In this article we would like, first of all, to remind all pets owners that, so far, negotiations between EU and UK about BREXIT, haven’t borne fruit yet. This means that, if there is no change before Dec 31st, dogs, cats and ferrets which travel from EU to UK and vice versa, will be required to have a rabies antibodies blood test performed to be allowed to cross the border.
If your pet has already a rabies blood test, please make sure it’s still valid (it is if, from the blood sampling date, you have never done rabies injection too late, that is, after the expiration date. If you have been late any year, you must start the process from zero).
If you have to start from zero, the sooner the better, because the whole thing may take 3 or 4 months till your animal is ready to cross.
If finally there is an agreement between EU and UK and UK becomes a listed country, no blood test will be required (some examples of non-EU listed countries are Argentina and Russia, so a priori UK should be a listed country, but unfortunately nobody knows now due to the stupidity of politicians).
We suppose that lots of people that want to travel to the UK at the beginning of 2021, will eventually prefer to put their pets on kennels. If that’s your chosen option, the moment for booking (and to find out which are the requirements (vaccines, antiparasitic treatments) of the boarding kennel) is now.
Of course, apart from BREXIT, the other trending topic nowadays is NCoV-19.
Vets are not an exception, and we would like to tell two things about this matter:
#1: Day after day, the fact that domestic pets are NOT a source of transmission of NCoV-19 is confirmed, so, it’s not necessary to take any extra measurements with pets: no dogs, or cats, or birds suffer or transmit SARS NCoV-19.
#2: Dogs are able to detect non-symptomatic corona patients. There are some places in Europe and America where specially trained dogs are used for detecting non-symptomatic patients, in a similar way to anti-drug or anti-explosives dogs, via a sample of sweat, collected from the person with a piece of paper from the skin of the neck. So, a blood sample or collecting a swab from the throat wouldn’t be necessary: in less than 10 seconds, the trained dog can detect a positive. That simple: no expensive tests, no aggressive sampling from nose or throat, no waste…
At this moment, in Spain, they are training a group of dogs for this purpose. It’s called the K-anary Project, and let’s hope it’s ready soon.
So, once again, here we have dogs helping mankind: they accompany their owners, help rescuing people, detect explosives and drugs, help blind people, protect and play with our children … and now they can help us to stop a pandemic.
We mustn’t forget that apart from dogs, other pets are working hard: a big quantity of rabbits, Guinea pigs and cats are being a priceless support for confined children and elderly.
So, here are some extra reasons to be grateful to our pets for their help.
Clinica Veterinaria, Calle Holanda 9, MASA Square, Gran Alacant
T: 966 698 569
