Taking a dog to France

muddypaws

I have read everything I can, and I think that all my dogs need to go to France is a valid passport, with a microchip and rabies vaccination.

From what I can see, to return to Ireland from France, they need to be wormed between 24 and 120 hours before entering Ireland again.

All of my dogs are vaccinated against rabies, so thats covered and I have arranged for a vet to do the worming before we come home, so I believe we're compliant.

However, my vet is insisting that the dogs have to have a vet health check and be wormed in Ireland to go TO France as well as return FROM France. A friend that is travelling with me with her dog has been told the same by her vet.

Any boardsies that have taken their dogs to the continent on holiday over the last year or so that can confirm exactly what they had to do please.

Thanks.

chooey

muddypaws wrote: »

I have read everything I can, and I think that all my dogs need to go to France is a valid passport, with a microchip and rabies vaccination.

From what I can see, to return to Ireland from France, they need to be wormed between 24 and 120 hours before entering Ireland again.

All of my dogs are vaccinated against rabies, so thats covered and I have arranged for a vet to do the worming before we come home, so I believe we're compliant.

However, my vet is insisting that the dogs have to have a vet health check and be wormed in Ireland to go TO France as well as return FROM France. A friend that is travelling with me with her dog has been told the same by her vet.

Any boardsies that have taken their dogs to the continent on holiday over the last year or so that can confirm exactly what they had to do please.

Thanks.

Your vet is incorrect. They do not need a check up prior to going. I work in a vet clinic myself and had my dog in France last month. You're correct- microchip, rabies and passport prior to going. See a vet for tapeworm treatment (echinococcus) 1-5 days prior to coming back to Ireland.

mozzy

Just back from France yesterday with my dog. Chooey is correct above.

Rabies, mirco chip and passport before you leave.

Health check and worming no more than 5 days no less than 24 hours before you return. The vets in France are great and know the drill as I have been told by experience and experienced it myself even though we went to a remote location. We saw the vet Thursday the 15th and landed into Ireland yesterday morning the 19th.

All much easier than I imagined.

I would however advise (sorry if out of line) if you have never brought your dog on a boat that you feed them plain light food (chicken and rice or similar a couple of days before you leave) and give them something for anxiety like Adaptil (nothing too strong) exercise loads the day before you leave and that morning so they are exhausted and sleep. The kennels are sparse and the boat is very noisy, also a lot of dogs had issues going to the toilet on the ship (hence the light meals).

muddypaws

mozzy wrote: »

Just back from France yesterday with my dog. Chooey is correct above.

Rabies, mirco chip and passport before you leave.

Health check and worming no more than 5 days no less than 24 hours before you return. The vets in France are great and know the drill as I have been told by experience and experienced it myself even though we went to a remote location. We saw the vet Thursday the 15th and landed into Ireland yesterday morning the 19th.

All much easier than I imagined.

I would however advise (sorry if out of line) if you have never brought your dog on a boat that you feed them plain light food (chicken and rice or similar a couple of days before you leave) and give them something for anxiety like Adaptil (nothing too strong) exercise loads the day before you leave and that morning so they are exhausted and sleep. The kennels are sparse and the boat is very noisy, also a lot of dogs had issues going to the toilet on the ship (hence the light meals).

Thank you. We're going to an event in the Czech Republic and the on site vets are going to do the worming before we leave for the drive back to the ferry

Thanks for the advice, mine go on the ferry all the time to the UK, obviously a much shorter route, and they don't realise they are on a ferry, being in the van, they must just think my driving is really bad for a few hours. They have been on the Liverpool crossing though, which is 9 hours if I remember correctly. We can't give any kind of medication due to competition rules, the plan is a run in the morning, then a good long walk on Rosslare beach before we board.

Did you go Stena or Irish Ferries? Just out of interest.

mozzy

Ah well seasoned travelling dogs so

We went Stena line and it was a 17 hour trip so quite a while and there was a particular dog that god love him he had a seizure and was vomiting etc it was awful he was so stressed.

Stena line staff were so nice and accommodating but the kennels and dog facilities are not great on board.

Best of Luck with your competition!

muddypaws

mozzy wrote: »

Ah well seasoned travelling dogs so

We went Stena line and it was a 17 hour trip so quite a while and there was a particular dog that god love him he had a seizure and was vomiting etc it was awful he was so stressed.

Stena line staff were so nice and accommodating but the kennels and dog facilities are not great on board.

Best of Luck with your competition!

Ah no, the poor dog.

I was going to leave mine in the van, as they are so used to it, but then saw that you can visit the kennels whenever you want on the crossing, whereas going down to the car deck is only a couple of times, and you have to wait until someone can go with you, so then decided to put them in the kennels. Would you think the dogs would be happier in the van that they are really comfortable with? We go to a lot of events, and they sleep in the van - usually with me in there, but not always, so would be well used to being in there for sometimes 8-9 hours without me taking them out.

muddypaws

Sorry, another question - its great to have people that have actually used the ferry.

How big are the kennels, one of the dogs going with us is a Northern Inuit, a GSD cross, so is a tall lad. Would they be big enough for him do you think? His crate in his owners van is full height, and big, so he'd be used to a lot of room.

mozzy

100% the van without a doubt the kennels are really a bit horrible if you ask me.

The staff are so good and if its quiet I'd say you'd have no bother going down to them more frequently.

The kennels are good as you can bring the dogs on deck for as long as you like but the weather could be awful and the kennels I'd say are far more stressful.

mozzy

I love Northern Inuits wow!

Van without a doubt then for the size.

I only really saw the small dog crates so I can't say for sure but still if they are well used to the van and comfortable there and have traveled that way before then I wouldn't even think about putting them in kennels especially if you have a competition to go to, if I was a dog I'd be stressed out of my head in one of those kennels and I didn't see a dog that was particularly content in them either.

volchitsa

We went on Stena line in Spring (without a dog at the time) but got friendly with a family that were travelling with their dog, and they said they'd used the kennels before but the dog was happier in the car.

Also, can confirm how lovely the staff were, we had a very rough crossing and they couldn't let people down to see the dogs at one point but then when they could they let them go down several times, and broadcast over the tannoy so everyone knew there were extra visits set up. They were also generally lovely anyway, to children and teenagers especially (a lot of Italians in the crew).

But I think the kennels were quite stressful alright, I could hear constant barking when I went past, so they can't have been very happy, and that's what the Irish family we talked to during the trip told us too.

Lizard_Moon

The rules are different for commercial travel. How many dogs are you bringing as if over 5 commercial rules are applicable in some cases.

Double check with your vet practice as sometimes individual vets are not fully sure of the exact regulations of other countries. What you were told is correct for Ireland. From a glance microchip and rabies are all France requires but that could change!

Edit- don't for get to make sure your dogs have tick treatments that cover the duration as the tick borne diseases are nasty eg babesia canis

muddypaws

Lizard_Moon wrote: »

The rules are different for commercial travel. How many dogs are you bringing as if over 5 commercial rules are applicable in some cases.

Double check with your vet practice as sometimes individual vets are not fully sure of the exact regulations of other countries. What you were told is correct for Ireland. From a glance microchip and rabies are all France requires but that could change!

Edit- don't for get to make sure your dogs have tick treatments that cover the duration as the tick borne diseases are nasty eg babesia canis

6 but as we're going to a competition, not classed as commercial.

I did double check with my vet, and they don't know the rules, as they insisted on worming going into France