Warning: Your Vet may be an IDIOT and YES DEFRA is very STRICT!!!

For those of you who are on here and paranoid about whether your Vet in the states is complying with DEFRA requirements before you travel to the UK, Hooray for you and make sure you are a royal pain in the ass and get everything sorted out correctly.

I am not going to go into a long story, but basically I handed my vet in the states the DEFRA rules over six months before we moved to the UK, was reassured by the "experienced" vet that they would follow the DEFRA rules to the T and everything would be OK for our dog. WRONG! Not only was the vet an idiot but we're idiots for not double checking what they were doing. But, when you work 12 hours a day and barely have time to breathe, it's hard to not trust a vet that assures you they are the "best".

The lowdown in that we arrived in the UK two weeks ago and our dog is now sitting in six months of quarantine at a cost of about $2,500 pounds! The 5 or 6 step DEFRA process was screwed up by our vet and DEFRA had absolutely no sympathy-send your dog back or send her to quarantine. Trust me, we are so upset and saddened, that we have asked our lawyer in the states to sue our 10 yr vet!!!

Moral of the sotry-Do not put trust in your vet when it comes to the DEFRA rules. A lot of them are ignorant! Here is what the DEFRA agent told us at Gatwick: 5 dogs and 3 cats have been sent to quarantine in the last month alone because US vets messed up! Not a very good record for US vets!!!

Be very careful if you love your pet, we only hope our poor pooch will live through her harrowing experience with mad, barking dogs all over the place. She's already gotten sick, a yeast infection and is morosely sad when we come to visit. I would rather slit my wrist than look at her!


Hope this thread helps someone out there!

 

Wow! Your poor dog! Im sorry your having to go through this... but hopefully your post will save other people alot of heartache...

I'm very sorry to hear that you (and your poor doggie!) are having to go through all of this.   I can't imagine how angry and upset and betrayed you must feel.

I didn't trust my local vet further than I could throw him when it came to the PETS scheme, so I basically made a totally nuisance of myself in the vet's office for eight or nine months.  He still managed to screw up the tick and tapeworm treatment, but luckily our boys only had to spend about 28 hours in "quarantine" (not really; they never left the ARC at Gatwick and apparently had the staff twisted 'round their paws) before being released.

Sorry to hear this happened to your dog.  I brought my dog over last year, my vet in San Francisco did everything correct and I had not one problem.

I'm really sorry to hear about your poor dog!  That's awful.  I was one of those who didn't trust my vet, even though they promised to take care of everything.  They did screw a couple of things up, but we caught them the day the mistakes were made and quickly remedied everything.  I'm sure they were glad to see us walk out of the office after our final visit.

But you're warning is a good one.  I hope it helps at least one other dog or cat.  And send your dog my good wishes in quarantine. 

YIKES! So sorry to hear that happened! I would really like to hear more details about what went wrong- I have a couple of concerns on our paperwork and youve got me really worried now!!

DEFRA is your best friend for the whole process.  I faxed them all the papers to check as it went along, called them about a few things, and they didn't mind at all.  I mostly dealt with someone named Jay... hope they're still there.  And yes, our paperwork was a mess. Jay pointed out all the stuff that needed fixing.

I had lots of time to deal with it, though.

I would be trying to kill my vet, not just sue him if that had happened to us!  Poor dog... and hope the extra cost won't break the bank.

That is just sad for your dog... any way it can go back to the states to a nice home while it waits out its 6 months?

A tip I suppose, that we followed, we went with Worldwide Animal transport company. We sent them our paper work every step of the way so it was extra reassurance having them on top of things. I also made sure to speak to my state's main USDA vet who was very clear on everything, and he sent info to my vet to make sure he got it right.
The transport company in the end for everything, including the air travel, was $1300 CAN, for 2 cats.

Can you tell us what happened so we can guard against it?

That sounds horrifying! I am about to move to the UK (going through Heathrow) and have been a little nervous about whether or not everything we've done has been up to standards for DEFRA.

Can you mention some of the vet error? It might help know what to look out for.

Thanks and I hope you and your dog get through it all ok!

Cherisse Evans

This is my biggest nightmare and worry!  I'm so sorry about your dog.    

My vet here in France keeps talking about the "silly English rules", which makes me think that maybe animals he has worked with in the past have had problems entering the UK.  I really, really want to make sure my paperwork is in order. 

Could you please let us know what exactly DEFRA had problems with?    I think we would all like to hear the long story! 

That really really sucks!!  If doggy goes back, would you need to start the entire process over again?

My vet in Atlanta screwed it up as well.  Actually, what happened was that my vet quit in the last month of the process and the relief vet, who was certificated, messed up.  Luckily I wasn't working at the time (we moved over, left kitty with parents, and came back for her once we were settled in the UK) I could run around.  The DEFRA vet told us about the mistake and I guess felt sorry for us because she squeezed in an appointment for the next day (Christmas eve day, if I remember correctly).  She also wanted the vets name and number and I believe that vet must have gotten a stern talking to (the DEFRA person took her job *very* seriously) because our vet went from not being available for an appointment to calling me and saying sorry and scheduling something for us so the kitty could go back with us.

There was another guy in the DEFRA office whose vet had also screwed up.  The DEFRA vet said that it was common and it made her mad since these vets had certification in the process.