Argh, my vet screwed up - help?

So I thought my vet knew what the deal was with all of this, but apparently filling out 3 spots on a form is a challenge, because he signed the FAVN form and dated it, but didn't fill out the date of the serum draw.

I went for the blood draw on 6/12, and he signed it 6/15 (so much for it getting shipped out on 6/13, but at least they both passed with about 5x as much as the test required).  The "Serum draw date" field on my form is completely blank.

So...
- Will DEFRA care?  Has this happened to anyone else?  I'm assuming I can't 1) write the date in myself 2) attach copies of the receipt from the vet, showing that the blood work got done on the 12th
- If DEFRA does care, will they make me redo the blood test?  'Cause resetting the clock back another month would suck a LOT.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?  I should've just filled that out myself, like I did for the rest of the info, but I'd changed the appointment a couple of times and didn't want the wrong date, and (apparently incorrectly) assumed that the vet could sign his own name and write the current date twice.  (I also assumed that paying an office fee for the blood work meant he'd actually fill out the form that day, but I guess that was presumptuous of me.)

I'm going to e-mail the DEFRA folks as well, but last time it took about 2 weeks to hear back from them, and if I DO have to redo all the bloodwork again, I don't want to have to reset the clock by 6 weeks instead of 4.

Thanks!

The blood draw date IS important.

Call your vet and ask him if you can drop by and get him to fill out the blood draw date in the appropriate box.

The reason why this date is vital to DEFRA, is because THIS is the start of your "ticking clock" six month countdown on your pet being considered clear of any suspected rabies and thus able to enter the UK.

The countdown starts on the day of any blood draw that resulted in a successful "pass" of the rabies titer test.

So yes, this date MUST be there.

I would suggest calling the DEFRA phoneline (it's on the website under their contact info) rather than e-mailing them. You get to speak immediately to a live person who can answer all your questions there and then. I got instant answers and reassurance when I gave them a call directly; it was well worth the international phone charges.

As for writing it in yourself -- I guess that would be okay, but I will just say that I started out writing-in a lot of my forms, but even my vet, who wanted to be perfect in everything because she was so worried about messing things up for me and my cat, even SHE said "best we have me write everything so that the authorities can't even get suspicious about the handwriting looking different"!

This may not matter one tiny bit, but I was paranoid myself, and thought "Okay then, whatever!"

Either way.....at the end of the day, God yes that date needs to be on there.

Yeah, I know the date needs to be there, what I don't know is whether they'll care that my vet wrote it in a month later because he forgot to do it the day of, or if that invalidates the entire thing.

Yeah, I know the date needs to be there, what I don't know is whether they'll care that my vet wrote it in a month later because he forgot to do it the day of, or if that invalidates the entire thing.

Well, the part where you say "The "Serum draw date" field on my form is completely blank.

So...
- Will DEFRA care? " caused me to believe you weren't sure if it "needed to be there"....so I explained.....

I don't think it will matter that your vet filled this in after the fact. As long as he does so at all, and as long as the date is the true date on which the blood draw took place, that's all that matters.

Great, thanks.  I'll double-check with DEFRA just to be sure, I just didn't want them thinking I was trying to cheat the system by putting in a "fake" date or something.  (Though if you see 6/15 and 6/18, 6/12 is hardly out of the realm of possibility, especially with a vet's office that's slow.)

(And sorry, with the "Will DEFRA care?" question above, I meant more whether DEFRA would just default to using 6/15 or 6/18 even if the serum date is blank, or if they would invalidate things entirely if the date is filled in later, even by the vet.)

they won't know he filled it in after the fact. It just needs to be filled in with the accurate information. You have the invoice for the draw and that's dated right? that's corroborating evidence. Go back to the vet and have him fill it in. If he doesn't then you write it in. Either way you're not lying. I filled in half hte forms myself and had the vet fill in the rest and sign/stamp them.

they won't know he filled it in after the fact. It just needs to be filled in with the accurate information. You have the invoice for the draw and that's dated right? that's corroborating evidence. Go back to the vet and have him fill it in. If he doesn't then you write it in. Either way you're not lying. I filled in half hte forms myself and had the vet fill in the rest and sign/stamp them.

Yes, I have the itemized receipt for the rabies bloodwork dated 6/12/09.  My only concern with filling it in after the fact is that the form obviously looks photocopied (it looks like a photocopy of a photocopy, in fact), so fresh ink would look rather strange.

The thing that's so annoying is that I filled in the entire rest of the form for him!  I left him 3 blank fields - 2 date fields and his signature field, and he managed to not be able to fill in both date fields.  Sigh...</rant>

Thanks for the info...I'll probably wait for DEFRA to e-mail me back just to be sure, but I'm hoping they'll be fine with just writing in the date now.

Why is it that the form looks photocopied? Are the filled in parts that you and your vet wrote-in not in fresh ink too?

I'm not quite understanding this part of your post about it having an appearance of being a photocopy unless you mean the actual form just looks that way ....I'm hoping the written ink parts don't?

you only have a photocopy of the form he filled out? I thought you would have the original with original signatures, etc.

So I scanned in one of the forms.  To me, it looks very clear that the rabies lab photocopied their (original) copy, perhaps more than once, slapped the results sticker on the copy, and sent that back to me.

The sticker-looking thing at the top right is not a physical sticker on the paper, the one at the bottom with the 3.46IU/mL is a physical sticker attached to the document.



Does that help describe what I mean?

AHHH, okay, yes, this is a photocopy made by Kansas, no worries, that's what it's supposed to be, my mistake for having a brain hiccup on that. 


So now I see what you mean about having to write the date in at this point.
The result form has already been processed/sent back, complete with sticker and...missing serum draw date, got it now!

If this were me, I would do exactly what you are doing -- ask Defra about this. But again I would actually give them a phone call; I called them during my cat's process and it really is the easiest and fastest way to hear it "from the horse's mouth" and put your mind at rest. After the usual automated menus you do actually get to talk to a real live person and the people on the phones truly know the answers.

At the worst, I would speculate that the USDA office who make the final sign off, and also the animal reception staff in the UK, might take the date date that IS written in as the date to go by as a last resort.

But that's only my guess; please do get Defra to tell you the true story on this, as you never know what's going to matter in something like this. On the one hand there could already be plenty enough information for everyone to be satisfied and clearly see what's what, on the other it may be a wrinkle that has to be ironed out.

I would strongly suggest giving them a call rather than waiting on an e-mail reply; it will set your mind at rest much sooner so that whatever the answer is you can act upon it. I'm hoping that because there is at least a date on there and you do indeed have receipts to confirm the blood draw date, that this might not be an issue, but again, Defra are the ones who have the last word on that -- best wishes and give them a call. I'll see if I can find the number on the website and post back here.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/ask-defra/contacts/index.htm

The phone number and opening times are on this page; I know it means international phone charges but it really is worthwhile calling them; I didn't get a long wait-time before getting to talk to a staff member who was incredibly patient, helpful and informative. Hope this helps.

Thanks, I'll see about calling them in the morning.

I would hope that they wouldn't be so anal-retentive that the combination of this form, the dates that actually ARE on this form, and the receipt from my vet from June 12 would serve to prove that yes, in fact, my pets' bloodwork was done on that date.

With government agencies, though, you never know!  It would be the one really crucial date that my vet screws up, though, of course.  Thanks a lot, Murphy.

Lets hope they are sensible enough to see that all the supporting stuff about that one date renders that blank field but a minor oversight; if you call them, post how it went; best wishes. 

I think you'll find that, barring major screwups, they really aren't trying to keep your pet out, they just want to be satisfied that the requirements have been met. I think you have enough to prove that. I have called DEFRA's pets line also and found them extremely nice and helpful.

I thought you were talking about the other form, not the one that went to Kansas so I was confused as well. Now I see what you mean. I think you'll be fine but just ask them the route they'd prefer.