# True Cost of Taking Dogs Abroad



## emjaiuk (Jun 3, 2005)

Off to France(probably) for the second time since June. Just picked up some medication from the vet. Drontal, Advantix primarily for ticks, and Advocate primarily for lungworm, for two dogs, 33kg and 25kg £159.00!!!!!!!!!!

With £60 for the tickets and the French vet bills it must be approaching £250.00

I can't do anything about the fares, but can anyone suggest any way of reducing the medication cost. A newish grandson with an even newer sibling to be on the way prevent a single longer stay away.

I hate seeing those 'A dog is for life' reminders everywhere :lol: 

Malcolm


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## BrianJP (Sep 17, 2010)

Some of those medications can be bought on line for a lot less than vets normally charge.


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## Garcia (Mar 5, 2010)

If your medication doesn't include Leichmaniose , and you're heading south to Med, you'll need your Scalibor collars as well at about 25 /30 E's each for dogs that size.......
Altho it's now approaching low season it's still not worth taking the risk with the Leichmaniose.....one of mine has contracted it , and whilst she's now fine, she's on pills for the rest of her life and, as a dog lover / dog owner and NOT a vet ! , I cannot say I enjoyed giving her daily injections in her neck for a month at the start of her treatment (either that or daily visits to the vet and the resulting cost!

When we go back to the UK with the dogs , it always amazes me that it costs more for the dogs to go than for me, the wife AND the Van combined!! And they never even step out of the van on the crossing!
Garcia


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## BrianJP (Sep 17, 2010)

Advantix is one of the few spot on treatments that give protection against Sandfly
(Leishmaniasis. ).


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## emjaiuk (Jun 3, 2005)

BrianJP said:


> Some of those medications can be bought on line for a lot less than vets normally charge.


I suppose it's about the same as the length of a bit of string, but any idea how much vets charge for a prescription? Is there still a saving buying online with a seperate perscription charge?

Malcolm


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Try these:

http://www.viovet.co.uk/?gclid=CKDcp4W3oLkCFbLMtAodIngAYg

http://www.discountpetcare.co.uk/

tony


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## 747 (Oct 2, 2009)

+1 with Tony.

We often use Hyperdrug.com (the Canine Chemist) for many items. However, our dogs had a bit of a reaction to their own brand Flea and worming treatment (so not recommended).


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## BrianJP (Sep 17, 2010)

Prescription not normaly required for Drontal and Advantix just have to register your name and address.


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## LisaB (Apr 24, 2009)

Always buy my advantix over the counter in French chemists and its cheaper then vet at home. Can't find other meds though so buy advocate fom vet here as prescription is £10 any way and then given p and p its not much different.


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## chasper (Apr 20, 2008)

Advantix is listed as a prescription drug. i have tried several mail order companys and they all require a prescription , not even a photocopy, the actual prescription. So please tell me which company you use Hyperdrug which was named list it as a prescription drug. Thanks.


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## cheshiregordon (Sep 24, 2011)

I only ever buy adventix to take with me. I bought the last pack from my vet for about £30 and its lasted me two trips lasting 14 weeks in total. The vet in bretagne end of August was 34 euro and I think a similar figure the previous year.
Our Collie has been abroad each of the last five years and has covered most european countries.
I believe you can buy adventix by mail order but you'll need a perscription from your vet first which kind of defeats the purpose.


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## takeaflight (May 9, 2005)

Recently bought some Drontal from tescos online, special offer I think it was £14.

Also discovered by accident that if you have a prescription drug, then if you take the empty bottle they will sell you more. 

Roy


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

emjaiuk said:


> Off to France(probably) for the second time since June. Just picked up some medication from the vet. Drontal, Advantix primarily for ticks, and Advocate primarily for lungworm, for two dogs, 33kg and 25kg £159.00!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> With £60 for the tickets and the French vet bills it must be approaching £250.00
> 
> ...


Quite agree. Took ours to the vet on Tuesday for:

1 x Canileish booster
6 x Advantix
6 x Milbemax
1 x Advocate

Bill £156.

Mind you; the whole reason we spent £40k on a motorhome was because we had a puppy again and would not fly away on holiday and leave him.

Kev

ps. In case anyone missed it last week here is the Antiparasitics table again.


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## bulawayolass (Jul 27, 2010)

Just a warning that a LOT of the drugs you buy online are fake. There was a programme on TV l think last year sorry but dates for me get confusing since Brian passed.

Anyway it was about trading standards busting these company's selling drugs and what's really in the, A HUGE % of drugs sold online they were talking 50 to 60% are fake, and they said animal meds even more so.

So your online purchase (human or animal) may not be the bargain you thought, fine buy them as they are cheaper but be aware of the risk.


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## emjaiuk (Jun 3, 2005)

I've just done a very quick check with Vet UK, using that one for no particular reason, and it came to about £80.00 rather than the £160 from the vet. Even with a perscription charge that's quite a considerable saving, especially if we do it 3/4 times a year. Whilst we would never scrimp on our dogs treatment, unfortunatly vets appear to be going the same way as dentists and getting more and more expensive, so savings have to be made where they can. I do realise that there are a lot of fake medicines on the internet, but I think that there are sufficien reputable companies in the UK to make this risk negligible.

Malcolm


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

the true cost of taking a dog

can't go anywhere that is not dog friendly

Can't take an oversized mut on a bus because he may be too friendly

Can't afford anyone to approach the van because he is definately unfriendly

can't stay anywhere where there is not a place to really exercise him

Can't leave him in the van if it's too hot

Can't take him with us if it's too hot so need aircon or running fan to cool him

can't put him in kennels because he has home cooked chicken and brown rice......... a lot a pound of chicken and 2 lb of brown rice and veg daily

why do we keep him. ...... Good question :lol: 

The cost of vet and treatments pales into insignificance 

But just think of kennel costs and leaving an unhappy dog behind

But I have my moments :lol:  

Aldra


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## Snunkie (Mar 21, 2011)

You are no longer required by Defra to use a tic treatment, the on,y requirement is a treatment for tapeworm and for rabies jabs to be up to date, microchipped etc.

We just got back from France on Monday, £1.26 for *edit milbemax tablet from uk vets and €33 for French vet to give it to the dog including full examination. We treat him with advocat 4 weekly anyway for his own health but tapeworm treatment is the only required treatment now. Our is only a 3kg toy poodle though!

Lucy


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## metblue (Oct 9, 2006)

*dogs*

Hi, we use Advantix on our Yorkie, apply once every 2 months when in the UK and every month when abroad, purchase from vet, £30 for 4 applications.
This year on our return from Spain we stopped in Aubigny sur Nere for the Franco Eccose rally (brill weekend by the way) town has 2 very good aires in it !
Sussed out local vet to have our dog "done" before heading for the train, guy was fab, checked out dog,weighed him, gave him a worming pill and that was that !
Took dogs passport and advised me that most of the vets were ripping of the UK dog.cat owners by charging for things that are not required by French/UK laws !!
Please see receptionist on way out he said, for payment and he went to fill out the required pages in the passport, 2 mins later he was back ,handed passport to the young lady and told her what the cost would be, the young girl asked me for a payment of 2 euros and 80 cents !! I asked her to check with the vet as I did not want her to get into any trouble, he came back and advised that the cost was correct that he would not charge an inflated fee for a 2 minute check and it was indeed correct.
Off we went to the tunnel that day and when we arrived we went with some trepidation to check the dog in, there was no problems, all was in order and we were in/out in about 3 mins.
So watch out what you are being charged for and stand your ground and now as you have 5 days to go to the vet don't pay too high a price.
I know where we will be taking our dog next year 
PS will post details of vet at weekend when we take the van out of storage.


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## brynteg (Aug 6, 2013)

Our dogs are a major part of our family - and as others have said.....it is why we have the motorhome. However, it makes sense to keep the costs down as much as possible. We use the Eurotunnel. - Less stressful for a 57kg and a 44 kg dog. (No chance of picking them up and carrying them in places if necessary!). Our medication is always more expensive as it goes by dog weight. When we can we make savings by buying BRANDED products that we know off the internet. We bought Scalibor collars off our vet......then the spare ones we want to take with us to Greece on Monday we bought off the internet. - Same packaging, same manufacturer, but £5 less a collar! (They are also vaccinated against Leishmaniasis.....which obviously had to be done at the vets!).

We have bought Milbemax for our trip home in October. I had looked at Keith's excellent website re vets abroad it rarely shows the charges for administering the tablets. (Or whether or not the vet insists on using its own drugs). I would be ever so grateful, - especially in light of the above posting, - if someone out there can recommend a good vet who charges sensible prices for us on our way home in October. - Our route will be through Basel, Mulhouse, Nancy, Metz, Lille, Calais. - I gather it is cheaper to get the dogs done further away from Calais, so we are happy to stop off anywhere between Basel and Calais as we shall be at the tunnel within the 5 days!

Thanks,

Brynteg.


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

brynteg said:


> We have bought Milbemax for our trip home in October........


Ideally you should start the dogs on Milbemax 1 month before getting to a risk area (and repeat monthly) in order to prevent heartworm infection. The scalibor collar provides very good repellency but if an infected mossie does feed the dog could still get heartworm.

The "return to the UK" rules are only to prevent undesirable parasites entering UK and nothing to do with keeping your dog safe whilst abroad.


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## brynteg (Aug 6, 2013)

Thanks Kev.....we use Milbemax regularly in the U.K. so our dogs are always protected with it. (Not just when we go abroad). - I just mentioned we had also bought some for our return journey in case a vet in France/Luxembourg /Belgium would be happy to let us use our own drugs.

I am aware that the rabies and tapeworm treatments are needed to keep the U. K. free of such diseases and parasites....not to safeguard our dogs. 

Ours are treated with Milbemax for Tapeworm, and Advocate for Heartworm here in the U.K. as well as abroad. They also are treated for ticks and fleas all year round, as we live in an area populated by Red Deer and sheep in copious quantities! 

We have chosen to have our dogs vaccinated with the Caneleish jabs..... as well as the dogs wearing Scalibor collars..... which has been done our dogs safety, not U.K. entry!

To return to the O.P. I don't see a problem with buying 'branded' goods on line. One just has to be careful that one is buying the 'proper article'.

I would still be ever so grateful if there is someone out there that can recommend a sensibly priced vet that we can use on our trip back from Greece in September. (Basel/Mulhouse/Nancy/Metz/Luxembourg/Namur/Lille/Calais). As I said in my previous post, Keith's Vets List doesn't mention costs and they seem to vary greatly. 

Thanks in anticipation.

Brynteg


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