International Travel Certificates

  If you're planning on taking your pet out of the United States, you should know well in advance that the requirements differ from country to country.The requirements to take your pet overseas can be daunting, and there are very few veterinary hospitals capable of helping you through this procedure.

In most cases, a simple health certificate will not be enough. Many countries require much more, including Rabies titers (that can take a month to get back), microchips, and more to ensure that your pet is the actual pet listed on all the required documentation.

The last thing anyone needs is to have to leave the country and be unable to get their paperwork together in time for the move. Trust us when we say that the hoops we have to jump through can be very high, and even moving hoops.

Dr. Christina East, working at Riverside Animal Hospital on West 108th Street is a USDA accredited veterinarian, and she can help you navigate through the maze you must traverse in order to transport your four legged family member overseas.

Dr East is the liaison between the USDA and the client. Her job as a USDA accredited vet is to examine the pet being exported (internationally) and make sure the animal is free of disease and up to date on vaccines (based on the country's requirements). Every country has different requirements for tests and vaccines and its her job to make sure that they have done all the things required for travel to the specific country. Although technically, this applies to lifestock and other animals for transport abroad, Dr East is exclusively a small animal veterinarian and wouldn't know what to do to transport Llamas to Thailand.

The owner needs to contact the embassy of travel to get the latest information on travel requirements and bring it with them on the first visit. To make sure they are free of infectious disease we require an Intestinal Parasite Test within one month of travel. A Heartworm test within one year of travel (if they are on preventative otherwise its within a month) and Feline Leukemia and Feline AIDS tests for cats w/in 1 year of travel.

We do ask clients to understand that we CANNOT under any circumstances fudge the test results or the timing of them, as we are licensed by the State of New York, and our licenses are subject to revocation or suspension should we do anything like that.

Many countries require not only the Rabies Vaccine (between 30 days and 1 year of travel) but also Rabies Titers (antibody levels)  for export (which can take up to a month to get results back). The Island of St. Kitts, for example,  requires two separate Rabies Titers one month apart for importation. So its important that the client comes in for the inital consult as soon as they realize they need to travel. Once the requirements for travel are fulfilled, they do still need to get the carbon copy form endorsed by the local Area Vet in Charge before getting on the plane (either by fedexing it to Albany or going to the office near JFK airport) to get it stamped and signed.

 

For more information (probably more information than you care to know) about transport of pets to other countries, please take a look at the APHIS website. APHIS stands for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and is the wing of the USDA that is concerned with importing and exporting animals both to and from the USA.  Their site is

www.APHIS.org