Steps:

1. Get the rabies shot
2. Wait about 4 weeks and have your Vet draw blood and send to the Kansas Lab for results.
3. Once you get the results of the titer test wait 6 months.
4. Have the certificate endorsed by the USDA (Federal) Vet ....this is not the same thing as a USDA Certified Vet. A lot of Vets are USDA certified but the Federal Vet works for the USDA......once the certificate is endorsed it's good for 4 months....if you don't leave the country in that time frame, the Federal Vet must endorse a new certificate. Make sure you do not let your rabies vaccination expire. Get it renewed at least a month before it is due to expire.
5. Once you are ready to fly and have your date booked, get a Health Certificate to fly your pet out of the country. It must be issued within 10 days of travel. This is not the same certificate as the UK Pet Travel Scheme one. This is the certificate required by the airline to fly any animal in the US anywhere. This certificate may say that the Federal Vet needs to endorse it as well and British Cargo incorrectly advised us it must be endorsed by the Federal Vet, but the USDA tells us it is not required..........I had the Federal Vet endrorse it anyway (on the day we flew out no less) because after all the wrong advice we got from our Vet and maybe inadvertantly BA Cargo, I no longer trusted anyone to know what they were talking about.
6. Between 24 and 48 hours of travel, have your Vet give the dog the tick and tapeworm treatment. Make sure to read the DEFRA requirements for the proper drug that must be used. Make sure your vet completes the Pet Travel certificate regarding the tick/tapeworm treatment.
7. BA requires that you arrive at cargo with your pet at least 4 hours before flying. .........when you count that extra time, the length of the flight and the time it takes to pet to clear customs, you are probably going to have a somewhat soiled and smelly dog on your hands when you collect her/him. BA was great at Gatwick for helping us to clean our dog Scout up and provided loads of blankets for her to rest on in the car. Our dog messed her crate 5 minutes before we picked her up. If British Customs had been a bit more speedy and hadn't taken 4 hours to clear her we would have been fine. DEFRA cleared her almost immediately, but Customs took their time.

Our dog is blind and diabetic. She was exhausted the day after the flight but has since perked back up a good bit. I would advise a visit to the Vet for any animal with a few days arriving back in the UK to give them a quick looksee.

We faxed our customs forms to the UK several days prior to our flight as BA told us to do, but don't count on that speeding Customs up any.


Good look to anyone shipping their dog over. I have to say, it was the most stressful part of our move.....at least to me.


If I left anything out please fell free to ad to the steps.

This is a great help! Going through this process is one of those things that when you get to the end of it, you feel like you know what you are doing - but then it's pretty useless to you, because you're finished!

Appreciate you taking the time to help others with this straightforward list.

Quick question: So the 6-month wait period is after the titer test? So it's really 7 months after the rabies shot that you can travel? If so, dang it.

Am hoping to leave next sumer. Better get started if it's a 7-month rather than 6-month process.

Quick question: So the 6-month wait period is after the titer test? So it's really 7 months after the rabies shot that you can travel? [/QUOTE]

6 months from the date of a positive blood sample, (the length of time before testing the sample is not relevant to your dog's immune system is it?).

Reasonable check list by OP bar that slip - would add; ensure ID chip is implanted/or present AND readable by an approved scanner before having the rabies jab. Get it read at each point of the procedure too.

- maybe you can explain to me what the purpose of the titer test is, and why 6 months has to pass following the titer test? Surely the titer confirms the rabies shot has "taken" (appearance of antibodies)(?) Is there evidence that rabies can develop in a dog positive for antibodies after, say 5 months?

Where's the expat vet when you need one?????

Yes, also perhaps add that "approved scanner" means one that will be available and readable at UK entry, NOT just one that your US vet has that can read your dog's chip ...

Hmm.. sorry - am in UK so by 'approved' I meant as per DEFRA website (q.v.).

All animals entering the UK pre-PETS were vaccinated on arrival and then quarantined for 6months based on epidemiological studies of rabies infection. No further investigation was made re whether Rabies may be dormant that long in an animal that has sero-converted with a vaccine, vs a dormant infection so the 6 month wait was fixed as a form of home quarantine.
Was 6 months ever a possible dormancy? - or just worst case scenario, or was it (more likely) to detect more Leishmania cases. It is all a question of modelled semantics with arbitrary goalposts (such as the positive titre level). Jump through the hoops and we should all (hopefully) be fine.

Best wishes G (un-expat vet)

We have gone down this road concerning this topic before on here. The actual time of the process from start until good to go is really more like 7 months rather than 6. Better to get started early and get your certificate ready early and keep it up to date rather than delay your departure IMHO. If you're leaving in the summer, I would start soon to get your paperwork going.

Yes, I have a vet appointment this Friday.

I have read these previous threads over the past few months/years, but you know it doesn't all sink in until your time comes.

One consideration for me is I don't know if I'll be leaving in summer 2006 and if I don't (get a job in the UK), it will be another 12 months after that (academic year and all that). I have to go through the process now just in case, but it will be a pain if I have to go through it all again this time next year.

You don't have to go thru ALL of it over again if you don't leave when you originally plan to. The certificate is only good for 4 months once the Federal Vet endorses it, but as long as you keep up to date with the pet's rabies shot and get the Federal Vet to endorse a new certificate every four months and make sure you have originals of the titer test and subsequent rabies vaccinations you should be ok.

We are in Perth and we started the procedure with our cat and dog back in April with the injections then one month later the blood sample for testing which came back below the .5 level required so ours are free to go from 18th Nov. The only thing the vet (Chris Preau/Leederville) told us was that if the results came back and it was even slightly higher than .5 then another injection and test would be required.

Its not hard work doing it all but it is time consuming. As we have a cat that doesn't travel so well in a car (what am I doing to her putting her on a plane!) the vet made us a house call for injections and to take blood samples which was extra but well worth the hassle of trying to get them from Brighton /Butler to Leederville/Perth.

Well worth all the expense in my opinion as I just couldn't and wouldn't leave my animals here we love them too much.

Ours are due to be flown out to UK/Birmingham a week after us so will let you know what happens so others have a good idea.

below?

Oh, Now I am confused. I'm sure the Vet said below, but this is what is written on our Rabies Virus Serology report.

Rabies Antibody Titre Greater than or Equal to 0.5 I.U./mL (>= 4.06 I.U./mL)

Report is correct

I'm just starting to think about getting our cat 'passported' US to UK- she actually had her annual rabies shot a couple of months ago, would that count or do I need to get another one done specifically for the passport?

Hi Lizzi, below is the order in which the process MUST be done, in order to satisfy PETS.


" 1. identified with a microchip
2. vaccinated against rabies (but not before it is 3 months old)
3. blood tested at an EU-approved laboratory and get a satisfactory result
4. issued with an EU pet passport or, in a non-EU listed country, a official third country veterinary certificate
5. treated against ticks and tapeworms."

Thus, if your cat is microchipped, and you can prove (documentary/vet records) that this was implanted before the rabies vax, then you are at step 3 already.

No chip means new jab is necessary after chip implantation

All info on PETS and UK quarantine can be found here:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quar...res/owners.htm

and US fed. site is: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ (to locate a FDA approved vet)

Good luck, Gerry.

OK so it's microchip first. Oh dear poor thing she will have to have another rabies shot.

Many thanks for all that info Gerry you have been v helpful.