Help with cats

[Joanne]

We are leaving for France (hopefully) in about a month. Asked the vet for advice re our 4 cats he said speak to Defra. They have said we only need microchipping and rabies vacinations. No other treatment required, no up to date yearly vacinations and no flea or worm treatments and no certificate to travel??? Does this sound right? seems a bit easy to me!!

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

The legislation is changing/has changed and defra's website admits that it is not up to date:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/index.htm
I would be surprised if you did not need a health check shortly before travel and astonished if you didn't need any paperwork whatsoever. You could ask the ferry company to confirm what defra have told you.
Afaik there has never been a requirement for flea or tick treatment though, that's for entering the uk only.

[ChezShells]

We moved to Deux Sevres at the beginning of June. We have two cats and did not need rabies vacinations (the process for which needs several months preparations and seeing as one of ours was only 6 months at the time, this was not possible) only microchipping and a certificate from Defra, completed by a vet just before departure. This does not entitle you to bring them back to the UK, but we decided we could have them vacinated over here if we ever go back. However I think that the French rules are due to change next year in line with UK.
Defra were not very helpful and I had to ring twice to get them to send out the forms, then return them and they sent them to my vets - it was all very last minute - so I would advise you to get things arranged as soon as you can.

Michelle