# pet passport uk to france to spain



## 112111 (May 11, 2008)

Hello, 
hope someone can help am traveling from uk to france to spain, is it right that once I have pet passport for cat I can move freely between france and spain. Does anyone know if they check cat or anything at French Spanish boarder? thanks for your help


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## MalanCris (Apr 2, 2007)

You can move freely between France & Spain - there should be no checks at all - the same with Portugal.


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## 101405 (Oct 15, 2006)

Yes you might get checked at the French/Spanish customs. But do you really want to take a cat, because if it gets away you wont see it again?


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## greenasthegrass (Oct 27, 2007)

It might be a homing cat! We had a cat once that clung to us like glue.


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## chalky9 (Oct 27, 2006)

silversurfa said:


> Yes you might get checked at the French/Spanish customs. But do you really want to take a cat, because if it gets away you wont see it again?


What French/Spanish customs? There aren't any, but if there were, they would only want to see the passport.


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## Mashy (Apr 28, 2007)

*Pet passport Uk to France to Spain*

Make sure the rabies injection is not over 2 years old. Although we have been told by our vet that they should be valid for 3 years now I believe Spain can still ask for 2 years. You can travel to most countries in Europe without any problem but we have been asked to show our dog's passport on a couple of sites in France which shows all vaccinations.
The cat only needs to visit the vet prior to returning to the UK.
Enjoy your trip.
Mashy


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## locovan (Oct 17, 2007)

*Re: Pet passport Uk to France to Spain*



Mashy said:


> Make sure the rabies injection is not over 2 years old. Although we have been told by our vet that they should be valid for 3 years now I believe Spain can still ask for 2 years. You can travel to most countries in Europe without any problem but we have been asked to show our dog's passport on a couple of sites in France which shows all vaccinations.
> The cat only needs to visit the vet prior to returning to the UK.
> Enjoy your trip.
> Mashy


We collected our dog passport and the vet said have the Rabies booster ever year as France has stated every year now.


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## Spacerunner (Mar 18, 2006)

Locovan: *We collected our dog passport and the vet said have the Rabies booster ever year as France has stated every year now. 
*

I believe that EU countries now abide by the vaccination manufacturers' guidelines. Our's is definitely 3 years.


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## locovan (Oct 17, 2007)

Spacerunner said:


> Locovan: *We collected our dog passport and the vet said have the Rabies booster ever year as France has stated every year now.
> *
> 
> I believe that EU countries now abide by the vaccination manufacturers' guidelines. Our's is definitely 3 years.


Even the Vets are muddled now then 
He told me 6 months ago it was 3 years for Spain and France now he has said 1 year for France. He makes me nervous he tested to see if his chip was there said it had moved and it hadnt.


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## chalky9 (Oct 27, 2006)

We live in Spain, and our dog's last rabies booster was only valid for a year.


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## Burneyinn (Oct 27, 2006)

I think it depends what vaccine they use.

One of our dogs is valid for 2 years, the other 3.


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## 107558 (Oct 10, 2007)

My Vet said you need to get it done every year as some countries have changed their policy and will only accept 1 year regardless of the vaccine info!

Better be safe than sorry and get it done at about the same time as it's annual boosters.


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## Rosbotham (May 4, 2008)

Watching this with interest...we're currently in the 1st "wait" period (rabies vaccine given a couple of weeks ago, blood test just after Christmas). Our vet had definitely told us annually - will quiz him when we return for the blood test.


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## sallytrafic (Jan 17, 2006)

locovan said:


> Spacerunner said:
> 
> 
> > Locovan: *We collected our dog passport and the vet said have the Rabies booster ever year as France has stated every year now.
> ...


Change Vet


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## locovan (Oct 17, 2007)

sallytrafic said:


> locovan said:
> 
> 
> > Spacerunner said:
> ...


Thanks Frank very good advice as he has to get this right it would be no joke if trying to get our dog back in the country and he has missed something.
They even lost the number on my dogs chip and then "Oh we have found it now" 8O 
I think I will pay to get everything checked out by another Vet as you advise just to make sure.  
Mavis


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## 101405 (Oct 15, 2006)

In Spain its valid for 2yrs ! but to comply with UK regs it has to be 12mths. you can be stopped at the border! some Spanish friends got stopped at the French border ,and refused entry because she did not have the passport .


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## 119100 (Dec 31, 2008)

*Pets in France and Spain*

I live in Spain and only write to reassure you that once you arrive in France you will probably never see a border guard anywhere within the EU. You could easily fail to realize that you have crossed a border between most European countries. Certainly nobody will ever ask to see the pet passport at a border crossing. We have travelled about 15000 km between various EU countries in the last 2 years and have never been stopped at all. Switzerland is not in the EU and there they might look at your passport but I have read that they are going to stop doing so within the next few months. They have never asked to see pet passports from us however. In Spain (and France) pets must be immunised every year for rabies and I abide by this rule. My experience of the police in Spain is that they very rarely bother to check up on anything at all, though if you read the laws and regulations you might get the impression that they are quite strict. Travelling into the UK is the only place where you could have any problems. The UK customs officials are bar stewards. On my last trip from the UK to Spain I was frisked and all my luggage was searched: they failed to notice, however, that I did not have my passport with me. My partner and I had inadvertently swopped passports!!


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## zulurita (May 9, 2005)

The vets are continually confusing people.

I put a post on here sometime ago after I wrote to DEFRA, and posted the email reply from DEFRA.

If you have the Blue Pets Passport you can adhere to the anti rabies vaccination EXPIRY DATE as written in the pets passport.

So if it has a 2 year validity date you adhere to that. Some anti rabies vaccinations do last for 3 years and you can adhere to that.

DEFRA stated in their email that this was ok. It is ONLY WHEN STAYING IN A COUNTRY FOR 3 MONTHS OR MORE that you then need to have a yearly anti rabies. Because the pet is then deemed to be resident in that country.

It is definitely not necessary to have a yearly anti rabies vaccination. (unless the validity states only for a year on the vaccine given)

We have been to many European countries and Jabulile has her anti rabies vaccination every 2 years as her vaccine has a validity date of 2 years.

You must of course have the re vaccination before the expiry date i.e. the day before but NOT on the expiry date (would be deemed to have expired and would have to start the whole process again).

"As from 1st Oct 04 the EC 998/2003 regulation says that for the purposes of non commercial movement of pets the manufacturer's datasheet recommendations should be followed, therefore if a dog/cat is vaccinated against rabies with a two year vaccine in the UK and travels to France it will have its booster in two years time, not annually as France once required. 
Only pets that become resident in France after being there for 3 months will need an annual vaccination."

Regards 
Laura Moon 
Pets Helpline 
[email protected]


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## mgb (Dec 4, 2008)

We had our pets vaccinated with the INTERVET NOBIVAC RABIES A008A01 VACCINE on 1/AUGUST/2007
A blood sample was taken on 3/SEPTEMBER/2007 and reported to have worked OK on 17/October/2007
The vaccination is valid until 31/JULY/2010, a period of 3 (three) years
This means that I can get them back into the UK until then, which is all I am concermed about
This should be valid across the Europe Union
I persoanally wouldn't take my dogs to Southern Spain because of the risk their catching the Leishmaniasis virus especially from other dogs
Happy Days
MGB


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## zulurita (May 9, 2005)

You can buy a Scalibor collar that protects against Leishmaniasis. We get one for our dog when going to South France as well as Spain.


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## 38Rover (Nov 9, 2006)

I live in Spain and have 3 dogs as I understand it visitors will have their home country recommendations for boosters to rabies accepted but if you live in Spain then its every 12 months.
Bit like A frames not legal in Spain but OK for a UK visitor.


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## 101405 (Oct 15, 2006)

Leishmaniasis is transmitted by Mosquito's and sand fly. There is nothing that will deter a mosquito from biting your dog !! Keeping your dog's indoors at dusk can reduce the risk. Not all mosquitos carry the disease its unluck of the draw if your dog's get bitten. If a human is bitten by said mosquito you can develope limes disease , young children are very high risk so a dog with this disease should not be kept in the family home. not that it will pass directly from dog to child , but if another insect bites dog then bites child it can be passed, The insect being the carrier. Nothing will be 100% effective in preventing your dog/cat from being biten by fleas,ticks ect,there is only damage control!!!The offending biters will not be able to live on your pet but the damage could already be done.


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi we took our tabby to Portugal in 07 and 08, no problems, only time we showed her passport was coming back at UK border control.
They seemed more interested in her passport than ours.

We keep her on a long lead which seems to work fine,and the wife takes her for a walk, althrough she usually finishes up carrying her. :lol: 

Olley


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## Briarose (Oct 9, 2007)

*Re: Pet passport Uk to France to Spain*



locovan said:


> Mashy said:
> 
> 
> > Make sure the rabies injection is not over 2 years old. Although we have been told by our vet that they should be valid for 3 years now I believe Spain can still ask for 2 years. You can travel to most countries in Europe without any problem but we have been asked to show our dog's passport on a couple of sites in France which shows all vaccinations.
> ...


I can confirm that that is def wrong, see the posts in the pet forum.............the only time that applies is IF you reside in France for 3 months or more, I also checked this on our way back with the Vet in France who confirmed to me that that is the case, and he told me you go by the rules of the country that you reside in.

On checking at Calais Euro Tunnel they also confirmed that they go by the expiry date on your pet passport, one of my dogs had a two year jab and was over the year point and I had no probs at all............Zulirita will confirm this too.

As for travelling through France/Spain/Portugal no one asked at any point about our dogs or their passport and only twice have I been asked to produce the passport on a camp site.

Also see the letter Zulirita posted in the pets forum from DEFRA with regard to the two year jab.


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## Briarose (Oct 9, 2007)

JQL said:


> My Vet said you need to get it done every year as some countries have changed their policy and will only accept 1 year regardless of the vaccine info!
> 
> Better be safe than sorry and get it done at about the same time as it's annual boosters.


PS the other thing I have been told is to be very careful having the jab on a yearly basis if not needed as you could overload your dog.

We met a couple in Portugal last winter that should have had friends with them, they had to cancel at the last minute as the dog was really ill, they had an on going case with the vet for the wrong advice as the dog shouldn't have had a yearly booster but waited for two years.

Ref other things your pet should be protected from see this topic
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-44690-0.html on our last trip we used Advantage and Advantix.


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