The tapeworm treatment your dog needs to come back to Britain

Coming back is not the same as going out. A dog entering Great Britain from most of Europe needs a tapeworm treatment, recorded by a vet, given no less than twenty-four hours and no more than one hundred and twenty hours before it arrives.

The window in plain terms

Between one and five days before landing. Not on the morning of the ferry, and not a week earlier. The vet writes the date and the exact time into the certificate, and the border checks it.

Which animals need it

• Dogs: yes, on every entry to Great Britain
• Cats: no
• Ferrets: no
• Dogs arriving from Ireland, Norway, Finland or Malta: no

Who gives it

A vet in the country you are leaving, which means an appointment abroad, in a language that may not be yours, inside a five-day window, while you are in the middle of a move. It is the part of a return journey that people most often ask us to arrange, and the part where being an hour out matters.

The treatment must contain praziquantel or an equivalent. Any European vet will know what is being asked for; it is the timing, not the drug, that goes wrong.