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My dogs arrived safely today in Kona. We did the direct release program on Kona and used Kona Veterinary (Dr. Jenny) as our arrival vet. Everything went very smoothly. The people at United in Seattle were very kind and the crew in San Francisco made sure my Mom knew they were safely on board before the connecting flight took off.
When we arrived in Kona we had a short wait (the dogs were in an air conditioned room) while Dr. Jenny did her exam. We then gave her our permits and health certificates, signed the release forms and were on our way.
Dr. Jenny and the Security person even helped me push our crates (in excess of 100 lbs each) out of the baggage area to the curb!
The dogs were fine and have already settled in here at the house.
As long as you pay attention to the rules and follow them to the letter, there is no reason you shouldn't have the same experience. Everything happened exactly as we had been told it would and the people at the Ag Dept were very responsive, helpful and nice. I can't say enough about all the people we worked with throughout this process.
We did NOT sedate our dogs or do anything special other than make sure they were familiar with their crates and we skipped breakfast before their early morning flight.
WindRide, so, you didn't have to have your dogs in quarantine even one day? Wow! That's so different from how it used to be in Hawaii!
I would have moved back to Hawaii, in a heartbeat, but our animals would have had to been put into quarantine for months.. so I did not!
So what do you have to do exactly to make sure your dog doesn't have to go into quarantine? Can you let us know?
It is so nice to hear of others who have followed all of the instructions properly and who have had NO PROBLEMS with quarantine!
All of the horror storries made others feel that the procedure was simply to long and complicated (?) and preferred to b*tch about it instead.
We had both a pet and aSerice Dog and we sailed through as smooth as 60 year old wine.
It can seem daunting, but the website above does have all of the information you need and if you read it carefully you will have no problems. We were lucky that our Vet had a Tech who was familiar with the process. She made our lives much easier.
The important things to remember are:
1. Get the correct forms to the Quarantine Dept ASAP
2. Get the FAVN test ASAP so you can start the 120 days
3. Get a good Vet on the other side. They can help you SO much
4. If you have ANY questions, call the Quarantine people. They are very nice and helpful.
5. Follow the guidelines. Make sure you have all of your paperwork with your dogs.
It isn't a hard process, but it isn't cheap. We figure that including airfare for them it was close to $1,000 per dog to get them over here.
Location: Was in Western New York but now in Hilo Hawaii
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Aloha and welcome to the big island!
Glad all worked out for you. I did the LA to Kona united flight 2 years ago and it was great and Dr. Jenny is the best!!!
By the way your not supposed to tranq your pets its agianst the rules (like they can stop you from doing it in your car) the pets need to be alert during flight so if any shifting happens they can adjust not just bounce around.
I don't know why anyone would want to sedate their dogs. Flying is disorienting enough without making them high into the bargain. I would guess that my dogs ended up sleeping the whole way anyway. Once they were over the initial shock, I am sure they were fine.
Glad your pups had a safe trip. If you came with the pups why did you need a vet on the Hawaii end? Coming to Honolulu the quarantine people do the check in and there is no need for a Honolulu vet. Were you concerned for the August temps or did you arrive early or late?
Scruffy will be making his fourth trip in this November. It will be his second alone since my Jack D.D. passed last February.
Glad your pups had a safe trip. If you came with the pups why did you need a vet on the Hawaii end? Coming to Honolulu the quarantine people do the check in and there is no need for a Honolulu vet. Were you concerned for the August temps or did you arrive early or late?
Scruffy will be making his fourth trip in this November. It will be his second alone since my Jack D.D. passed last February.
They did a neighboring island release. Thats a program with HI DoA that uses authorized vets to do direct releases on neighboring islands. There are a lot more rules and added cost but you can go direct flight from the mainland to lets say the Big Island without having to stop in Oahu. Its all on and explained in the states website.
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