I mentioned in an earlier post about bringing our cats with us when we move. Many people are used to the idea of pets being quarantined for six months when moving to a new country. The UK has done away with this practice and has now put the responsibility of this on the pet owner. There is a strict process which we will have to follow to get what the UK calls “pet passports” for our cute furry family members.
It is a fairly simple process, it just needs to be done in an exact way to be accepted. Six months before we intend to leave we have to take the three of them to the vet to get micro chipped. Apparently this is very simple and only requires a tiny incision in the nape of their neck that needs just a little amount of freezing to do. That say day we have to get them their rabies shots (although they have had these shots before they have to get them after having a micro chip ID). The entire reason for this is because rabies apparently takes six months to surface if it is present.
Then a couple weeks after the rabies vaccine is administered the cats all need blood tests. These are to determine if they have a satisfactory amount of rabies vaccine in their system.
After all this is done and the blood test comes back with clear results (should happen in one shot) a Pet passport is issued. The vet needs to sign off on different aspects of the pets health on the passport. Then the last step is to vaccinate all the cats against ticks and tapeworms no more than 48 hours and no less than 24 hours before we leave for Scotland.
Although this will be a stringent and somewhat picky process to go through I am relieved to not have to be separated from them for six months while they are in quarantine. In the grand scheme of things of moving too this is one of the easiest things we will have to do while moving.
Let’s just hope they still love us after a long plane ride….
- Michelle
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