EC 998 Form Question

Hi guys!!

I'm moving to Durham with my fiance and 2 cats, and we are about to send off our EC-998 forms to the USDA vet.

However..my local vet put in the "Date of Microchipping: Prior to 01/12/2010"

I am under the impression that there should only be a date in that field, not "prior to" a date?? Will this be a problem for the USDA vet and/or DEFRA? Has anyone else had their vet put that on their EC 998 form? It seems strange to me.

Also, I used to be able to feel my cats International Microchip between his shoulderblades and now I can't feel anything. Sigh. I have to take him back to the vet to scan him again before we send off the form to make sure it hasn't moved and god forbid its lost. I read some folks cats microchips were actually lost!

We move in 2 months and it will be a miracle if I don't lose my mind before then with Visas and Pets, etc etc!!

I put in the actual date that the microchipping happened, but some people can't do that (i.e. animals from a shelter who came pre-microchipped). As long as you can prove that the chip was in place pre-vaccination (perhaps a letter signed by your vet stating that?), you should be OK. I think they would prefer an actual date and clear documentation of that, though, if you have it.

You don't always feel the microchip, but you should get him scanned again. My cat's original chip disappeared (likely moved behind/beneath a bone where it wasn't being picked up by the scanner), so we had to re-chip him when we started the process.

Good luck!

ETA: Is that prior to Jan 12 or prior to Dec 1? I suppose either way, that's more than 6 months ago, but it could be an issue if your vaccination wasn't after both those dates, as they want to be clear on the dates.

We actually went to the vet to start the process fresh so I don't know why he didn't just put the date in. I asked him to put the date in European format, so thats December 1st, 2010. I also noticed that he put the Rabies Batch Expiration Date instead of the Rabies Vaccine Expiration Date! Now I have to go back to him to get the entire form re-done. I hate to do that and inconvenience them especially since we live in a small town and they rarely go through this process but I want to make sure everything is done properly. Don't want to risk them going into quarantine!

I filled out everything in the form before I handed it to my vet to sign off on, so that I could avoid those problems. That way they just had to read over the information entered to make sure it matched their records, and sign/stamp.

Ahhh...I didn't know you could do that! That makes things less stressful! Thank you!