could anyone help me,anyone with experience of what neccessary things does a dog need in order to be eligible to fly overseas (south america) in particular,many thanks

vet passport.dog crate water

have a look At www.ladyhaye.com  they bought over my fcr from sweden, on their site they give you a page what size crate etc.

We flew our puppy in to Channel Isles from U.K. Not the same distance but it had to be a small aircraft so he was in the cabin. It would have been to cold in the hold of a large plane.
He was just fine in cage with vet bed. complained quite loudly but soon slept. He just weed no vomitting as I believe is common in car travel.
You need to check out with the various government depts, customs perhaps.

Hi, for the majority of airlines the animal will need a health certificate within 48hours of flying, saying that he is fit and healthy - your vet should know about them. Make sure you check with the airline that they will fly dogs as some won't! We had a dog due to fly abroad and only when the new owners arived at the airport to fly over here to collect and they checked that the dog was booked on the flight to go back did the airline say that they don't fly dogs - so just check & make sure!! Alos for that length of flight the dog will travel in the hold, so you will need an aicraft approved sky/vari kennel - the correct size! You will also need an export certificate from the Kennel Club. Most vets are usually pretty good about the requirements for each country, otherwise try the DEFRA site - they seem quite usful. There may also be various vaccinations that the dog will need -e.g. Rabies & then not flying for 30days after.

Hope that helps

While some of the advice in RIVH's answer is useful, it is absolutely essentila you contact the relevant authorities in the country that the dog is going to to find out about import arrangements.  DEFRA are suaully very good, and keep up to date on most countries, and can supply the paperwork accordingly for your vet to fill in, but occassionally there will be changes abroads and relevant paperwrok will not be at DEFRA, so check with embassies over here, or get whoever is receiving dogs at other end to make sure of all requirements.  The easises route is to use a pro. shipper such as Overhill, who will attend to all paperwork, advise of vaccinations, timings etc, and prepare shipping container of the correct size.  DEFRA sit gives regulations for internations air freight of dogs about dimensions for contianers, they have to be big enough for dog to sit, stand etc.  You also have to be aware that you can only ship to some destinations at certain times of year due to airlines using different planes on different routes.  The kennel club ezport documentation is only relevant for registering in the country of destination, and does not come into the shipping process at all, for any country I have dealt with.

bye
Gwen

You will also have to see whether the airlines will transport your dog as there was a big thing some time ago where some breeds weren't being accepted.

if you look through the search facility you will find some information on this as I asked about it in the Spring of last year when I was considering moving to New York.  There was links posted about pet passport stuff and about paying extra because where bags etc are kept might need to be heated.  sorry can't remember much of it but it was going to be very expensive and might have proved fatal for my dog so I decided not to bother.