Dogs in Quessda

Hello! We are bringing our 2 Spaniels to Spain in February. Does anyone here have any advice re keeping our dogs safe from disease or pests? They will have the usual vaccinations as required.

Use the ‘spot on’ equivalent for Spain as it also includes protection from the sand fly which carry the leish mania disease. Plus also try to keep away from Sandy soil where the leish fleas live. The other very important thing to avoid at all costs is the Precessionary caterpillar usually active from end of January to April. Their hairs are lethal to dogs and very rapid response is needed. Avoid all people ne trees during this period and always be vigilant, for what looks like twigs on pavements or roads and the nests in trees that look left like large cobwebs. Any more information p,ease let us know. We have been here for seven years and so far managed to avoid issues using the above caution, enjoy your time in Spain.

We have used a branded edible tablet called Bravecto for our dogs.
The vet prescribed a 35 euro tablet for a 15kg-20kg dog.
One dog is 12kg the other 14kg, so we bought one over the counter, halved it and gave each to the dogs.
In the past one of our dogs seemed to pick up ticks a lot, however after trying several products the Bravecto seems to work. We only give them half a tablet in early March and it keeps them tick/flea free till summer.

Please avoid using Bravecto. It has a terrible incidence of causing painful death to dogs. If you have used it with no side effects you are very lucky. There is a Facebook group called "Does Bravecto Kill Dogs?"

jolodoyle wrote: The other very important thing to avoid at all costs is the Precessionary caterpillar usually active from end of January to April. Their hairs are lethal to dogs and very rapid response is needed. Avoid all people ne trees during this period and always be vigilant, for what looks like twigs on pavements or roads and the nests in trees that look left like large cobwebs.

"Avoid all people ne trees" should read avoid all pine trees. I suppose this is the predictive spelling at work.
I am not being pedantic about this, it may not be understood by people new to this country.
The council have recently sprayed some pine trees near us to try and prevent this problem

we use Advantix spot treatment, Scalibur collars and Leisguard against leishmania. Processionaries don't seem to be nesting yet in the pines but you will soon see the white nests, then beware.
However, there are some really nice people about putting down food that can damage or kill an animal, delightful folk!!!
So please be careful walking your doggies, whatever you do carry plastic bags (sorry not telling you what you already know) and enjoy your time in Spain with your furbabies.

Our dog became listless and not well, we took him to the vets and a blood test revealed tic fever. We asked how could this be as we religiously treated him monthly with tic and flea preparation, according to the vet these preparation do not stop the animal being bitten but the oarasite dies not stay on the animal. A corpse of strong antibiotics soon cleared the problem.