Polar Bear

I primarily use it to transfer money earned overseas into the UK, so I bring in several thousand pounds a month. (The payment is transferred in GBP but the Co-op still charged an overseas payment fee. Starling don't). Then I send smaller payments out to other UK accounts and sometimes to Wise After about 6 months of doing this I triggered a money laundering security check. They messaged me asking about the money, I sent a copy of my work contract, and I've not had a problem since. I've never called them. I'm not sure they even have a call center. It's all done through their secure messaging in the he app I've never transferred more than about £10k in or out in one transaction. But the domestic transfer limit is £25k per day. If you are concerned about triggering a security check, I'd suggest contacting them shortly before the payment is due and asking if they need any additional documentation. They are still subject to the same money laundering regulations as any other UK bank, so if they are checks that have to be done, it's going to be a similar process whoever you bank with.

I opened a Starling account in the UK a couple of years ago while I was overseas. Then I opened one for my husband this year while we were in Thailand. It was a bit trickier last time because I couldn't download the app directly. I had to use a VPN I think, or APK pure, something like that, to download it. But aside from that, it was very easy. I needed a UK address to receive the debit card. Starling's customer service has been excellent. Far better than the Co-op or HSBC, which we also use.

It depends what you are using it for. Giving ivermectin every 3 months is fine for intestinal worms, useless for ticks and potentially fatal with heartworm.

Ivermectin is excellent for killing intestinal parasites (though not tapeworm), and it is fairly effective against tick infestations, although it takes several days to kill them. It also prevents heartworm, which is endemic here. However, it is not useful for blood parasites like ehrlichiosis. Having said that, you say your dog was treated with two injections plus antibiotics, so I suspect it was babesiosis. There was a laboratory-based study a couple of years ago suggesting ivermectin had an inhibitory effect on Babesia. I can't remember the exact details, but the results were promising, so you might be seeing the effects of that. (Note for anyone else reading this, do NOT start giving your dog ivermectin without getting them tested for heartworm first. If they already have a mature heartworm infection, it can kill them. Once you know they are clear, it must be given every month as a preventative. If you don't give it for more than 8 weeks, they need to be tested again before you restart.)

The problem with systemics (ivermectin, Nexgard, Bravecto, etc.) is that the tick has to bite before they work. They are very effective at killing ticks before they can lay eggs, preventing an infestation, but none of them kill fast enough to reliably prevent the tick passing on the parasite before they die. (My dog was on Spectra Nexgard when he contracted ehrlichiosis.) If you are trying to prevent tick-borne diseases, you need a tick repellent. The disadvantage there is that even the best ones are only around 80% effective (compared with almost 100% for systemics). I double up now, a repellent spot-on (Vectra 3D) and a systemic (Bravecto), plus manually checking for ticks daily. This is under veterinary advice because the ehrlichiosis nearly killed him, and he might not survive another round of it. Locally bred dogs seems to have better resistance to it.

I don't know if anaplasmosis is different, but I know 4 dogs, including mine, that had ehrlichiosis, and they all recovered. My dog was on doxycycline for 2 or 3 months, but has been fine since then, albeit with some minor impairment to his liver function. As I understand it, he may still show positive on the blood test, but he is asymptomatic. However, there is no lasting immunity. They can be reinfected within days of stopping treatment, so if you are an area where many ticks carry it, you need to be doing everything you can to prevent tick bites. I'd also be considering antibiotic resistance if local vets are routinely putting dogs on them for years at a time.

It's hard to get a Grab round here between about 7-9 am. so I've pre-booked maybe 10 or so times. A couple have been airport runs, others just within the city. They've always turned up, usually about 5-10 mins early.

The requirements are here https://www.gov.uk/bring-pet-to-great-britain The main steps, in order 1) Get microchip 2) Get rabies vaccination *3) If 2 was their first rabies vaccination, they need a second one 3-4 weeks later. If they have been getting regular vaccinations, one is enough. However, you might want to consider doing the booster anyway, to ensure they pass step 4 4) Wait 31 days, not counting the day of vaccination. Have a blood sample taken, and sent for a rabies titer test. (As far as I know, National Institute of Animal Heath is the only lab in Thailand that is EU/UK recognised for the titer test). Note: the titer test results are valid indefinitely as long as you never miss a booster. If a booster is late, even by 1 day, then the certificate is invalidated and you have to start over. 5) Assuming they pass the titer test, wait 3 months from the date the blood sample was taken. 6) Have your vet fill out the UK health certificate no more than 10 days before arrival. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pet-travel-apply-for-a-gb-pet-health-certificate 7) They will need a vet administered tapeworm treatment 24-120 hours before entry to UK (not departure from Thailand.) The microchip, vaccination, blood sample, rabies test and tapeworm treatment all have to be recorded on a pet passport and/or health certificate. The vaccination record has to be completed in a specific way (see the gov link), so make sure your vet knows what they are doing. By air, they have to go in the hold as cargo (not in the cabin, or as checked baggage). It's expensive. They can only go with certain airlines, on certain routes. These are called approved routes and there is a list here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pet-travel-approved-air-sea-rail-and-charter-routes-for-the-movement-of-pets A lot of people opt to fly into Europe instead, and then drive back rather than pay to send them as cargo. There is also an organisation called Action For Dogs (you can find them online or on FB). They send rescue dogs back to the EU and UK for rehoming, and sell extra spaces to pet owners to offset the cost. They do occasionally have direct flights to the UK, but they often have spaces to EU and then they drive them over to the UK. They are usually a lot cheaper because they bulk buy the flight spaces. If everything is in order, they won't need to quarantine.

400k dog attacks in the USA. ~400k violent crimes per 100,000 people against humans by humans in the USA. 17 children killed by dogs in the USA last year. 35 children murdered by humans in the USA every day. You have to find a special site to get information on dog attacks. You can open literally any newspaper or news site and find story after story about human violence. You dislike dogs, that's fine, it's your business, but statistically, you pose a far greater danger to other people, especially children, than a dog does.

Without knowing the dogs, this is only a best guess, but given their ages, that they are both neutered, and they are opposite sexes, it would be unusual for them to fight seriously, and the lack of serious injury (puncture wounds to the neck or belly), also points in that direction. It sounds like they have formed a social group, as they get along with each other in general and are OK around food. So your female probably granted the male a puppy licence when he was younger. That allows him to play, roughhouse and generally be a little sh!t in a way that she wouldn't tolerate off an adult dog. Puppy licence typically expires by around 6 months, at which point he needs to start learning some manners. But he's being a bit slow to mature, so he's still pushing her boundaries, and she's telling him off because he's too old for that now. For example, he's still biting her face, which is puppy playfighting, but he's too big/rough, so he's hurting her, and she's putting him in his place. When they aren't fighting, you might see him reverting to be more puppy-like with her, puppy yipping, licking or nipping her face, play bows, appeasement behaviours like showing his belly, as he tried to convince her he's still a puppy. She will be less and less tolerant of it, which hopefully means she will just ignore him. To some extent, this has to play out because he needs to grow up and learn some manners, but that doesn't mean just leaving them to fight. If this is what's going on, it's probably not going to escalate much beyond the current situation, although the longer it goes on, the more annoyed she is going to get, so you still want to break up the fights. If they are outside when they fight, throw a bucket of water over them, or spray them with a hose. If they are indoors, spray the male in the face with water. If you don't want to use water, a loud noise can work as well, but water is usually more effective. Combine it with 'enough' said loudly and sternly. (Avoid 'no' it's too overused, and they hear it in too many contexts, so many dogs just ignore it.) It doesn't matter if you soak the female as well, she already knows this is inappropriate behaviour. After a few soakings, just saying 'enough' should break it up, (I switch to enough and a loud hand clap to signal stop it, whatever 'it' is). Your dog sitter might be more comfortable with water, than getting physically involved. If you aren't working on his training already, you need to start, like yesterday. Self-control exercises will help, sit, stay, wait/leave, anything that encourages him to calm down. It'll likely fix itself as he matures anyway, but you can speed it up with training.

Any injuries to the neck or belly?

When you say they are fighting, are they actually injuring each other? Has either of them had a puncture wound? Or is it all teeth bared and noise while they try to pin each other down and no actual damage (or maybe just surface scratches from being pinned)?

Check how your bank handles overseas deposits as well. I got stung by the Co-op Bank because they charge a fee to accept an incoming payment from overseas, even if it is sent in sterling. I transfer to Starling Bank now because they don't charge if the payment is sent in sterling.

Years ago, I had a dog who got the zoomies after having Frontline spot-on. It lasted 10 minutes or so. It didn't seem to be anxiety related (some people say the spot-ons seem to sting there dogs, but I've not seen anything to indicate that it would), just his usual crazy, happy zoomies, but that's the closest I've seen to any of these. My dog doesn't react at all when I put it on him. He just gets slightly wet-looking spikey fur on his back for 24 hours. Another option you could look at is a Seresto collar. They have the advantage that the effects stop pretty quickly when you remove it, so if your dog did react badly, you can just take it off. However, it's very hard to get a legit on in Thailand. Lazada is swamped with fakes, and there are lots of horror stories from dogs getting bad reactions (and worse) to fake collars. Make sure you read up on what the packaging should be like (embossed design, sealed packet inside, etc.), and that the price is realistic. (Though paying full price is no guarantee either.)

There's an EU DCC QR code in Mor Prom under 'digital health pass'. It still says it's under test, but it's populated with all the information now (it didn't use to be).

Brown dog ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) are very common here. As far as I know, there are no American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) here, but there are several other Dermacentor species. The same goes for Amblyomma spp. (e.g. Lone Stars) and Ixodes spp. (e.g. black-legged) The packaging is often aimed at a US market, so they highlight the specific local species, but they should be just as effective on the related species here. It can take days for a tick to drop off after it dies, but once they are dead, they aren't doing any more damage. It doesn't mean it's not working if dead ticks are hanging on. The better systemics (e.g. Bravecto, Nexgard Spectra) are more effective at killing ticks than the spot-ons/collars, but some spot-ons have the benefit of being repellent as well. The disadvantage of the systemics is that the tick has to bite before it dies, so the dog can still catch one of the many tick borne diseases that are endemic here. FWIW I give my dog Bravecto every 10 weeks (rather than the maximum 12 weeks) to kill them and use Vectra 3D spot-on every month as a repellent, but I can't get Vectra here. I have it shipped over from the UK. It's toxic to cats though, so it's no good if you have both. If you are giving her a good systemic, and you are sure the ticks are staying alive for days after they've bitten, you need to identify the species and see if there is something more specific you can use. Or, if her paws are the main problem, train her to wear boots.

I buy some, and I make my own (baked liver cut into tiny pieces, baked chicken in cubes), and I also buy those little dried fish you can get everywhere. For training, you want a range of things of different value, so you can mix it up. For my dog, the lowest value is a few bits of his regular kibble, up to liver as the highest value, and 5 or 6 things in between. If you make your own, you can freeze them and they months. Then you can just take a few out when you need them. They are good for a couple of days in the fridge once they have defrosted.

This is how I always installed pipes in the UK, but you want the external pipe to be the smallest diameter you can use, to reduce space for rodents and insects if they do get in. I sealed the gap with a little expanding foam then sanded down.