Advice on travelling to France with dog

[bdd2017]

Hi,
I'm getting myself into a pickle about what is required to take my dog to France. We've been with her many times on her passport but not yet using the certificate.

Unfortunately, her rabies vaccine lapsed by a couple of weeks, so I had her vaccinated recently. I believe I need to wait 21 days for this to be valid (confusingly the vet said to my dh she'd be good to go after a week - I think she got this wrong).

So I know we need:

• to wait 21 days after rabies jab

-Microchip (already done) -Health certificate

• coming back to the UK she needs the dewormer

The thing I'm confusing myself with is if she needs a blood test done now she's had her rabies jab. On the French side they list the counties exempt from this but I didn't see the UK listed. So mumsnet, has anyone taken their dog over recently after their first or lapsed rabies vaccine, and did you need the blood test?

Thanks!

We took our 11 month old whippet to france at half term. He'd had his rabies jab about 6 months ago but he didn't need a follow up blood test. I'm not sure if this is different if the vaccine has lapsed ? We got an AHC from a vet in Folkestone as we took the eurotunnel. Our local vet wanted 250 quid for the AHC whereas Abbeywell Vets in Folkestone only charged 99 pounds and it was simple. We did it online and then just collected the certificate before we took the eurotunnel. We then had to go to the vets in france 24 hours before our return for the wormer etc - as had always been the case.

There's a Facebook group called Animal Health Certificate that's worth joining and has lots of info.

There's nothing mentioned about a blood test on the government site

www.gov.uk/taking-your-pet-abroad/travelling-to-an-eu-country-or-northern-ireland

Eurotunnel site fairly clear too

www.eurotunnel.com/uk/travelling-with-us/travelling-with-your-pet/checklist/

We're travelling to Holland next month and I've never come across mention of blood tests in any of my research. Only now that you've mentioned I can see if I Google about travelling and blood test there are a load of vet sites that make it sound like it's compulsory.

Biggest pain for us is not being able to take any pet food across with us.

Yes thanks so much. I checked the gov site and didn't see about the blood test, but we saw a french site which hadn't excluded the UK from needing one (I think they just haven't updated the site). I'm feeling confident now you don't need the blood test.

It was actually a lot more straightforward than you would expect, as long as you have the rabies vaccination (no blood test needed), the health certificate (within 10 days of departure), and the microchip details. On the way back, make sure you go to a local vet to sign off that the dog has been wormed at least 24 hours before departure.

I think years ago you needed a blood test after the initial rabies vaccine. I remember doing that with our last dog 10 years ago but you don't need to do that anymore.

Are you not allowed to take dog food across with you tizwozliz?

Do you get the worm treatment France side?

@Peanutgurgle - technically no, in reality I don't think they're checking.

We travelled to Denmark via Holland in April and no checks then, we hadn't taken food with us, as we ordered some to be delivered to family over there.

Your worming treatment needs to be given prior to travel back to the UK, at least 24 hours in advance but no more than 120 hours. So if you're in France you need to find a French vet to administer and complete page 4 of the AHC

In the whole Brexit shakedown the UK was originally going to be a Annex 3 country and need a blood test and a three month holding period before entry into the EU. At the last moment we got changed to an Annex 2 no blood test required.