Pet Travel Services

Pet Passports

At Well Animal Clinic we are pleased to offer a comprehensive service for pet passports or pet exports. All our veterinary surgeons are Local Veterinary Inspectors and can act on behalf of DEFRA to authorise the relevant documents.  

Pet passports:

Your pet needs a passport to travel freely in and out of the UK to/from selected countries without having to go into quarantine. Currently dogs, cats and ferrets are eligible for the scheme. Your pet must be indentified with a microchip to start the pet passport.The next step is a rabies vaccination  -  this can be done at the same time as the microchip.  14days after the rabies vaccine a blood sample is taken (though this is not necessary for ferrets). Once we receive confirmation that the blood test is fine, we can issue a passport. The passport is valid to leave the UK straight away, but you cannot come back into the UK until 6months after the date of the blood test.

• Please note: A very small proportion of dogs will not respond adequately to the rabies vaccine and require a second vaccination. This occurs more commonly in very young animals, pedigree dogs, and where the blood sampling occurs well after the 14 days following vaccination. It is advisable not to make any definite travelling arrangements until you have received confirmation of a positive blood result. 

On returning home, you need to visit a veterinary surgeon between 24-48hrs before you come back into the UK to have a tick and tapeworm treatment applied, and get the relevant section in the passport completed.  You can bring your own tick and tapeworm products with you (please ask us which ones are appropriate), but a veterinary surgeon must sign to say the right products have been administered. It is also important to note that whilst the legal requirements are for tapeworm and tick treatment only, there are a few other conditions and diseases your pet may be at risk from if visiting mainland Europe. Please speak to our veterinary surgeons to discuss the best program of protection for your pet whilst abroad.

As long as you keep up to date with your rabies vaccines (currently the vaccine we use lasts for 3 years, but some others only last for one or two years) then the passport remains valid. But if you miss the revaccination date, even by one day, then the whole process needs to be restarted.

Most EU countries are part of the scheme, and the list of participating countries is expanding all the time  -  the DEFRA website

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/pets/index.htm

and the Pet Passport Help Line 08459 335577 are excellent sources of information. If you have any queries then please contact us and we will be more than happy to help.

In Summary:

• microchip and rabies vaccination
• 2 weeks later:   blood sample taken
• 2-3 weeks for blood test results: then recheck microchip and passport issued
• Passport valid to leave the UK straight away but not valid to return until 6months after date of blood test
• 24-48 hours prior to re-entry to UK: apply correct tick and worm treatment at a vet clinic
• Speak to us about disease prevention abroad
• Keep up to date with rabies vaccines every 3 years
  

Exports

At Well Animal Clinic we are pleased to offer a comprehensive service for pet passports or pet exports. All our veterinary surgeons are Local Veterinary Inpsectors (LVI's) and can act on behalf of DEFRA to authorise these documents.  

Exporting your pet to another country

An export differs from a passport in that it is valid for a one way journey from the UK to another country and is appropriate where you know you will not be coming back, or the pet passport scheme is not valid for that country eg Australia, New Zealand. Export requirements vary widely between different countries and the first step you must take is to contact DEFRA to fill in an application for export. This application will also have a section to put our details on it. 

The DEFRA helpline number is 08459 335577 

see also: http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/index.htm

We would strongly advise you start this several months before you intend to travel as the export requirements sometimes involve several blood tests and treatments which need to be administered at specific intervals prior to the export date. Once you have filled out your application for export it is sent back to DEFRA. The export paperwork is then sent directly to us for completion.  Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions regarding exports.