Pet Passport scheme: order to do things

[ruraldream]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before but hope it will help someone else. We've just had a very long and expensive attempt at crossing to UK with Eurotunnel to no avail, due to our local vet (rural Auvergne so should have known better) not following the correct procedures. Found our second dog abandoned before Xmas, took him to vet, no identity of course, told him we were off to UK in Feb, no probs, did the rage injection but had run out of the microchip stuff that day so told to come back in 2 weeks when did his boosters. This we did, got tapeworm treatment 2 days before crossing and then set off on the 800K journey to Calais, passport stamped in all the right places or so we thought. However Eurotunnel had other ideas as when we checked in, they told us as his microchip date was 2 weeks after the rage date, it was therefore not valid and dog couldnt travel. It does say "procedures to be carried out in the following order" but our vet readily admitted he'd made a mistake, desole, but what could he do 800K away? Not an option to wait 21days in Calais while he had another jab so no option but to come back home, give him yet another rage injection and now waiting for 21 days to start our journey again! Must admit this detail had entirely escaped our notice but be warned. Motto of all this: dont trust your vet to know the rules, check them out for yourself!

[mint]

In view of the disappointment, time, money, etc this has cost you, it's very good-natured and kind of you to post of your experiences.

Some people I know are going to move back to the UK and I have already told them not to just rely on the vet to tell them the requirements but to check with DEFRA.  I am almost sure they haven't followed my advice: he's too dull to have advice register and she is too arrogant to listen (until something goes wrong, of course).

For the sake of their animal, I will recount your story to them and, if what I say falls on deaf ears again, at least I would have tried.

But I am a bit anxious about the animal as they have already tried to persuade OH to "take it on" [:(]

[poshtotty]

Hello there. I'm sorry this happened to you and hope you are all sorted now. [:)]

I wanted to add our experience in case it helps someone. We've been travelling to France and back for nearly 5 years with our dog and thought we understood the system.

Yesterday, we checked in at Eurotunnel in Calais and the man told us that the UK vet's stamp on the passport wasn't valid. We'd travelled before and it wasn't picked up, but the guy showed me the 2012 rules from DEFRA and we didn't have the right one. It needs to show that the treatment was carried out by an LVI, local veterinary inspector or an OV, official vet, with an SP reference number.

Our first vaccination had the correct stamp, which is a circle that says Official Veterinarian and United Kingdom around the outside and SP xxxxxx across the middle. The booster had the vet's office stamp with the name, address and phone number.

The guys at the terminal were actually quite helpful. They told us we needed a fax from our UK vet with various details and once that arrived, we would need to see a French vet. Luckily the vet's emergency number was answered and that there was an LVI vet on duty yesterday. The French vet was called out and we met him at his surgery 5 minutes from the tunnel. He checked the faxed information, re-entered it on the passport and stamped and signed it. We had to pay 10€ for the passport to be altered and 50€ Sunday call out charge, or not travel.

We know what to look for and will be double-checking everything again next time we go. The other thing the terminal guys told us was that a fairly common problem is the microchip not working, which is harder to resolve than a wrong stamp in the passport. They recommended making sure the vet checks it when the dog goes in for its booster because sometimes they seem to stop working.

I hope this helps someone to avoid what we went through.