DEVON REX AND SPHYNX CATS

Having imported our Wolfies from The Netherlands and our Devon girl from Italy, we consider ourselves to be reasonably experienced at doing this on the Pet Passport Scheme.

Of course, you need a breeder who is prepared to keep a kitten until it is old enough to travel to England and you have to be prepared for the problems of introducing an adult into your household.

Once you have arranged with a breeder to import a kitten you have a strict schedule to follow and it is available on this site if you want to look at the DEFRA website.  Our experience can give you a more informal explanation.

• Once the kitten is old enough it will need to be microchipped. 
• It will need to have a rabies vaccination.  This is a dead vaccine and can be given at the same time as the normal vaccination regime, or later if preferred. 
• One month after the rabies vaccination a blood test will be required and this has to be sent to an approved laboratory for titre testing.  A satisfactory blood test result must show that the rabies neutralising antibody titre was equal to or greater than 0.5 IU/ml.  The kitten needs to show that it has had a reaction to the vaccination and had developed antibodies in sufficient quantities to be considered vaccinated against rabies.
• You will not be able to bring your pet into the UK under the Scheme until 6 calendar months have passed from the date that the blood sample was taken that gave a satisfactory result
• All information needs to be recorded on the Pet Passport record, a small blue booklet which is printed in the language of the originating country, but which has a translation into English in each section.
• Not less than 24 and not more than 48 hours before the time of entry into England, the cat needs to be treated against the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis using a veterinary medicine whose active ingredient is praziquantel.  The tick treatment must be licensed for use against ticks and have a marketing authorisation in the country of use. A collar impregnated with acaricide is not an acceptable form of treatment against ticks.
• Finally you have to arrange transport for the cat.  This is not cheap, it cost us E435 to book Leyla onto her flight, plus the cost of my travel expences to Venice.  Bear in mind that you can only use certain airlines and airports on Pet Passport and take advice from the airline company about what is acceptable for transport containers.  Our container caused problems as the Italian officials in British Airway said it was too small as Leyla could not stand in comfort - a load of tosh of course, but they did take some convincing that this was the correct sized box for her. 
• Some breeders charge boarding costs for the cat, luckily Cristiana did not charge us for anything except her outlay for the vet fees.  Even so, with travelling expenses etc it cost us about 1500 pounds sterling to import Leyla.

So - in brief and giving examples

1. At 12 weeks of age microchip e.g. Date of birth 1.1.06 - microchip and vaccinate at 12 weeks 19.3.06
2. One calendar month later take blood test for rabies titre count e.g. 19.4.06
3. Six months later the cat is now ready to travel e.g. 19.10.06
4. If you arrange for the cat to arrive in England at 5pm on 21.10.06 the tick and tapeworm treatment will need to be carried out at the earliest at 5pm on 19.10.06 and no later than 5pm on 20.10.06.  Of course you have to allow for travel delays as the officials are very strict on the timing of this treatment.  We have always aimed for the latest time e.g. 5pm on 20.10.06 as this allows a further 24 hours for problems and delays.

Importing is not cheap and you need to work with a breeder who you can trust - and who speaks good English because the majority of us English are so very lazy at learning other languages!!

top of page