Majorly Confused..

Hey, my wife will soon be coming over to england, but she wanted to bring her little terrior.. Due to us being severerly unorganised, we didnt realise the situation with the PETS scheme was so confusing. Basically, shes had her rabies shot a few months back. She isnt microchipped, but will be next week. Now from what I gather. The PETS scheme requires that the blood test be 6mths old to be true? So, what happens if we try and bring her over and she has been vaccinated from rabies, and has all flea and heart de-worming and stuff, but doesnt have the 6mth blood test certificate? Do you have to wait for the full 6 mths for the blood tests to be accurate. I read about some 21 day waiting period or something? I'm just completely confused. If my topic doesnt make sense. Just ask me a question

Thanks

Once you've gotten your doggy chipped, get the vet to take a blood draw and send it off for the FAVN rabies test.  The six months starts from the day the blood is taken, and since your dog has had a rabies shot in the past few months, the level of titre should be okay - but ask your vet to make sure!  You can always have the dog chipped, then vaccinated again, then wait a couple of weeks for the blood draw.

If you bring your dog over before the six-month period is up, you'll have to put her into quarantine for the remainder of the six months.  If this looks like the only option for y'all, start researching quarantine kennels and costs now, as they're bound to be very expensive!

The dog has to be chipped before the vaccination is given (to avoid a case of mistaken doggy identity)  and two to four weeks has to pass after the rabies vaccine before the titer can be taken.  I agree with Meg, it will be very costly to quarantine in the UK.  Do you have any friends that would take your dog?  The tick/tapeworm treatment has to be done no more than 48 hours before flying (from my experience) and a health certificate within ten days of flying.  I flew on Continental from O'hare in July with my dog.  If you have any further questions feel free to pm me.  I hope this helps and best of luck!

This page spells out pretty clearly the steps to do and which order to do them in:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/pets/procedures/owners.htm

any variations in the order in which things are done or misteps with the paperwork can cause your animal to go to quarantine for any length of time UP TO 6 months (meaning it can be a partial period... as low as 24-28 hours all the way to 6 months depending on what the error/problem was).

The only thing I'm not sure of is if you did the vax first then chipped then the blood test and got a passing result if they would still make you quarantine your dog because you did things out of order. The best thing to do is call defra (they have a helpline) and they will tell you exactly what you'll need to do to get on the right track.

"please refer to this site for further details about the Scheme rules or ring the PETS Helpline on 0870 241 1710."

Lots of people, including me, have brought dogs successfully to the UK but I'd take my advice straight from the horse's mouth if I were you. It only takes one well-meaning person to lead you astray. Our advice is good for general guidance but for any unusual circumstances, like yours, pls get confirmation.

Thanks alot. You've been most helpful