures I went to in order to get it right.


Through utter persistence and downright devious manouvres, I sailed through the inspection. No thanks to my Vet!

My babies are in heaven back in UK as am I.
Viva GB................I loooooooove it:-) So Proud to be a brit back in Britain ! Bye bye humid unbearabley hot Florida.

rooster

Hi there,

I would certainly be interested in hearing about your pets' experiences. We are currently going through the procedure for our cat to return to the UK from Canada. He had his rabies shot in January followed by blood test which came back okay. The next step is the flea and tick treatment 24 hours before he flies. We are hoping to go back in July but we still have to sort out his flight, carrier, etc. I'm very reluctant to use Air Canada (bad press) and we came over with British Airways who treated him quite roughly (another story for another time). Who did you fly with?

Any tips and help would be HUGELY appreciated. I am worried sick about him as he's 13 and overweight. He is on a diet at the moment but as you probably know, it's so hard to put a cat on a diet as he will just look for food elsewhere!

Thanks, Sheryl

missionuk

Sheryl

You and I have communicated in the past.


Have you sent your rabies certificate to USDA yet? You need to get the official Pet Travel Scheme certificate which will have the official seal of the USA government body. Check and re-check every single number and word. The form states the dates have to be written in numbers then written IN FULL in words. My vet made a mistake with the date written in words, USDA didn't pick up on it, but I DID - when I let them know the whole thing had to be done again!!

My flight time was 20.20 on March 10. I went to my vet on March 9 at approx 17.00hrs and had him administer the flea/tick and tapeworm applications.

I even called Defra to find out which ones to use. The only accepted applications are as follows:

1. Flea/tick = Frontline

2. Tapeworm - Droncit (an injection)

I flew with Virgin Atlantic and boy do they know their stuff! they are so incredibly caring I can't praise them enough. Javier Maldonado was the telephone contact at VA Cargo, he explained everything thoroughly to me and sent me all the necessary forms so that I was prepared when arriving at the airport. Nearer the time ask me about these, they are not at all complicated....if you know how :-)

On arrival at Cargo there were two employees of VA who did everything possible to put my mind at rest. They explained that they would be the only ones in contact with my dog and cat and that they would stay with them until they had put them safely in the hold. They told me they would even take photos of them and email them to Gatwick so that Tracy Saville, my contact at Gatwick would know what to expect.

Javier told me not to worry about drilling the holes in tghe back of the crates (this is obligatory) that the employees would do that for me when I arrived at the airport. And that is exactly what they did. Nice clean holes (relatively large).

Tracy was a darling when we arrived at Gatwick. She came looking for me and said "Hi Maxi and Savannah are waiting patiently for you - everything is fine". They were ready in under an hour!!

They were not distressed and acted as they always do....calm happy and playful. Not even tired! I couldn't believe it.

Their flight tickets costs $450 each - Savannah my cat weighed about 12 lbs something. maxi the dog weighs about 15lbs. So I would imagine you can expect to pay the same.

I paid a total of 150 GBP at Gatwick and that was for the both of them. i expected to pay more I have to say.

Sheryl, I don't want to give you too much info all at the one time. Send me a list of questions and I will answer them as we go along. I hope this puts your mind at rest. Forget British Airways...they were the pits when I was enquiring about taking the pets.....i complained to BA in London about their total disinterest in the Pet Travel Scheme and they hang up on me!

Virgin Atlantic are IT!!! They are animal lovers and Richard Branson's good character is showing through with the way he is ensuring the pe operation is working to perfection.

I love being back home ---- I will never leave UK again. the weather was beautiful today and my pets were outside sunning themselves....nice crisp clean sunny fresh IOW weather...you can't beat it :-)!!!

Irene

rooster

Hello Irene,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my queries I really appreciate it - what an incredibly helpful reply. As a fellow animal lover, you certainly know what we are going through!

Virgin Atlantic sound brilliant - I only hope they fly from Toronto - I will definitely have to look into that.

As per your advice, I am going to thoroughly check everything a million times over. Better safe than sorry, eh. I'm sure I will have more questions so I will stay in touch.

Thanks again - and so glad that you are enjoying being back "home". Good on you!

Best Regards,

Sheryl

mad bunny

Hi,
This is possibly a bit out of context, having said that i do not normally reply to these threads.
I'm dead jealous!!!
We've been in Canada now for nearly 9 months. My husband adores it here. I do not.
I do so understand what it is to reflect and appreciate the U.K.
I feel obligated to stay, not only because of my husband, but also my animals.
We emigrated with 4 dogs, 6 cats, a tortoise and a parrot.
Added to that i've aquired a trio of pot bellied pigs, that were destined for the gourmet table, and about 30 ducks and 100
chickens, that were destined to end up the same way.
Similarly, i have a horse and donkey that was destined for the knackers.
I wish you well.
Take your heart with you.
Love and light.

Merlot

Well done, must be a relief!

My baby is about to fly Qantas next week from Oz and it was reassuring to read your babies made it fine!

Did they get jet lagged? I have read on previous posts that animals do suffer from this on long haul trips?

Cheers
Merlot

missionuk

Merlot

No jetlag no scrapes on noses .....nothing.....they were exactly the same as they always are.....calm and happy and playing with their toys. We even stayed in an hotel at Gatwick as I thought they would be out of sorts. I could have saved myself the money because they were just fine.

Irene

returningexpat

so....VA is the airline I'm going to use to take my two cats back to England.
THANKYOU for all that important information.

I hope this is not a stupid question but any suggestions as to where to get the crate(s)?...I don't want to get to the airport to be told the crate isn't the right one.

And, does anyone know if I'm right in thinking that is the pets are under 16lbs each, they can travel in one crate?. If so, one of them is going to be going on a diet to lose that extra 1/2 lb!. They get on really well and I would prefer them to be able to cuddle up for the journey.

thanks for the help and for my part I'd like to recommend the ASPCA in NYC for the shots the blood tests and things...they are very helpful and willing, though it's up to you to do your homework to help guide them.

missionuk

The ones on this link are exactly the crates I used for both my cat and my dog. Any smaller and you could find yourself in trouble at the airport. Also, we love our animals and how claustrophobic it would be for them if they were squeezed into a smaller crate. I'm sure the cheapest ticket price would be what I paid and that was $450 each for my cat (12lbs) and my Bichon Frise (14.7 lbs). Also these crates are normally very expensive but with the sale on at Petco online plus first time online buyers get an extra 10 or 20% off! and free shipping! So I only paid $35 each for the crates. They usually cost about $75 in the pet shops with tax etc. You will not be allowed to put two animals in the one crate on a long haul journey in a cargo hold. It probably would be kinder to have them separate anyway......may be more stressful to share their space in this unusual travel circumstance. You could save time by drilling the holes yourself. I'll post a photo of the crates with the holes drilled by Virgin Atlantic staff. You MUST have those holes on the back. I looked at all available crates and none of them come near to the quality of my Deluxe Varikennls. Don't forget to get the ones with the proper dials lockers that have screws (see petco picture). Those other click on ones can easily come loose, I know I bought them and put them through my rigerous test and they opened up!!!

Irene

here's the link:
http://www.petco.com/product_info.as...2&dept_id=%2D2

Merlot

That is wonderful to hear Irene, thank you.

Best of luck.

Merlot

Emily74

Hi! I am in the process of getting the paperwork for exporting my 2 cats
to the uk and like you seem to have problems every step of the way. So far I
have had the microchip, the rabies vacc, the successful blood titres from
the DEFRA approved lab and have the 6 month time period. What concerns me is
the PETS certificate. I know the paperwork is very official that the vets do
in the UK, but the certificate that my vet here gave me is just a faxed
copy/photocopy which they were sent from the Veterinary Services California
dept of the USDA. DEFRA have told me it needs to be an original but the VS
is telling me a photocopy is fine!! Do you know anything about this? I
believe once this is in order then 24hours before they travel we have to get
them wormed/flea tx. What other information do you have as far as contacting
the airlines, arranging the travel health certificate? Also when did you get
the USDA vet signiture and USDA stamp? I have been told I get this at the
airport on the day of travel. Any help you have is very appreciated as the vets here
don't know what they are doing and I get conflicting advise from the USDA
and DEFRA. My vet also told me stories of people getting turned away at Los
Angeles airport 3 times because the paperwork was incorrect, which worries
me! Thanks for any help you can offer!

bromleygirl

Now I'm worried! I've done the microchip, rabbies shot and blood test. My vet called me the end of Feb and said that the lab had said that my dog's blood test was fine and that I should be recieving confirmation in the mail but I still hav'nt. When should I recieve the USDA certificate?

We will be travelling in June. I know that my dog will have to do some time before he can get out. He will be flying on an approved route accompanied from MSP - LGW as excess baggage. How much should that cost? Do you have fees to pay in the UK upon arrival and how much does quarantine cost per month. I'm estimating he should be in quarantine 2 months.

Any advice would be great.

jib

You can find info about quarantine, on the airpets site -


http://www.airpets.com/quarantine_facilities.html

If you get in touch with them, I'm prett sure they could tell you all you need to know.



jib

missionuk

Emily

If you have been lucky enough to have the the faxed USDA official Pets Travel Scheme Form in your possession, I would advise you to take at least four copies of it as the odds are mistakes will be made by your vet when filling it out. That's what happened in my case. I went to my vet, asked his assistant to accompany me into a quiet room where she and I could fill out the form in peace without being disturbed as experience shows it is extremely easy to make an error. Once you are 100% sure everything is as it should be, get your vet to sign and date it. the whole form should be filled out with a blue pen. Blue ink for some reason is what DEFRA prefer.

When the faxed form is filled out and then signed by your vet, it becomes official and is the original. The vet or you then send this back to your local USDA office to be checked - it will then be sent back to you signed and officialy sealed. However, beware. I checked the signed and sealed official document when it returned from the USDA - lo and behold the vet had made an error on the most important date which was the arrival date and both the vet AND USDA had overlooked this very serious mistake. It is up to you to check and recheck everything. When I pointed out this error, everything needed to be filled out again, sent to USDA again resigned and resealed by USDA and of course signed, dated etc by my VET.

So, the faxed form you were sent is ok and will become official once it is signed by both vet and USDA official and of course has the USDA seal on it. This will now be your original document. Hold on to these originals as if they were worth a million dollars. Take photocopies and put the originals in the most secure place you can. Even in the safe at your bank, that's how important they are. Without these originals you will get nowhere.

missionuk

Historically the FAVN certificate will be sent to your vet. I would give him a call and see if it has arrived at his office. If not, you will find that FAVN labs will only communicate with your vet's office. So get them to call FAVN to see where they have sent the certificate - they may not have sent it at all!!!

In fact, they lost the blood test for my dog and nobody let me know. I called my VET four weeks after the test to see if they had heard from FAVN...when they called FAVN said they had nothing registered for my dog. My poor Maxi had to go through the whole procedure again and this meant that I had to postpone my departure date by nearly three months!!!

Motto - you must be the leader of this ..... nobody else seems to realise the importance or the urgency. To be honest, if we were allowed to organise the pet Travel Scheme by ourselves the process is relatively simple, but with your vet in the middle, things just seem be left and nothing checked.

Persistence is the name of the game. I can't help you with quarantine advice as this was not relevant for me. The price of your pet will depend upon the weight of the crate plus the dog - my dog weighed about 15 lbs and cost $450 for his flight with Virgin Airlines Cargo - he and my cat were both in the hold on the same flight as me. At Gatwick you will pay 150 GBPounds for up to two animals.