Today we are moving the dogs back to Sweden. There are a lot of preparations to be done and to say the least it’s not always completely obvious what you need to prepare. Fortunately Malaysia has rabies under control so as long as you have done a Nipah test and make sure they haven’t meet pigs for the last 60 days prior to export it is alright to bring them in to Sweden without putting them in quarantine.

We have been a bit worried about this since even though you shouldn’t have to use quarantine you don’t want to end up not fulfilling a requirement that are a bit unclear and then be forced to put the dogs in quarantine for 4 months or even worse, be reject to enter and then have to take them back and start over the process.

The reason as to why it’s a bit complicated for us is that we have been to multiple countries and also a long time which means that it’s important to make sure that the rabies inoculations are covered and overlapping and different countries have different validity period and requirements. For instance, Dubai requires you to take a rabies shot every year while Sweden it’s enough with one every three years since they use a stronger vaccine. Our original inoculations from Sweden are valid for three years but there was a gap of two days when we refilled the second year in Dubai and it wasn’t clear how to me which shoot that took president and if this was going to be a problem. We had also lost our initial test results for rabies antibodies (once you have this and refill in time you don’t have to worry).

I tried to speak to customs and presented the information I have and hoped to get some guidance as to if everything was in order but they didn’t answer any questions and to be honest where quite rude and not really willing to help.

All the requirements to bring back dogs from Malaysia are clearly listed on Jordbruksverkets home page and we also started preparing more than 6 months in advance and since we didn’t have the initial test result we took another test (which in the end was unnecessary and also not valid since it was taken less than 120 days after the last inoculation). Thanks to traceability in Swedish government agencies it was however easy to get hold of the initial test result four years ago and we had those with us.

Make sure you always check the up to date rules for the country you’re exporting from and importing to since rules change!

Luckily, in the end I managed to get hold of a really helpful lady on Jordbruksverket once we got the initial test result and I explained exactly which inoculations and tests we had done. She took a look at all the dates and the different vaccinations and ensured me that everything looked alright as far as she could see. She also explained everything and also ensured me that since we had such good history of inoculations and tests the worst that would happen if there was a discrepancy in the dates would be that we would be sent to a veterinarian for testing and then put the dogs in home quarantine until the test results came back at which time the case would be dismissed and everything would be alright. Also, it’s not customs that make the final decision, it’s the veterinarians at Jordbruksverket who calls the shots when it comes to approval or non approval if customs are uncertain, which is good. This put us somewhat more at ease.
Also, a interesting thing was that I didn’t know before was that if you have a passport, everything can be filled into this by a veterinarian and you don’t need to have different papers (at least true for going to EU). Also since Dubai requires you to ship dogs in and out of the country as cargo we have never traveled with the dogs which I must say is a LOT easier since you’re in place both at the start and end of the journey.

Requirements to ship dogs from Malaysia to Sweden without quarantine

• Animals should be ID marked
• Sufficient rabies inoculations and tests for antibodies
• ELISA-test for lgG (Nipah) (to be taken not more than 10 days before travel)
• Deworming have to be done before the travel (needs to be done by a veterinarian and entered into the passports)
• If you don’t have a pet passport you need separate certificates for all this
• If you’re NOT traveling with the pet you also need separate health certificates (to be done within 24 hours before the travel)
• The pet should not have met pigs during the last 60 days (something you certify by yourself
• Pet should not have been in places with Nipah virus the last 60 days

So today was a long day, first the veterinarian came by the house to give deworming pills and give us the results of the Nipah test (which came the same day since there was public holidays and weekend in the days leading up to the shipment). Eric also came by to help us with a extra car and a couple of extra hands at the airport (thank you Eric). Once all papers where in order and the cages inspected we went out the airport 4 hours before the shipment (which gave use 3 hours for checking in etc which in the end was good to have since the people in the check in counters where not completely sure of what was required). Also our veterinarian who is used to ship animals came with us which helped a lot during check in.

We flew KLM and they where really helpful but it seems like a lot of people are recommending Lufthansa for traveling with pets. We didn’t want to use that options since they have a stopover in Bangkok on the way from Malaysia.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam (thankfully no delays or closed airports for us which would have been a nightmare) we got confirmation that the dogs arrived and where ready for loading on the flight to Stockholm. Then we could actually see the cages when they loaded them in Amsterdam from the window by the gate.

Once we arrived in Stockholm the dogs actually arrived just as we walked through passport control and it was a great relieve to see that they where alright and we could immediately give them more water through the crates.
The procedure in customs only took 5-10 minutes which surprised me a lot. Never could imagine that it would go this smooth! We needed to take them out of the crates in customs so that they could read the micro chip ID as the last procedure and then we could take them out for walking in a wintry Stockholm.

Good thing is also that a friend (thank you Dan) came by Arlanda so we could take one taxi with the dogs and load the crates separately in Dan’s car.

To summarize, everything went extremely smooth which was surprising. Also, I was surprised at how cheap it was. The excess weight we paid for the dogs was only 400 USD and the veterinarian (including unnecessary rabies test) was about the same. This was a huge difference from the 4000 USD it cost to ship them from Dubai to Malaysia! It’s a big difference to take them as excess luggage compared to shipping them separately as cargo.

Learning’s and tips for moving and traveling with dogs

• Start in good time to prepare
• Make sure that you have a valid rabies test (at least 120 days between the last inoculation and the test). Once you have done one test, you don’t need to redo the test as long as you refill the rabies vaccination within the required time limits (which depends on the country you’re in). Always make sure that you conform to the strictest requirements (which in our case was Sweden).
• Make sure that you have a valid dog passport for EU, this eases things a lot when it comes to paperwork.
• Make copies of passports and all documents (required at different stages and also good if papers gets lost)
• Travel with the pet if possible, this makes things much easier
• When you book your travel, make sure that there are not a lot of public holidays in the days leading up to the travel since you might have to do some laboratory tests (depending on country) and you need to use a veterinarian the day of the shipping.
• Travel at evening or night (makes it easy to fix the final things during the day when people are working)
• If the animals are flying as checked in luggage and it’s not direct flight, make sure you choose a route which doesn’t require reloading in a warm country since the animals will be placed outside the aircraft before loading. And if you have to, it’s good to travel at night when it’s cooler and there is no direct sunlight.
• Travels during winter will of course hold down the temperature and risk but at the same time might introduce delays and closed airports (thankfully something we didn’t experience) with unwanted problems. Perhaps it’s best to opt for spring/autumn if you can choose.
• Once you are abroad, always make sure you stay up-to-date with the rules in your home country since there is a risk that they change and you might have to move the pets back early

Dogs · Kuala Lumpur · Stockholm · sweden

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