The Good News and the Bad News: Cat Edition

The good news and is I got a message from the vet's office yesterday and the immunization levels in the cats was good! So we are on day 43 of quarantine!

The bad news is we talked with a parent at the international school and he says he doesn't know anyone with pets. This week we finally got the information with our date and links to find housing and not a lot of places seem to want cats...

Veterinary Prep for Export

Exporting an animal from the United States to Japan is a lengthy six month process. For the most accurate information, here is a link to a usda page about it: USDA Animal and Plant Inspection Service

Japan has strict laws to prevent an animal with rabies from entering the country. They must be:

✔️vaccinated for rabies

✔️have microchip identification 

✔️take a blood test that checks for levels of rabies antibodies

✔️quarantine for 180 days, which is six months (quarantine in this case, is really just a six month waiting period)

✔️inform the Japanese import office at least 40 days before arrival in Japan

✔️get a health certificate for each animal prior to export

Our cats were microchipped by the cat rescue we adopted them from. Last week I took our cats to a local veterinarian for their titer test. Hopefully the levels of antibodies for rabies will be high enough (they were vaccinated in December). If they are we are now on day 4 of their quarantine. 

As I mentioned in my prior post, Diamond is a scardey cat. After I open up both carriers so he couldn't hide in them, he hid here.

Here is Ralph. He is a bit more easy going about a lot if things...

...except for when he heard a dog bark in the lobby and hid behind me!

In total, we were at the vet nearly two hours! There was a lot of waiting, but at least we were in a room. They drew their blood individually and they each were gone 10-15 minutes, maybe more! 

We should hear in 4-6 weeks about their test results. Hopefully all is well and we'll be 4-6 weeks into the 180 days! 

I saw this on the veterinarian's wall. It's a good reminder for me, especially since we have busy days ahead of decluttering and packing.