Urgent - Flying an epileptic dog from UK to US - help needed.

Hi. This was posted on one of the Facebook groups I'm a member of, and I asked if I could cross post it as usually people here are good with this kind of stuff.

I will collate any answers and feedback your thoughts! This is what she wrote:






Sorry for taking up a post with something non agility related, but I'm getting very frustrated so thought I'd appeal to an international community that hopefully has some experience in flying dogs internationally and can offer suggestions or advice. I live in Scotland and am moving to the US (New Hampshire) in July with my 2 Border Collies to take an emergency vet job and live on a farm. Once we get there it will be fantastic, but getting there is proving to be a huge challenge! One of my dogs has epilepsy (it's well controlled) and they both have separation anxiety. The anxiety we can deal with as they're crate trained etc, but I'm really struggling to find an airline that will fly an epileptic dog. United has run me in circles getting vet approval and fitness to fly verification etc, and told me they would fly him, and now are saying they won't! Ive been working with a lovely lady at a pet transport company but I think she's running out of options as well! We will fly out of any airport in the UK and can fly into Boston, Newark, or NY in the USA but all airlines that I've been able to find that fly any of those routes won't take him. Leaving him in the UK is not an option, and my contingency plan is to take a boat over. However they will have to be kenneled for 7 days on a ship with bare minimum time and space for exercise so that will be extremely long and stressful for them and thus is an absolute last resort option. Any thoughts? idea? suggestions? experiences etc to offer? Anything would be extremely helpful and we're open to thinking of the box if necessary!

Would it make any difference to fly him into Canada and drive him across the border? They might have a wider variety of airlines to choose from. I think the galgo rescue uses Delta to fly their dogs from Spain to the US.

Is there a reason the epilepsy needs to be disclosed to the airline? I'm not sure what the difference is between flying an epileptic vs. non epileptic dog.

I think a few people have suggested Canada since I last looked at the post

I think it would be disclosed on the vet paperwork? I don't really know. I suppose they want people to know so they can ensure the dog is safe and well??

I have recently moved to Canada from the US together with my dog Jack. I had a deal with this company. Hope that they will help to transport your pet with such a disease, as they seemed to be professionals.