Chip > Rabies > Bloodwork cost?

Fortunately, there are no fees associated with shipping your animal in a box too large  

Actually, I'm not sure that that's true.  I got 3 different quotes for shipping my pets, depending on whether my dog was in a L, XL, or XXL carrier.

Large was ~$1,500, XL was $1,200, and XXL was $1,800.  Obviously, the weight of the dog remains the same (though the carriers weigh a bit more as you go up).  (And my cat's weight/carrier size was constant, so the only change was in dog carrier size/weight.)  I believe they generally go by weight, but they also factor in volume.

This thread is from 2004, but may still apply

The other thing that all airlines do is that they'll charge you based on the volume rather than the weight alone. For instance, though my dogs weigh 90 and 75 lbs, for a total of about 75 kg between them, the crates that they'll be using are so large that they'll actually take up more valuable cargo space than is represented by their weight. So, the airlines use a nifty formula ((height in inches*length*width)/366) to come up with a "volumetric weight" in kg. In our case, that's about 150kg for the two dogs (or twice their actual weight).

Yes, it costs more to ship a larger container. I should have said "fines" -- there are no fines for shipping a larger container than necessary.

So I guess technically your pet doesn't need to be able to sit in its carrier, which is good (as that generally makes most "long" pets taller).  Luckily, my dog/cat are the "yay we're excited so we're standing up" or "we're not excited so we're passed out" variety, not much sitting goes on in their day-to-day lives.

My cat is the king of sprawling out on his back to see how much bed space he can take up!

Yes, it costs more to ship a larger container. I should have said "fines" -- there are no fines for shipping a larger container than necessary.

Oh, yes.  Provided you're willing to fork over the extra money, the airlines/UK government don't care if you ship your pet in a crate the size of your house.

I just took my boys (1 large dog, 1 cat) in to start the process.

Total vet bill: $134

That included:
- $20 fee to even look at the animal (each)
- $48 microchip for the kitty (he'd been chipped before but it couldn't be read so he got a new one)
- $18 each for rabies vaccine (they were current and won't expire until 2011, but just in case...had to do the kitty anyway since you have to do the chip and then the vaccine, so he needed a new vaccine post-chip.  Figured the pup may as well get one, too)
- $5 each for "biomedical waste disposal" (the needles for the shots, I guess)

I'm going in next week to do the blood draw for the KS test...I'm estimating it'll be ~$150 or so for both pets, depending on how much they want to charge me for overnight shipment to KS.

Turnaround time on the titer from KS is around 3-5 weeks, apparently, with 4 weeks being the most common.  The clock, as you say, starts ticking the date of the blood draw, unless the titer test fails, in which case you have to re-do the vaccine/test.  (So my appointment next week is on 6/11, so my boys should be good to fly on 12/11 if all goes well, though I'd play it safe and not book them before 12/12.)

Also note that on DEFRA's site it specifically says 6 calendar months, so you can't just cheat a few days off and do 180 days.

I don't think there'll be any fees after next week for a while.  I'm sure the USDA vet will charge something to fill out the EC 998 form that's valid for travel for 4mos., and there'll be one more vet visit to pay for to get their flea/tick/tapeworm stuff done right before they fly.  That should be it, though.  (Besides, as Stoatula pointed out, the rather insane cost to get them on the plane itself.)

Hope that helps!

PS - in case it matters, this is a "normal" vet (I do all my regular/routine stuff at a low-cost mobile vet) in a suburb of Raleigh, for cost comparison.

Thankyou so much for this information...

We have spoken to a vet today and they have quoted us around $600 or the whole thing. This would be for Fee, chip, Vaccine and to send the bloodwork to KS

Do you think this is a reasonable amount or would you recommend calling around for a better quote??

...and now there's a $170per cat to the USDA?? Do you know if that's payable immediately after the testing and what-not or is that something that can wait until closer the travelling time??

Eeesh, so much to think about!!

...and now there's a $170per cat to the USDA?? Do you know if that's payable immediately after the testing and what-not or is that something that can wait until closer the travelling time??

The USDA gets paid when you send all of your paperwork off to them for verification and signing the EU 998 form -- that gets done no more than 4 months in advance of your travel date, because once signed, the 998 form is good for 4 months.  We did ours about 2 months in advance and sent the check with the paperwork at that time.

Ouch, that's quite an increase over just this past November (2008).

$600 sounds awfully high...assuming I'd had my dog microchipped as well as my cat, my vet bill from last week would have been ~$180 instead of $135 (includes chip, vaccine, vet visit fee for both pets).  I'm anticipating $150 to send to KS, but will know for sure on Friday when I go in, so I will update then (I might get off cheaper if the vet's willing to spend the 30 seconds signing the form "for free" and just charge me for blood draw/shipping, not a vet visit fee as well).  Unless your vet is willing to throw in the final visit to do tick/tapeworm stuff 48hrs before you fly AND your vet's normal visit fee is above $20, I'd shop around.

Also, I always go to a low-cost mobile vet for routine stuff, and they do microchipping (they did both the dog and cat years ago, but the cat's chip disappeared since then).  You might want to google mobile/low cost vets in your area...mine technically focuses on spay/neuter, but will do a complete wellness exam including annual shots, physical, and rabies (1 or 3yr) for $35 per pet.  They charge $15 per pet to microchip.  So, in theory, if they would agree to follow the procedure re: chip first then vaccine, you could get both pets chipped and vaccinated for ~$100 total.  I doubt they'd be able to do the KS blood work/shipping, but it'd be worth asking.  Even if that's $150-200 for your cats at your normal vet, that's still $250-300 total for the whole thing, not $600.  I find the mobile vet to be more convenient than my regular vet, as well...I drop my pets off at 8am, and they hang out there until 4:30 (or later, depending on how many patients they have that day) when I pick them up...for me, at least, that fits much better into my work day than taking a 1 1/2 hour chunk somewhere to go to the vet and be there for the full visit.  (The only trick here would be that you wouldn't be able to ensure that the vet did the microchip before the vaccine, but I'd bring that up before making the appointment, anyway, to make sure they are OK with being anal about stuff like that.)

I haven't looked into the USDA fees yet, so can't speak to that.  However, you'd want to NOT do it now, as the form (EC 998) is only good for travel within 4 months.  So if you did it now, you'd just have to redo it again in 4 months when you're 2 months away from the quarantine ending and being allowed to travel.

So yeah, that's my very long-winded $0.02.

$600 sounds awfully high...assuming I'd had my dog microchipped as well as my cat, my vet bill from last week would have been ~$180 instead of $135 (includes chip, vaccine, vet visit fee for both pets).  I'm anticipating $150 to send to KS, but will know for sure on Friday when I go in, so I will update then (I might get off cheaper if the vet's willing to spend the 30 seconds signing the form "for free" and just charge me for blood draw/shipping, not a vet visit fee as well).  Unless your vet is willing to throw in the final visit to do tick/tapeworm stuff 48hrs before you fly AND your vet's normal visit fee is above $20, I'd shop around.

Also, I always go to a low-cost mobile vet for routine stuff, and they do microchipping (they did both the dog and cat years ago, but the cat's chip disappeared since then).  You might want to google mobile/low cost vets in your area...mine technically focuses on spay/neuter, but will do a complete wellness exam including annual shots, physical, and rabies (1 or 3yr) for $35 per pet.  They charge $15 per pet to microchip.  So, in theory, if they would agree to follow the procedure re: chip first then vaccine, you could get both pets chipped and vaccinated for ~$100 total.  I doubt they'd be able to do the KS blood work/shipping, but it'd be worth asking.  Even if that's $150-200 for your cats at your normal vet, that's still $250-300 total for the whole thing, not $600.  I find the mobile vet to be more convenient than my regular vet, as well...I drop my pets off at 8am, and they hang out there until 4:30 (or later, depending on how many patients they have that day) when I pick them up...for me, at least, that fits much better into my work day than taking a 1 1/2 hour chunk somewhere to go to the vet and be there for the full visit.  (The only trick here would be that you wouldn't be able to ensure that the vet did the microchip before the vaccine, but I'd bring that up before making the appointment, anyway, to make sure they are OK with being anal about stuff like that.)

I haven't looked into the USDA fees yet, so can't speak to that.  However, you'd want to NOT do it now, as the form (EC 998) is only good for travel within 4 months.  So if you did it now, you'd just have to redo it again in 4 months when you're 2 months away from the quarantine ending and being allowed to travel.

So yeah, that's my very long-winded $0.02.

Wow, thankyou so much,

I've been ringing America all evening and they are all quoting around that high amount.

The expensive part seems to be the titer test...am I right in thinking that the titer test is the test that's carried out at KS??

So for the vets, we should only be paying for:

Microchip
Vaccine
Blood Drawing (Ready to be sent for the titer test in KS if my above statement is correct)
and then later on, the tapeworm and tick treatment/test?

Thankyou..this is awfully confusing. 

The expensive part seems to be the titer test...am I right in thinking that the titer test is the test that's carried out at KS??

Yes, that's the blood test for rabies antibodies that takes ~4 weeks to process.

For fees/schedule, everything should be:
Now: microchip, vaccine
3 weeks post-vaccine: blood draw/shipping to KS
4mos. pre-travel (at most): USDA form/fee
24-48hrs pre-travel: tick/tapeworm treatment

Kansas State Rabies Fees lists $47.00 to process rabies for export, with a 3 week turnaround time.  So, any extra fee depends on how much your vet's going to charge to send the sample to KS in an approved cooler, etc.  I can't imagine that would be more than $30-50, though. (So $100 per pet to do the blood draw, I would guess.  I'll let you know more on Friday when I get it done for my boys )

So the vet charged me $255 to do the bloodwork.

$20 office call
$115 each for blood draw
$5 bio waste fee

Bit more than I was planning on, but I also got a quote from British Airways that's $300 less than VA, and includes all the fees on the UK end, so it'll probably save about $700 overall, so that's a win.

Next up, waiting to hear back from the KS folks.

I am almost finished with this process and we will be ready to travel by August.  the chips were not expensive but you have to make sure your vet has the international ISO ones and not the US only ones, this was a pain!  Print out everything on the http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/pets/index.htm and read it over and over.  Print out a copy for your vet. 

Main thing - it takes 6 months from 30 days after the day the rabies shot is given.   Then, the paperwork has to be signed by the Dept of Agriculture in your state.  So, in all actuality, it takes 7+ months to complete this process.

Cost -
The most expensive thing was sending the blood work to Kansas (required lab) cost about $157 per pet.

Main thing - it takes 6 months from 30 days after the day the rabies shot is given.   Then, the paperwork has to be signed by the Dept of Agriculture in your state.  So, in all actuality, it takes 7+ months to complete this process.

Cost -
The most expensive thing was sending the blood work to Kansas (required lab) cost about $157 per pet.

All correct including the fact that total prep time usually does spin it all out to about seven months all-told. . . . except I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that the six month "countdown" officially starts on the day of the blood draw that was eventually found to give a successfully passing titer count after going through the Kansas lab.

So for example, if you give the rabies shot, then at any later time (could be the same visit, could be a couple of weeks later) draw the blood sample and have it sent to Kansas, say it's Jan 1st they take the blood and send it to Kansas, then as long as it doesn't come back with a failing grade, you can consider Jan 1st as the first day of your six month's wait-time before you pet is able to enter the UK.

The blood draw doesn't have to be 30 days after the rabies shot -- my cat was even slightly out of date with his shots, but only two weeks after his booster we did the blood draw and when the result eventually arrived back it came back wayyyyyyyy higher than the "pass" level, showing that his antibodies were already fully present just 14 days after the rabies booster shot.

The fee one's vet may charge for doing the draw and sending it to Kansas also varies widely, in the same way that the operators of individual gas stations can make their own decision about what to charge for a gallon of gas at their particular station. Or how a mom and pop store can charge a higher price for your Mars bar while the supermarket next door has it cheaper. It's one of those free market things where the vet sets his or her own fees on these processes.

I think my particular vet charged me only about $72...$76 for the draw and overnighting? I don't have the paperwork to hand right here so I could be mistaken and that was the cost of some other day I visited (there are so many little visits in all this) but I'm pretty sure offhand that that was all the fees I was charged that day, for my one cat.

This isn't really cost-related, but my paperwork has apparently arrived at the vet's office for my pets' titer tests (they passed!).

The vet has no clue about the sticker requirement, or even if they have anything with stickers on it, but hopefully it'll all get figured out soon.  (They also wanted me to arrange an appointment for the EU998 form already, even though that's only valid for 4 months, so it's a good thing I have all these steps memorized from constant poring over these forms!)

I have just printed copies of the EC 998 forms so that I can have them available when it comes time to begin filling out the forms.  I just noticed at the bottom of the form that animals need to be injected with an inactivated vaccine produced in accordance with OIE standards.  This notation prompted me to look at the actual rabies vaccination forms of my animals.
The two cats have actually been injected with the Merial Purevax Live, and my dog has been injected with the Merial Imrab Kill.  I am somewhat clueless on the different vaccines available, but after conducting an internet search, the inactivated and the live are indeed different.
The Merial Purevax Live seems to be a very common rabies injection for cats.  I have read that New Zealand (who also has strict animal import procedures) does allow the Marial Purevax Live for cats (whereas dogs still need the inactivated version)
Naturally, I am concerned.  We have just finished up the fourth month of quaranteen, and I need to keep moving forward
Has anyone had the Merial Purevax Live for their cat, and entered the UK with no problem ?

Has anyone had the Merial Purevax Live for their cat, and entered the UK with no problem ?

I'd call Defra and tell them the situation and see what they say.  I found them to be an invaluable resource when prepping our cats.  It'll save you anxiety time, too.  Given the amount of worry involved in shipping pets, anywhere you can cut down is good!