Argh! Bad vet!

I was all ready to go to have my kitty brought over to the UK (She's been living with my mom in the US for the past five months). But, since I wasn't uber careful with my 'inexperienced' vet, she did not receive her microchipping BEFORE her vaccine.

This wouldn't be a problem if I hadn't wasted the last six months thinking she was ready to come over next month. I called DEFRA and they said she could absolutely NOT come over. My vet said it was out of their hands and they couldn't do anything to change the date of her microchipping.

The major issue here is my cat is deathly allergic to vaccines. When she was a year, I ended up having to take her to an emergency clinic because she had quite the allergic reaction to a vaccine (which, I'm not sure). They advised me to keep her indoors and to never vaccinate her again as it may kill her.

This time, the Vet was prepared, put her on fluids and gave her benadryl to avoid anything adverse. Everything went well.

But here I am, having to reconsider getting her vaccinated over again, having the titer taken over again and do another six month wait. I have no idea how long we'll be staying in the UK (depends on the economy/job situation) and was wondering if there's any other possible way to get her over here without having to put her in quarantine (that was only £1,000!).

Any thoughts and suggestions would be uber helpful! And thanks for reading.

Oh no, that sucks.

I don't think there's a way to avoid quarantine in the UK besides the PETS program (and I've heard quarantine is expensive, so even if you didn't mind 6 months of that, it'd probably be > £1,000).

I think someone posted on this board about having their pet stay in France for a few months because of a PETS timing issue (the pet wasn't yet authorised into the UK), so that could be a more pleasant option than DEFRA quarantine, but obviously your cat still wouldn't be with you. I think it was used just as a cheaper option to the DEFRA quarantine.

The other thing you'd want to check is whether your cat would need up-to-date vaccines to fly. DEFRA only cares about rabies, but the airline/health certificate may be concerned with others, especially as your cat may be near other animals.

Good luck!

Just had a quick thought... if I was to vaccinate her again, would it be possible to do the titer the next day or only a few days after? She was vaccinated only 7 months prior so she would already have sufficient antibodies in her system. I didn't read anything on the DEFRA website about a certain time requirement inbetween the vaccine and the titer, but some vets suggest 21 days.

Anyone know if it'd be okay to do it only a day to a few days after?

you could take the blood for the titer the same day as the vaccination, if you so chose. It just has to go in a certain order: microchip, vaccine, titer...

you would still have to wait 6 months after the titer though, before she can enter the UK :-( (or be out of quarantine)

My pets were vaccinated (3-year vaccine) about 6 months before I started the process. I had them re-vaccinated (with 1-year vaccines), and my vet insisted on waiting 2 weeks before doing bloodwork. They were WELL above the minimum requirements, so as Reinadeluz said, you'd probably be fine doing the blood draw the same day as the vaccine to save some time.

The 21 day recommendation is if their vaccine has lapsed entirely, as that's how long it takes to re-acquire the antibodies (which is what the titer tests for).

Brilliant! Thank you so much for your comments -- it could work out perfectly to wait another 6 months, although it's still a bummer!

Thanks everybody!