Pet passport

[agedknees]

Well dh and myself have finally retired. We plan on taking our caravan to France, Germany, Austria etc. Of course we will be taking our little dog with us (he loves the caravan).

So, I am a bit confused about what we have to do about the pet passport. Can anyone help me? Did chat to the vet nurse, but she just said google it.

It's really easy to get a pet passport. They need a rabies jab then a blood test so many weeks after - if all okay, the passport gets issued & stamped. Rabies needs keeping up to date with in order to keep the passport up to date.

I believe currently in the UK a dog must be wormed 24 hours before travel, the window of time is stupidly small. The rules changed about tick treatment. Same when they come back into the UK; a vet has to sign the passport to say it's been done

I'm not 100% about ordinary vacc's being up to date because all of my dogs came over with all the normal Vacc's

Well our vet issued ours at the same time as doing all of the relevant vaccinations and rabies jabs. Rabies in particular has to be done a certain period of time before travelling so do google that if you’re thinking of traveling anytime soon. You also have to book to see a vet a certain number of days before returning to the U.K. so make sure you’ve booked something with a vet at your destination before you travel home. It is possible your vet surgery doesn’t do passports so you may have to google another local vet that does.

Basically you have to get your dog vaccinated against rabies and get your vet to issue you with the passport. That costs around £50.

Then you're free to go off. Less than 5 days but more than 24 hours before you return to the UK, you need to find a vet to give your dog an anti-echinococcus jab and they will stamp the passport. That costs about £25.

That's it :)

Oh yes - not all vets are authorised to issue passports.

And it's 3 weeks between the rabies vacc and the test (and the vaccination lasts 3 years)

Judas did your dog not have the rabies blood test before your passport was issued???

No blood tests required any more - just rabies vacc, 21 days before coming back to UK, plus worming confirmed by vet 24 hours - 5 days before return.

I know you don't have to have the blood test if rabies are up to date...we had to have the blood test for the first rabies jab tho to issue the passport. This wasn't that long ago...have we been fleeced 😱 The blood test costs more than the bloody jab 😬

Thinking back, dog didn't have a blood test. I was looking at the dates in the passport but actually the second date is the one the vax is effective from. When did you have your dog done @mustbemad17? Ours was issued early 2016

And the rabies vax needs to be 21 days before leaving the UK, not before coming back.

Earlier this year 😱😱 i've always had to have blood tests with our dogs for new passports so didn't think anything of it! When I got my own dog passported back in 2014 was the same. Scamming sods, it's like £70 for a blood test!!!

Where were you taking your dog, mustbemad17? Perhaps it was a requirement for the country you were travelling to, but certainly hasn't been a requirement for UK for years.

Can't remember exact timescale, but certainly didn't need it for my 5 year old boy when I bought him from Germany, so before that.

Only within the EU. I work with rescue dogs, we often rehome them in Germany or France if good homes arise. Also have dogs brought in from Romania or Spain, again they need blood tests after rabies jabs to check before passport is issued. Can't remember one dog not having to have a blood test unless we could prove that the rabies jab had been kept on top of like the vaccs had!

Oh dear! I think you've been ripped off. I can understand dogs from abroad needing blood tests but a dog from the UK doesn't need one because there isn't any rabies here.

Looks like it!! Grrr. Yeah the dogs from like Romania etc I can fully understand. Not the UK dogs tho.

OP ignore any info i posted, apparently my passports are OTT 😂😂 bastards

Thank you all for your invaluable help. We have watched ddog evolve from a frightened little mite scared of his own shadow (rescue dog, we where his 3rd home) into a mad adorable beautiful family dog who knows what love is now.

He might even start a travel log about his journeys abroad.

mustbemad yes, if there's any doubt that the rabies vaccinations haven't provided continuous cover that's where they'd do the blood test I guess (though surely just quicker and easier to do another vaccination....?!).

When bringing our girls back from Serbia the first time we needed the blood test to check that the rabies vaccination had been effective as it's a 3rd country. We also had to visit the state vet and have everything signed off in triplicate. Bureaucratic nightmare!

OP, the nurse sounds less than helpful....google it?!?! Anyway the gov.uk page is usually very up to date and tells you the order that things need to be done in.

When in France you need to visit a vet for the deworming tablets 24-120 hours before re-entering the UK. They will note the time of this in the passport and stamp it or sign it.

When you leave the UK nobody will look at the pet passports (eurotunnel at least....ferry may be different) but on the way back they are v careful to check microchips, validity of deworming treatment and rabies vaccination.

mustbe sorry I worded that badly. I didn’t mean it all happened at the same time, there was a process to go through, the vet issued the passport at the end of the process. I meant it was the same vet that did everything. However, I don’t actually remember them having a blood test for rabies prior to the vacc.

Judas it looks like i've been robbed of blood test funds every time 😂😂

It's also worth ringing a few vets in France before you get back, the first one we called wanted to charge over €150 for the worming. We thought it sounded a bit much so went to the next village and found one there which was around €30 and a great lovely vet.

I’m a vet. There are quite a lot of inaccuracies in the posts above, rules and regs have changed since the pet passport scheme was introduced. Blood tests used to be needed to demonstrate rabies immunity had been achieved from the vaccine, but now isn’t.

Currently rules are that vet vaccinates dog against rabies (checks microchip at that point). Dog then cannot enter another EU country for 21 days (so in effect whilst they can leave the UK, there is no point in doing so, as cannot enter another country). On return to the UK dog needs tapeworm treatment (has to administered at a vet practice and signed and dated in passport). This window of time is very specific, no less than 24hrs and no more than 120hr before entry back into the UK.

The vet/nurses will tell you to research it yourself as the onus is on you as the owner to ensure that you fulfill the requirements. You also need to check any individual requirements for the mode of transport you use - planes, ferries etc may have their own requirements. The government website has info on the pet passport scheme.

Mustbemad- things vary for dogs coming form countries where rabies is endemic. I don’t know those requirements specifically, but that is why your dogs will have required blood tests I think. And requirements are also different if pass through a 3rd country (ie not EU). Or if your final country before return to the UK is not EU.

Has anybody traveled to France by ferry or train with a dog? What happens during the crossing? I don't think I have ever seen a dog on a ferry.

The dog stays in the car on the ferry. I’ve done it once but wouldn’t do it again - I know that being alone in the car for a couple of hours with the noise of the rumbling engines would have freaked my dog out so we always go on the (hideously expensive) Shuttle now.

You can’t take a dog on the Eurostar incidentally

pup we went to France last summer with our 8 month old dog! Did the train and from England nothing happens whatsoever, you just have your dog in the car and no checks on the French side either. On the way back you go in the pet queue and they check the pet passport and scan for chip! It was very efficient though and quick