- This topic has 1 reply, 6 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
hi i have a 3 year old german rot cross fixed female
i am thinking of spending 3 to 6 months in costa rica to
explore the possibility of setting up a permanent base
she is well trained and i never put a leash on her
weather i’m walking a busy city street or treking in the
woods .i would like to know if some of you could provide me
some feedback as to experiances ,pros,cons,limitations and
so on.in many of the posts i have read here people have
been mentioning their dogs im am curious as to how they
deal with costa rican predator wildlife ?1
would like to know about traveling accomadations while
traveling within the country ?2
more about these pesticides they spray on the grounds ?3
and any other information you may want to share?4
also i was thinking of doing the machu pichu hike in peru
and would really apreciate any feedback from anyone who has
one who has brought their dog ?
thanks
with proper health certificates from the vet and the USDA it is possible to bring your dog to costa rica. fees for the airlines will vary — some can charge as much as $400, and others charge a much lower rate, i.e., American only charged me $100 to bring in my cattle dog last year. but there are restrictions as to the time of year you travel. too hot or too cold and the airlines won’t fly your pet.
it is best to keep your dog on a leash here, esp if you are in the towns. there are a lot of stray dogs here. i’ve never had one be aggressive toward my dog when i have him with me in the city, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. we also don’t leave our dog out at night. there are coyotes and other predators here in the campo. i also keep my dog on a leash when i am walking him even in the country now after the pesticide/herbicide incident of earlier this year. they are always spraying something along the sides of the road here so i keep my dog off the grassy parts now and walk him only in the middle of the road. The Ticos love chemicals of all kinds; the more the better, so minimizing your dogs exposure to these things is best (despite the claims that Round-up is safe for dogs to ingest!)
Dogs are not permitted on buses so this may cause problems if you intend to use public transport, and if you are staying in one particular area, a known taxi driver [i]may[/i] allow one in their cab.
martimer, it’s appalling to think that you would even consider bringing a defenseless animal that you care about to this awful place where, as you have said, “. . . brutality and home invasions are a normal part of life.”
Better you should stay in Canada where where the worst that can happen is that they decapitate you for using public transportation.
david my comment on the ladrones thread was for two reasons
one- to reflect on the statements of certain posts where
people were sayin that those were normal acceptable conditions for people who live in costa rica sort of trade off for the weather and cost of livingtwo- provoke comments from other people like you,
who expressed that those were extreme and uncommon situations. i heard you!!!(if you wanna get catty i’ll hook you up with my mom)now this is a thread asking for information about travelling hiking and so on with a dog in costa rica
anyone who has anything to say about traveling with dogs in costa rica please share
i could leave her here but i thought she’d have fun with hiking and swimming in some areas[b]DavidCMurray[/b] I couldn’t believe it when I read your response to [b]mariner[/b], that read [i]”Better you should stay in Canada where where the worst that can happen is that they decapitate you for using public transportation”.[/i] Compared to the some of the crimes committed in the USA, Canada seems pretty docile. That comment was totally uncalled for. It was a horrific thing to happen, and it shouldn’t have happened to anyone. I am writing this, as a forum member and as a Canadian.
[b]mariner[/b], while I am sure [i]’she will have fun doing those things'[/i] it may limit what [i]you[/i] can do.if you do decide to bring the dog, make sure it’s had all the appropriate flea and tick meds, parasite prevention, heartworm, etc. i didn’t use any of these things on my two dogs in the States, but down here, it is a constant battle, particularly with parasites, which can be picked up from standing water or eating some tidbit that you didn’t give the dog. there are specific tick borne diseases here that have the potential to kill your dog. and there are all kinds of little things that like to bite their legs, sometimes causing an allergic reaction. so get some benadryl, cortisone cream, and if that isn’t enough you can probably pick up some betametasona at a local vet’s office. half of my medicine chest down here is full of various ointments, pills, sprays, and creams for the things i mentioned. my cattle dog even had a butterfly larva in its ear. thought it was an ear infection, gave the appropriate drops, and two days later when he was shaking his head, out flew a 2 inch long butterfly larva. everytime i went to the vet pharmacy they would remind me that we were living in the tropics and that is a whole other situation than living in the States or Canada as far as what animals can get down here. tapeworms are prevalent because of the fleas, so you need to watch for that, too. Canex can be bought here for about $3.00 and that will get rid of them.
crfinca, I was being facetious. Sorry you missed it.
Of course, beheadings on public transit don’t typify Canada any more than “brutality and home invasions are a normal part of life in Costa Rica” despite martimer’s assertion to the contrary.
I have been traveling to Costa Rica for the past 5 years. I will be down again in February for a month. I love my dogs enough to leave them at home. The only way I would expose them to the dangers (dog dangers) of Costa Rica would be if I moved there on a permanent basis. Our dogs build up immunities to the germs they are constantly exposed to…not tropical ones. Think of how the Indians died in North America when exposed to the European germs. For me it is not worth the risk to expose my dogs to the possibility of bug bites, snake bite, water germs, and even the sudden temperature change. I look forward to leaving my 19 degree weather here in Maryland, but I do not look forward to leaving my dogs at home. But I will, as I think it is best for them.
you make some good points. bringing a dog “on vacation” is, in my mind, a pretty frivolous thing to do. i brought my dogs for the last 4 years because we were here for months at a time and i couldn’t leave them at my other house. but two years ago on the day before i left for the States with my cow dog, he ran into the bushes near my house. i didn’t think anything of it until i got home and when i was checking on the hot spots he had developed two days before (also a constant problem here), i saw two teeny tiny ticks, which had not imbedded yet. i wrapped them up in tissue paper and took them to my vet who said they were a different kind of tick than the ones we have in colorado. and just as a precaution against ehrliciosis and some other deadly disease, the vet doused my dog with Frontline and put him on a two week regime of doxyclycine. cost $100. sheesh. plus, if maritimer isn’t renting a car, there will be a problem transporting a big dog around the country. buses don’t allow them, many taxi drivers won’t allow them, so then what?
We check our dogs every day for ticks, and on one in particular, we very often find at least one. On another dog, we have found one ‘in her nostril’ 😥 many times
And, as I mentioned on a prior post, check every dog, regularly and very carefully, for ‘Bott flies’.bot flies are the thing my cow dog HASN’T had — yet. not a week goes by that i don’t have to buy some kind of treatment for that dog. it’s a full time job taking care of him. had i known the hazards of the tropics, i might have thought twice about rescuing him. jejeje
I don’t understand the difference. Where we live, outside Grecia at about 4,100 feet, we’ve had none of these problems whatsoever. The Lab we brought from the U.S. and our German shepherd both got/get Frontline and ivermectin for heartworms every month and daily groomings. And they wore/wear tick collars. So far, not a tick, not a bot fly, not a hotspot, nuthin’.
That said, however, early on our younger cat did have two small ticks which we removed without incident . . . and he’s a housecat!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
