Situation:
~ I have four domestic fully indoor cats, between the ages of 5 and 8.
~ All 4 cats appear to be in good health and have all had recent check-ups at the vet.
~ These cats eat the same food from the same bowl, drink the same water from the same bowl, and use the same litter.
~ I’m moving to Australia with them.
~ I must follow specific guidelines set out by AQIS (Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service). From Canada, these cats must be quarrantined for a minimum of 30 days totally 180 days since their passing rabies antibody test.
~ My cats were vaccinated (including a rabies shot called Defensor®1, by Pfizer) on Dec.5th
~ Jan 6th they had a rabies antibody (TITRE) blood series (@$310/cat); the vials were labeled with their microchip scan number, not their names.
~ The only Lab in North America that does these tests is at the University of Kansas (I am in Montreal, Canada)
Problem:
~ I was informed of the results yesterday: 2 cats passed, 2 didn’t.
~ I don’t have the readings at hand, but I was told the two cats who passed ‘scored’ 77 and 75. The two who didn’t pass had such a neglible number that they were rated at 0. ‘Passing mark’ is 0.5. The highest ‘score’ my vet has ever seen is 2.
~ I’ve spoken to 3 vets so far. No one understands how this is possible.
~ One vet has called the lab in Kansas to see if it is possible that a mistake was made on the readings. The lab said no error was made.
What I’ve Done So Far:
~ I brought the two ‘problem’ cats back to the vet yesterday for another rabies vaccine.
~ This time we used Defensor®3 (a rabies vaccine that is good for 3 years, possibly containing more ‘adjuvent’ which aggravates/kick-starts an immune system - though this is debatable between the three vets I’ve consulted)
Best Realistic Case Scenario:
~ I must wait another month before they go through another Rabies Antibody test (another $713 tax included).
~ Those results will take a month to come back, hopefully with ‘passing marks’.
~ I will move July 1st. Two cats will come out of quarrantine on July 31st. The other two will stay until the first week of September.
Questions:
~ What could have gone wrong? How is this possible? Has anybody else gone through this? Could the lab in Kansas be purposely failing some cats to get more money (since they have a North American monopoly)?
Any help or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for those links, Peri. You very well may have saved me lots of money, time, and hardship. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you know about this? Do you work in the field? Did you go through importing animals yourself? DID YOU READ MY CATS’ RESULTS? LOL
~ ~ ~ ~
Funnily enough, there is only one Vet Clinic here in Montreal (Baker’s Animal Hospital) with the scanner to read the Avid microchip numbers, which must be accompanied by the blood samples.
When the Baker’s vet called me yesterday, to break the bad news, she said, “So you’ll probably have to do the tests all over again.” I said, “And pay all over again?” (Keep in mind I just shelled out $1426 for the first tests). I’m almost certain she said, “Probably, yeah.” Didn’t sound definite, but I took it as her being empathetic.
When I brought the two ‘problem cats’ to my regular vet to get them revaccinated, as I was leaving, she said something like, “I’m going to call and see if I can at least get a reduction in the price you’ll have to pay again for the test.” I didn’t know if she was talking about Baker’s or the UofK, but I wasn’t very hopeful, so I just said, “Thanks.” She had been very sympathetic, but even more frustrated and dubious of the results.
I’m at a loss for what’s going on here. When it comes down to it, I simply don’t believe that two of my cats are 288 times over the ‘passing mark’, 38 times over the highest ‘mark’ ever seen by the Baker’s vet ~ while the other two are at 0. Now that my ‘lab conspiracy theory’ has failed, I have absolutely no clue.
My family and I are also moving to Australia (September) and we’re taking our dog with us, so we’re going through the same thing you are. She’s having her RNATT done on March 8.
According to the USDA office in our state, the University of Kansas is not the only lab in the U.S. that can perform the RNATT test. They are the only lab that does all of the AQIS-required tests, but if you want to send the bloodwork throughout the process to different labs, there are other labs that do the other tests.
The other lab that does the RNATT is the Atlanta Health Association in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Also, AQIS will accept other microchips besides Avid. Destron and Trovan are also acceptable. I don’t know if it would be an option for you to get your cats re-microchipped and go to another vet.
I’m not a vet, so I have no idea why two of your cats scored 0. Is it possible that the vaccine they were given was bad?
Finally, you’ve paid almost $1500 so far for this? I’m really surprised at that. Our vet is just charging us regular office visit fees for her part and just what the lab charges her for the actual testing. We actually put our dog through the entire process a few years ago and ended up not moving at the last minute. We spent a total of $250 for all her vaccines and bloodwork. Maybe you should question your vet about the price breakdown - exactly what is costing so much? I’m betting the handling of the blood over international borders, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
If you want more details about the other labs (phone, fax, etc. - I wasn’t sure if I should post that stuff here), just shoot me an email. Also, I have a really detailed, helpful email from an animal importation person at AQIS - I could forward that to you. And, if you just want to commiserate about moving pets to Australia or moving yourself halfway across the world, I’d be happy to oblige! We could end up organizing an Expat Doper in Oz Fest!
I am supposed to be moving to New Zealand with my 2 cats in less than 2 weeks and we had our second Titer test performed last week. The first test was done at Kansas and the second at Atlanta (they return the results faster so we were advised to go thru them). The Kansas test came back passed (way higher than the .5 needed) and now the second test has come back less than .2% for both of my cats.
My vet and I have no idea how this could happen - except for a mistake at the lab. He says there is no way the levels could drop that much in just a few months (1st test in Feb, second in July). Now we may have to push back our leaving date which puts us in a bad spot as we need already gave notice on our apt!
We are trying to get in contact with Atlanta (they didn’t return our calls today) to find out if they can re-test or if we need to re-submit the blood work. Either way, it’s so frustrating to be this close to leaving and have followed all the (many!) rules and test, etc and then find out that this is the case. And even if we get them re-tested, the results could theoretically come back failed again and who knows when they’d be able to come with us. Fingers crossed it was a bad test and it comes back positive soon.
By the way - we also had to pay almost $300 for each cat to be tested thru Kansas but for Atlanta, we only had to pay $55 + FedEx charges. I had to explain this to my vet.
The Rabies vaccine contains a killed version of the rabies virus itself. The killed rabies virus causes the body to produce antibodies against the rabies virus before the animals actually contact rabies. With the body primed, the cats are able to quickly destroy the rabies virus if they did actually encounter a rabid animal.
It could be that two of your cats had larger than normal reactions to the vaccine. It is possible for indoor cats to contact rabies through an infected mouse or bat, but it is very rare. If your cats aren’t showing symptoms of rabies, the antibody results could have been from the vaccine itself. The antibody test was taken just a month after the vaccination.