Destination: Norway

Taking Pets to Norway

Many dogs and cats travel from UK to Norway every year as the human members of the family relocate. Norway is closely affiliated with the European Union (EU), but not actually part of the EU, so the rules are very similar, but not exactly the same as for travelling to the EU.

Dogs and cats travelling to Norway need to have the appropriate documentation for travel. The following steps needs to be followed, but more details can be found here.

As of January 1st 2021 there have been some changes to the requirement for European pet travel, read more about these here.

Step 1: Your dog or cat needs to be identified with an ISO standard microchip
Step 2: Your dog or cat needs a rabies vaccination. The pets must be at least 12 weeks old before they can have the vaccination.
Step 3: Your vet can issue a pet passport, this is now only used to track rabies vaccinations. It is not sufficient documentation for travel.
Step 4: Rabies boosters – different vaccinations have to be “boostered” at different times and your vets will mark this in the passport. But once the 21-day wait has elapsed, then your pet can be boostered before the first vaccine runs out and then travel immediately.

Norway is an Echinococcus free territory currently. Echinococcus is a nasty worm which causes cysts on the livers of humans, but if transmitted by foxes and dogs. Pets travelling into Norway have to be treated against Echinococcus between 1 and 5 days before travel. However, UK is also an Echinococcus free territory, so pets travelling direct from UK to Norway i.e. pets flying to Norway have an exemption. The wormer does the pets no harm, so as a rule it is really sensible to worm your pets before entry anyway and then that gives the added protection that your pets will not transport this unpleasant worm across borders.

Pets are classed as “non-commercial” if they are travelling with their owners or other “responsible” person, so ideally the owner needs to be on the same flight as the pets or travel within 5 days. The idea behind this is that pets will be travelling with their owners, but pets being sold or used for commercial purposes will travel without their owners and are subject to slightly different rules.

There are many flight options from UK to Norway – British Airways fly most pets from UK to Norway and Scandinavian Airlines fly some too. And these are direct flights, which is best for pets travelling from UK to Norway. Like other pets travelling by aeroplane, cats and dogs will need to be checked by a vet within the 10 days before the flight to ensure they are fit and healthy before they travel.

The team at PetAir UK have arranged the flights of many dogs and cats from UK to Norway and so we can advise on routes and pre-travel plans. We can arrange a flight or we can collect from anywhere in UK, complete all veterinary preparation and then fly your dog or cat to Norway.