DRIVING WITH 5 DOGS FROM UK TO SPAIN

Hi

We will be coming to live In Murcia mid September. We are driving through France and  I am bringing my 4 bichons and 1 dalmatian. They are all UK passported but i do not know what the Spanish require . I will get a Health Certificate from my vet but is there anything else i need . Also, what diseases should i be prepared to cater for. Heartworm ... anything else? I can get the meds from my vet before we arrive and hopefully find a suitable vet when we arrive. Grateful fo rnay advice.

If pets have an International Vaccination Health Certificate or Pet Passport showing they can be imported into Spain without a quarantine. This will show they are inoculated and free from the diseases listed by Spanish Authorities. The health certificate must be issued no more than 15 days prior to bringing your pet into the country.

The International Health certificate must state:

· That your pet shows no signs of disease and has been examined before leaving the country.
·The indentification and origin of your pet
·That your pet has been vaccinated against rabies.

Animals must be accompanied by either owners or a representative and must have written certification that the cat or dog has been under the owners' supervision for at least 3 months before entering Spain.

When we left UK with our dog, via the channel tunnel, to drive to Murcia NONE of the 3 border agencies were interested.

Have things changed ??

Dogs should wear Scalibar collars to assist re the dreaded Leishmanisis ( sandfly) which is more prevelant inland. According to our UK vet  these collars can take up to 2 weeks to become effective so best to get this organised before you leave.

In Spain the rabies jabs are annual. Scalibar collars replaced every 6 months. Frontline or equivilent bi-monthly. Worm tablets at least twice a year if dogs are walked outside of  their home enviroment.  Also constantly check for ticks.

If possible keep dogs away from pine trees as this is the breeding ground for the processionary caterpiller and if dogs off the lead in the campo then be very aware that they can be legally shot.

At the moment here we pay 41 euros for all necessary injections and worm tablets.

Cheers

 Fab - let us all know how you get on.  I am driving down to the Mojacar area with my two Cavalier KC Spaniels next June, but thinking we will get the Santander ferry.  I know someone who does this regularly, driving up from Tavira in Portugal with two Portugese water spaniels, and she has nothing but praise for the ferry handling.  Good luck, and enjoy your iife in Spain.  I am really interested in how the dogs settle.  

 Defra is the official site to check but it seems that you are doing everything right and already getting good advice on the site. You can look quite far back here and get a lot of good info.If it had not been for EOS we would not have been so well informed in the past.

We have travelled with 2 King Charles spaniels and use the Channel Tunnel because the dogs were with us all the time. They have to be in the back and tied up. 

Thanks everyone. It is a bit confusing, as rules change,  but it appears that coming from the UK there is no need for a Health Certificate anymore . Just passport and to be vaccinated against parvo (which all uk dogs are).... next concern is what product is best to use for heartworm, fleas, ticks and mosquitos. Sadly I cant use some of the most effective, Advocat, Advantix, on my own toy dogs, as, according to some of my friends, they can have a vey bad reaction. So for me, it looks like Stronghold and scalibor collars (for mosquitos) . We simply dont have to think about these issues in the UK, how lucky we are. My dogs mean the world to me and I hate that i am going to have to give them strong chemicals on a regular basis (they are very small and weigh 3 - 4 kilos)  to keep them safe from dangerous diseases passed mainly by mosquitos. They will be sleeping under a mosquito canopy and i wont be letting them outside during the summer months.  AT the moment i am looking into a pesticide company who can spray the whole outside areas as necessary to keep the numBer of mosquitos down.Am I  being paranoid.. i dont know.... i guess living in paradise has its costs lol - why didnt i choose to live in the arctic.. no mozzies there ...! just -50 degrees.! :o)

 Mosquitos are around water and as we do not live anywhere near water in our area of Murcia they are not a problem. If you keep the dogs away from rough ground where stray dogs roam they will be OK. Can't really comment on the medication but we find the vets are good and they always weigh the dogs before giving an treatment. 

We prefer to use Frontline every other month.

Mosquito nets won´t keep out the   sandflies  which are most prevelent between dusk and dawn April until October and it is recommended that dogs be indoors during these hours. Scalibar collars are 90% effective in keeping them at bay so changing them every 6 months should keep the dogs safe. 

Be also aware that during the summer months the heat and humidity can be too much for some dogs so having some form of cooling device ie. ceiling fans in the room they sleep should be a priority as leaving windows open is not an option.

The vets here are fantastic and will treat your dogs with everything they require to keep them healthy.

If not walked on areas used by goats they should have little problems with ticks and even this can be easily sorted by a daily check over.

Was as concerned as you 6 years ago when we came to Spain and by following the simple rules have never had a problem.

Its been 6 months or so but i thought i would just give a quick update with regards to our journey with the dogs.

We arrived at Portsmouth Ferry Terminal with all dogs comfortable in the car. They checked their passports along with ours and stuck a sticker on the screen of the car.(Dogs on Board)  No physical checks were made and we were not required to scan for microchips. We drove onto the ferry and once parked we took the dogs to the kennels at the top of the boat (we went to Santander and this is a 24 hour ferry journey)... the kennels were noisy and you are expected to provide all bedding and food (some people didnt realise this and their dogs had to sleep on the cold stainless steel) luckly i took everything with me and mine were comfortable. As youa re not allowed access onto the car deck for the journey it is not wise to leave dogs or cats in teh car when anything could happen. We had access as often as we wanted in teh kennels and were allowed to take them out for a walk.. bit windy up top but enjoyable and mine loved it. Had to hold the leads tightly incase they blew away lol

On arriving at santander we drove off the ferry and our personal passports were briefly looked at as we drove past.. no checks were made on the dogs whatsoever. We continued to drive to Santander stopping several times for coffee and to stretch our legs. There isnt a french border(as i thought there would be)  just a sign telling you lol

I have since made a couple of journeys back to the UK with 1 dog and we had to take him to the vets for his frontline (even though i do this myself every month) - it has to be stamped and signed by a vet in the passport for the UK Border control to see.   At the ferry (Calais) the dogs passport was checked and we had to take the dog to a separate office where we were handed a scanner and they read the microchip (this all took approx 1/2 hour and there were lots of dogs queueing up.) Once this was completed we were allowed to continue. It was the same on the eurotunnel.

My dogs love the warm weather here and sunbathe when they can. I dont take them on the beaches and they wear their scalibor collars all the time. I have the scalibor collars and frontline sent out from the uk as it is much much cheaper. The vets out here charge 30 euros for a collar and 35 euros for a frontline .... my collars cost me 10 and i buy my pet meds from bestpet website (google it) and ask my sons to send it out to me...

So, Brian , hope you are looking forward to coming out in June.. not long now.... stay in touch and maybe we can go for a dog walk lol

 I was interested to read this thread.  I live in the UK but adopted a lovely 3 year old basset  through Basset Welfare.  His original owner lived in Spain but she developed an allergy to hair and he was then given to the owners grandmother in the Uk who was too old to look after him -which is how he ended up with us in February of last year.

Unknown to us he had leish which manifested itself last November.  It took some time for our UK vet to work out what was wrong but eventually he was treated withliquid medications and tablets(which he still takes).  Horrendously expensive, especially as it needed special license for import to the UK but Frodo  is currently well and we hope he stays well for many years.

I thought I would mention  that a Portuguese company  has  now developed a vaccine for leish which was released at the beginning of this year, so may offer greater protection for unaffected dogs.

Hi All,

Our Vet currently offers a solution which covers the dog(s) for the sandfly/ticks and fleas at a cost of 18€ per dog.

It is not a collar but a liquid (not unlike the current flea/tick treatment ) on offer.

We have been using this since last February....let's hope that we have made the right choice?

Regards,

Lorraine Braid (and her band of merry brothers....Paris, Aimee and Dougie.....not to forget George the Cat!)

x

Yes, there is a vaccine now for leish - i was advised that you should get  your dogs blood tested first (to ensure they didnt have it already) and then there were 3 injections all 3 weeks apart all costing 50 euros each.. so 150 euros per dog.. and they would need a booster every year after that. It is very new. I am still thinking about it.

All vets are different i guess and just like in the Uk there are different charges.... my vet is near fuente alamo - i guess you just have to shop around, but as i say, if i can get it from the uk then it is still cheaper... even at 18 euros for a single application it is expensive considering i can buy 3 months for 14.00 and postal is £6 courier.. so a saving of £30 and with 5 dogs it is a massive saving. There is a product called Advantix which protects against sandfly but it is on prescription only  and so not available unless you have one, or unless you have a very good vet in the UK. I cant use advantix on my dogs as they react.. so i use Advantage or Frontline and the collar. So far so good :o)

Fab from my experiance, having all these things done is very important as you never know what disease they could catch, in a foreign country. They are obviously going to run around, play and have a wild time as dogs do! I wouldnt skip any vaccinations - I know it is very expensive.

The best guys I get advise off for my pets health when travelling abroad is the defra website, they usually answer a lot of my questions about the documents and passport procedure/health checks http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/

Hope this helps!