Veterinary Voices. Importing dogs from abroad

[skinnydipper]

Veterinary Voices UK Public Page

In a poll of over 1 thousand UK veterinary professionals on Veterinary Voices UK 98.8% would NOT recommend importing a dog from abroad. This may not be for the reasons you think, these dogs can be...

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[MurphysMinder]

My vet has recently posted a case history of a rescue from Macedonia.

"
was screened for this disease before arrival in the UK, but this parasite has a long incubation period and so it was missed at this stage. He needed biopsies of his non-healing wounds and then some more blood tests. We finally diagnosed Leishmaniasis.
Unfortunately it's not great news having Leishmaniasis. There is no cure. It's just management of the parasite and hoping that the dogs immune response starts coping with the disease on its own. "

Interesting, and worrying that this dog had in fact been screened before import.

 

[skinnydipper]

Dogs can be infected with Leishmaniasis which can lie dormant and undetected, sometimes up to 7 years, until something happens to activate it.

 

[Jenko109]

The 'I cant adopt a dog in the UK because rescues wont let me' argument boils my piss.

There are other ways to obtain a dog that don't include purchasing a puppy.

I have seen some charming dogs pop up on places like Pets4Homes for nicely bred, well established family pets.

There was a lovely Springer spaniel a few months back. Owned by a lady who had up until recently been a dog walker. If I recall correctly she had developed arthritis and could no longer commit to the exercise. It looked to be a cracking dog who would slot in with anyone.

There was a toy poodle on there not so long ago too. KC registered, a tonne of health checks etc. He was in need of a new home that wasn't in a multi dog household.

They do come up. Or keep trying different UK rescues. Smaller, breed specific ones are often a bit more open minded to individual circumstances.

But people want things RIGHT NOW. So rushing off to a wanky foreign rescue to get a barely handled, terrified, disease ridden liability, is obviously the better option.

 

[misst]

I have one who was already in the UK and rejected by his adoptive family . He was fostered by friend of a friend and we had lost a dog recently and wanted a companion for our girl. I wouldn't swap him for the world but even though he is from a low risk country I still recently got him tested for brucellosis on vet advice despite having him 7 years. He was tested for Leish prior to arriving and again a couple of years later when he had a sore on his nose. Negative for both thank god. However he has joint problems due to breeding deformities. He has behaviour problems due to being a stray as a very young puppy. I adore him but I wouldn't have another rescue from abroad. He is a lovely dog with family and dogs he knows but struggles with unknown dogs and people. He is also not very confident outside his home and garden. I took him as no one wanted a scruffy bag of bones and we felt sorry for him. He was about 7 months and had lived on the street in Spain, then in kennels, then flown to the UK and fostered - no wonder he is a bit tricky sometimes.