quick PETS question, which vet?

I need to get rolling to certify my dog with PETS, but I’m confused on which vet to go to. Are there qualifications I should be looking for? Should they be specially certified? Or am I ok with just going to my regular vet?
Does all the work need to be done by the same vet?
Also, does anyone know how much it costs to microchip a dog?

It should not matter which vet since most of them are USDA certified, but I would ask to make sure.

I posted my experience in bringing over my elderly cat and two dogs here: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=343.0

I think I put down prices and all of that.  Costs will depend on your vet.  In most cases you will likely have to do all the leg work and gather all the paperwork and talk them through it.  PM me if anything on the link confuses you and I will be more than happy to help.

Well done, vnice... I didn't realize you had a 14 year old cat, as I do, back home with Mom and Dad.
We're reluctant to send him here, due to his age, and his behaviour alone in the car just driving to the local vet.
How was your cat when you would just take him in the car to the vet?
I can't have a cat where I live right now; and I'm still nervous about what a long haul journey would do to him, and if he'd ever recover (or forgive me!).

Well she actually used to do that low siamesey type whine when we went to the vet... kind of letting us know she was quite pissed at the whole thing.  She has been on several long car trips with me throughout her life and while she gets upset she calms down after a while.  We did leave her food in the crate and also treats so she would have to go in and get them before we left. 


To be honest she is a very um... laid back cat... real aloof.. has always moved about slowly... even when we took her for her blood test the vet had trouble getting the vial to fill.. we joked that every thing about her was slow to include the blood...

Also once she got to London they let her out.. cleaned out her crate and pampered her.  She then got dragged on a four hour car ride the next day and then moved to a new house in 4 weeks.  So it was a bit trying. 

I know animals have their own personalities, but after years of moving back and forth with animals we have not had one hurt or died or pyschologically altered in any way.  Many times I think our animals pick up on our own anxieties and react to them so we always are very soothing and relaxed as we can be around them.  Then again maybe I am just weird.

I brought my cat over from the US, and just went to my regular vet. She'd never done anything with the PETS scheme before, though, so we were guineapigs. Guineacats? Anyway, she enjoyed the learning process as much as I did, and we gathered paperwork, advice, recommendations as we went. That was immediately after PETS went into effect, so perhaps by now more vets are experienced in it. The only restriction when I did it was that only one lab in the US was authorized to test the cat's blood sample -- I think it was the University of Kansas? My vet packaged up the vials of blood for me and we shipped them Next Day Air with no difficulty. Again, this may have changed over the past year or so, and possibly more labs are authorized now.

It took a lot of research, work and MONEY, but I can honestly say that I would never have made the move if I couldn't have brought Willie (see pic).

Completely understandable; I don't know what I would have done had mom and dad not taken him in - where he is indeed, King of the Castle... but, we all still feel in our hearts he does ultimately belong with me.
He's a pretty laid back kind of cat as well, and after a while would settle down in the car.  It was only when I took him to mom & dad's, only an hour and a half away, he vomited in the car, which of course made me think of what he might do on an airplane... but, who knows.
I do like to believe the old adage, that our pets take on our personality quirks; particularly because everyone has always loved my cat!
I did get all the PETS work done in the beginning, when I thought he would go with me; and I believe there's a six year window or something (re: Rabies vaccination) in which he can travel; all that he would need now is the 48 hour flea and tick thing.
So, we'll see.  Mom and dad are taking him to the vet in March, and we'll know better then.

From my research early last year it seems you can use whatever vet you want. I was intending to use the SPCA for microchipping, for example, to keep the cost down. But I suppose if you did it all with one super knowledgable vet it might go more smoothly.... In the end I had to give my precious Molly away because I was just too worried about her mental health (she's in her teens and has always been SUPER sensitive) and added to that I couldn't come up with the £1000 it would have ultimately ended up costing....  But it still brings me to the edge of tears to think about her. :\\\'(

In the end I had to give my precious Molly away because I was just too worried about her mental health (she's in her teens and has always been SUPER sensitive) and added to that I couldn't come up with the £1000 it would have ultimately ended up costing....  But it still brings me to the edge of tears to think about her. :\\\'(

Oh, Anne, I really feel for you. My cat was young and healthy, so that was never an issue for me. But I do have friends who've chosen to leave behind older cats and dogs, and I totally understand. It must have been heartbreaking for you, though.   :\\\'(