Paws and Passports: Navigating Pet Health Certificates for Travel

In this podcast, Dr. Sugerman is joined by Dr. Z. Together they dive into the world of pet health certificates for travel. They detail why these documents are a big deal, especially for globetrotting pets. From rabies checks to microchipping, they spill the tea on what's needed. They chat about different locations' quirky rules (Hawaii, we're looking at you!) and share tips to breeze through the process. So, if you're planning a pet adventure, this episode is your GPS. 

What You’ll Learn:

• The significance of health certificates for hassle-free pet travel.

• Why rabies control is a top priority for pet travel documents.

• Key components of health certificates: microchipping, vaccination records, and more.

• How to prepare for domestic and international travel with pets.

• Insights into the unique requirements for traveling to rabies-free destinations like Hawaii.

• Tips for mastering the timeline and paperwork to ensure a smooth travel experience.

• Anecdotes about navigating quirky travel regulations and addressing concerns.

• Valuable advice for ensuring your furry friend's safety and comfort during the journey.

Ideas Worth Sharing:

• "The big thing is the rabies virus... That's why we are required to vaccinate our pets for rabies. That's the main thing on health certificates." - Dr. Xenia Zawadzkas

• "Let's say you're going into a different country, then sometimes there's a lot more requirements besides vaccines, parasite treatments, testing, sometimes they need to have blood work done to prove that they have rabies immunity." - Dr. Xenia Zawadzkas

Watch On YouTube:

Read The Transcript:

Dr. Sugerman: [00:00:00] Hi, and welcome to Vetsplanation. I'm your veterinary host, Dr. Sugerman, and I'm going to teach you about veterinary medicine. In this podcast, we can dive deeper into the understanding of what our pets are going through. and break down medical terms into easier to understand chunks of information. Just a quick disclaimer, this podcast is for informational purposes only.

This is not meant to be a diagnosis for your pet. If you have questions about diagnostics or treatment options, please talk to your veterinarian about those things. Remember, we are all practicing veterinary medicine, and medicine is not an exact science. Your veterinarian may have different treatment options and different opinions.

The information I provide here is to help pet parents have a better understanding about their pets. If you like our podcast, please consider sharing this podcast with at least one friend or just somebody else who has pets as well. Now let's jump into this week's episode.

Hi everybody, welcome back to this episode of Vetsplanation. So today I have with me Dr. Z. [00:01:00] Everybody's been asking us to do health certificates and I'm super excited to have her with us today.

Dr. Z: Hi, yes, I'm very excited. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Sugerman: Yeah, absolutely. All right, perfect. So we're going to start with just what is a health certificate and why do we need them?

Dr. Z: Okay. So the big thing is the rabies virus, as everybody's probably heard of. And when you're traveling with your pets anywhere, they just want to make sure your pet doesn't have rabies.

Dr. Sugerman: That's a big deal. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Z: Probably because it's one of the biggest viruses that's fatal to people. And so that's why we are required to vaccinate our pets for rabies. And so that's the main thing on like health certificates is just we need to show proof that the dog or cat has been vaccinated for rabies.

There's also other diseases out there. Some countries and other places need other vaccine proof like lepto and distemper and all those. And a lot of them require parasite treatment as well. Like they don't want to have ticks especially. And some of them are very [00:02:00] specific about tapeworms. They want to have a tapeworm treatment shortly before they depart.

Dr. Sugerman: Is this because in those other countries like they don't have these things like rabies or like certain

Dr. Z: Rabies for sure. Yes That's the main thing is like Hawaii, for example is a rabies free island and they want to keep it that way So they're huge about making sure they're not bringing in any rabies.

The parasites, I don't know why they're so specific about tapeworms. I feel like tapeworms are everywhere. And ticks are everywhere, but they just, don't want to bring any new ones in. Document that you're bringing a parasite free animal into their country or wherever.

Dr. Sugerman: Okay. Sounds good.

Dr. Z: The USDA APHIS, which is the United States Department of Agriculture, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, they have a website. It's just APHIS.USDA.gov. And there is where all the info is for traveling with your pet, if you're going to take it to another country, especially.

Dr. Sugerman: Nice.

Dr. Z: Yeah. Or any [00:03:00] state, but usually all the states, at least in the continental US, is pretty straightforward. Okay. Usually you just need the rabies shot. Okay. Hawaii is another, another beast.

Dr. Sugerman: Yes.

Okay. It's good to know that it also answers one question of is it just international travel versus it is it state travel as well, because you need a health certificate to travel between states as well.

Dr. Z: You do. Only if you're flying, then you need the health certificate if you're flying from state to state. If you're driving across the border with your pet, there's usually no restrictions that nobody's stopping you at the state border to check your pet's rabies health certificate.

Dr. Sugerman: Nice. Yeah.

What is all the info that goes into a health certificate?

Dr. Z: So the most important thing besides the rabies vaccine is the patient usually needs to have a microchip, especially international. Gotta have a microchip and proof of vaccinations. And then you need a starting address and a destination address that has to be written on the health certificate.

So really addresses and rabies shots [00:04:00] for interstate

Dr. Sugerman: And it can be any address, right? It can be a business. It doesn't have to be a resident. If I remember correctly, right?

Dr. Z: Yeah, just like where you're starting from and where you're going to in the destination.

Dr. Sugerman: Okay, perfect.

Dr. Z: If you're going into a different country, then again, sometimes there's a lot more requirements, like besides vaccines, parasite treatments, testing.

Sometimes they need to have blood work done to prove that they have rabies immunity. And that sort of thing.

Dr. Sugerman: All right.

How long before one of the pet parents travels do they have to actually have these health certificates done?

Dr. Z: Pretty much all of them are 10 days before the flight. You have to have the health certificate done. Usually, schedule it within a week before you fly.

Dr. Sugerman: So within the 10 day, the 10

Dr. Z: You have to, the doctor has to sign that health certificate 10 days or less before you fly.

Dr. Sugerman: Wow, that's not a lot of, not a lot of time that they have.

Dr. Z: And then they last for 30 days. If you're going on a short trip to, just. [00:05:00] A week or two with you're bringing your dog, then you can use that same health certificate to come back.

Dr. Sugerman: Oh, nice. That's good to know.

Dr. Z: Yeah. But there are variations depending on like the different states.

Sometimes there's other requirements. You should always check that USDA APHIS website. And then especially for Hawaii, it's like a whole nother thing. In international, every country is a little bit different. Some require all kinds of things and some are pretty laid back about it.

Dr. Sugerman: Okay, cool.

And then. Can any animal have a health certificate done or is it very species specific?

Dr. Z: Any pet, so dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets they're actually, pets are defined privately owned animals that are not intended for research or resale. So that's what a pet is. Also there's amphibians, reptiles, and birds that are not poultry, like not for food. There's also health certificates for livestock, which are like cows and sheep and horses, even and those are a little bit different, requires a higher [00:06:00] level of accreditation.

Dr. Sugerman: And then can any veterinarian then do a health certificate?

Dr. Z: Yeah, you have to be accredited. Accredited vets have to take special courses. Through that USDA APHIS and there's two tiers of accreditation and it has to be renewed every three years. Like you have to take courses again and get it. Let's see for international health certificates and for Hawaii that certificate also has to be endorsed by the state veterinarian. So now there's a way to do that online in some cases, some countries will accept that some won't. Old school style, you would have to like either take that health certificate physically to Tumwater where our state vet is.

Yeah, and have have an appointment and have them sign and stamp it there. Or you can just overnight it through the mail, snail mail, and then they'll endorse it and send it back. And so you, it's like timing can be stressful [00:07:00] because you gotta get that within the 10 days and then you have to have it endorsed.

So it's been nice having this new online system. Yeah. That's been around for, I don't know, probably five, 10 years. I'm still struggling with it a little bit. So.

Dr. Sugerman: Technology is always a little bit weird, right?

Dr. Z: It's not just that, like sometimes they'll accept it and sometimes they won't.

Dr. Sugerman: And then, so of the doctors that we have here, so we talked about we have four doctors that do health certificates, right? So you, yep. Dr. K. Yep. Dr. Smith and Dr. Tobiassen, right?

Dr. Z: Correct. Yes. I'm pretty sure that's it.

Dr. Sugerman: So it's good to know just it's not literally everybody in the clinic that does it.

Like it's only a very specific few people who actually do that.

Dr. Z: Yeah. We have to be accredited and stay up on it. And yeah,

Dr. Sugerman: That's not for me.

Dr. Z: Yeah. I don't think most pets coming in on emergency usually need health certificates.

Dr. Sugerman: Yeah, true. You'd be surprised when I first started. Actually, I got phone calls almost every week asking if we could do it because we were the closest emergency hospital to the airport.[00:08:00]

And yeah, some people would be like, oh, I didn't know I needed a health certificate. And they would try to call over and get health certificates all the time at night. Don't do those.

Dr. Z: Emergency health certificates?

Dr. Sugerman: Emergency health certificates.

Dr. Z: Should be a thing, you should get accredited. Ha

Dr. Sugerman: All that time it took you to do it and now I'm supposed to do it in 10 minutes.

Dr. Z: Oh, I know. Yeah.

Dr. Sugerman: All right. So can any accredited vet do any animal then?

Dr. Z: Yeah. So that brings us to like the tiers of accreditation. So there's category one and category two. So category one is dogs, cats, pets. And any animals not in Category 2.

And that's what I do. So basically just dogs and cats. Category 2 is all the food and fiber animals. Any livestock, farm raised animals, horses, poultry, zoo animals need to have special health certificates for transporting. Anything that can transmit diseases to livestock is really considered needing a health certificate by the Category 2 accredited veterinarian.

Dr. Sugerman: We talked [00:09:00] before about like ferrets and rabbits and whatnot, so those are still considered pets and they are still in Category 1, is that correct?

Dr. Z: Yes.

Dr. Sugerman: But not everybody will do those. I think mostly Dr. K and Dr. Smith

Dr. Z: Yeah, so I only do dogs and cats, but there are some of us that do exotic pets.

Dr. Sugerman: And what kind of documentation do you need from like the owners to help them like to prepare for everything?

Dr. Z: Okay. My first bit of advice is to just check with the airline that you're flying on because every airline also is a little different. I think they're pretty much the same, but they all usually require a health certificate and might have a bit of a different timeline.

I think it's usually 10 days, some, some may be up to 14. Okay. And then you need to decide if you're gonna bring your pet with you on the plane. It's small enough to go in a carrier that you can put under the seat in front of you. So most cats will do that. Or if it's a big dog and it's gonna need to travel in the cargo space.

On the health certificate, I always have to put if the pet can [00:10:00] withstand a blank amount of coldness. I have to put the temperature on there. Okay. And I think I always just put 20 degrees. And then nobody gets turned away.

And maybe just have a blanket in the crate for your pet. I always feel so bad for them traveling down there, but they always seem to make it.

If the rabies is not done at our hospital, then I need the rabies certificate from whoever did do it. I always need that information that's on the rabies certificate, like it has a serial number, manufacturer, and then what kind of virus what kind of vaccine it was,

Dr. Sugerman: Is it the expiration date too that you need?

Dr. Z: Yes. And the expiration date. And of course, when it was given, so rabies, the first rabies you give is good for a year when they're puppies and kittens. And then we go every three years with the rabies. And that's, I think how it is across the country. And so we have to have that rabies up to date, like it has to have been given within the three years, usually. And if it hasn't, or if you can't find your old rabies [00:11:00] certificate, or we can't contact the previous vet for some reason we can just give another rabies shot. It's not going to hurt your pet to have it again. We used to give those shots every year anyway. And then we'll have a fresh rabies certificate with all the information we need. So it is something we can work around if we have to.

Let's see for Hawaii and overseas. They have to have that original rabies certificate. Usually that's signed in blue or wet ink by the vet. And usually they have to have more than one rabies shot documented in their life. And so if they haven't and they can't find those old original rabies certificates, we might have to do it again.

And then if we need to document that there's been two in his life, we might have to just wait.

And then they can have those two rabies certificates on there, so it can be a pain getting that rabies stuff.

Dr. Sugerman: That's super interesting. I didn't realize that you'd have to have like multiple rabies for certain countries or certain places that you have to go.

Dr. Z: Yep. Like Hawaii is that way. You have to have two [00:12:00] rabies shot documented.

Dr. Sugerman: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It sounds like they have to prepare for this quite far in advance as well from what, from all the things we've been talking about too.

So do you need the same documentation no matter where you go?

Dr. Z: It's always the rabies info and the address, and then more for the overseas in Hawaii. The additional requirements are different for every country, I feel like I've already said this. Parasite treatments, vaccines, oh, the rabies titer.

Dr. Sugerman: What's the rabies titer? Can you just describe it?

Dr. Z: Yeah. So rabies titer is you pull some blood and then you just look for antibodies to rabies and that has to be above a certain level to show that the pet has protection, if they were to be bit by a rabid animal, if they have over, I think it's 0.5 units.

Dr. Sugerman: So do they have to have the blood test a certain time in advance?

Dr. Z: Yes. I honestly have to look it up to remember the timing, but yeah, you, you also need to wait usually after two rabies shots to get a good titer and you shouldn't draw the blood like the same day as you give [00:13:00] the rabies shot because the animal hasn't had time to make the antibodies.

So at least a couple of weeks after the second rabies shot, would I even bother doing a rabies titer test? Probably safer to wait like a full month and then pull the blood.

Dr. Sugerman: Got it. Yeah. Okay. So are there any cool countries that you've done health certificates for?

Dr. Z: Yeah, so I've done recently I think I did one to Japan, I've done one to Germany before, and then the Costa Rica was actually a pretty fun one because in Costa Rica they don't have addresses like we do oh, they just have like we are 100 meters from the gas station on the left, and that is the address.

Dr. Sugerman: That's the address?

Dr. Z: I'm not, I'm not kidding. You need to Google Costa Rica addresses and you will see this kind of thing. And I just thought it was so fun that I had to write that on the house to like

Dr. Sugerman: Did the pet parent tell you this is the address like a hundred feet from the gas station?

Dr. Z: And I was like, no, that can't be right. And he's no, really, this is what it is. This is my address in Costa Rica. Sounds okay. Oh my gosh. That's so crazy. [00:14:00] Like they just use landmarks. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, there's no streets really.

Dr. Sugerman: Yeah. It's weird. I don't know how I can even describe like my address.

I'd be like around Amazon? Yeah. Okay.

Dr. Z: Yep. So just walk around until you find it,

Dr. Sugerman: I guess. Do they get to that, to that gas station and okay, now I'm going to walk a hundred paces left and hopefully that's your house.

Dr. Z: Yeah. Maybe your pace is a little bigger than someone else's.

Dr. Sugerman: What if you have a really tall person?

Dr. Z: Yeah. And I know Dr. Smith's been working on one for Australia, like this Lady is bringing all of her pet and she has a lot of pets, like dogs, cats, maybe some birds, I don't know. And they're all moving to Australia.

Dr. Sugerman: I think that they're rabies free island as well, if I remember correctly.

Dr. Z: I'm not a hundred percent, but probably, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. And then I've done lots to Hawaii. Like I've done quite a few.

Dr. Sugerman: You're the Hawaii expert.

Dr. Z: I know. I wouldn't go so far. I feel like it's every time I have to look it up and figure it out.

And it's [00:15:00] a pain every time. Yes. Yeah. There was one lady that was... Deaf. And I had to talk to her just by texting pretty much the whole time, but it was cool. Cause her dog was actually her service dog. Oh, nice. And so there were some hoops we could jump through to get her over there quicker than most people.

Cause they like make, I don't know, exceptions for these people with service dogs. Yeah. Like they didn't have to, somehow I forget exactly what it was. It was a few years ago, but

Dr. Sugerman: Did it have to be like, specific certification for a service dog pretty much anybody can take an emotional support dog at this point.

Dr. Z: No, this was like a legit seeing eye dog for her. Interesting. They're not seeing eye. I was like, wait, she's deaf. Yeah, she's

deaf. But it was like,

Dr. Sugerman: She's still a service dog.

Dr. Z: Yeah, and alerts her to things that she can't hear. She was really well trained. It was really cool. She could open the door and all kinds of things.

Oh, cool.

Dr. Sugerman: I don't know if that's always a good thing, I can just imagine [00:16:00] my dogs would like, just get a ton of food out and just eat it. Yeah.

Dr. Z: She was somehow, I don't know, she wasn't overweight or anything, so she was just a good trained dog. Nice. Yeah. Nice.

Dr. Sugerman: All right. Can we talk through like one of those sheets for how we export like went to Hawaii for example?

Dr. Z: Yes. So let's go through it. How to go to Hawaii? So again, it's a rabies free group of islands. You have to plan ahead, probably at least three months before you leave, but ideally more six just to do it without any stress. You have to do some paperwork ahead of time that you send to the AQS, which is the animal quarantine station.

And that's there in Hawaii at the airport. Okay. And that has to be sent like 10 days before you go, but, or more. So you could do it like months before.

Oh good so

Dr. Sugerman: you can prepare for this. Yes. Quite, quite far in advance.

Dr. Z: Yeah. Okay. And then there's, there's the quarantining station there because sometimes you don't have all the requirements done right and they just won't let you take your pet onto the [00:17:00] island and so they have like kennels right there at the airport and they will just put your dog there until all the requirements are finished before they can release the dog to you on the island.

Yeah. By doing a health certificate ahead of time, you can avoid that quarantine time to zero or maybe just a few days rather than months and months sitting in the airport.

Dr. Sugerman: I would assume that they have to pay for that as well.

Dr. Z: Yes, it's 15 bucks a day. Not much for a couple days, but if they're there for months, that's expensive.

Dr. Sugerman: Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Z: You have to make sure there's a microchip and that has to be placed before you do the blood titer test, which is called the FAVN test. That's the rabies titer test.

Dr. Sugerman: It's interesting that you have to do a microchip beforehand.

Dr. Z: Yeah, I think they just want to document that it's the same same patient and that it's had its rabies shots and then, it's just a way to document that the animal is the same one.

Dr. Sugerman: Okay.

Dr. Z: They have to have two rabies shots, like we said before, and they have to be at least 30 days apart. So if it's a normal dog that's had a puppy [00:18:00] rabies and then a year later had another rabies booster, that's fine. If it's like a puppy that's had only one rabies shot and he's not yet due for his next rabies shot, we have to give another one early and just to go to Hawaii.

Yeah, so And that's okay. That's not gonna hurt him. But they should be at least 30 days apart. Yeah. Let's see. And then that last rabies shot has to have been given 30 days or more before they get to Hawaii. So if it's like a new puppy, there's no way you can do it. You have to have your first rabies shot, wait a month, a second rabies shot, wait a month, and then you can go.

So like you just have to have those two shots done ahead of time.

Dr. Sugerman: I'm assuming if it's like a puppy that's younger than what they can get for rabies vaccines. Did that mean they just can't go?

Dr. Z: Yeah, so like they won't let any, if it's too young to have a rabies yet, you just can't bring that puppy onto the island.

Yeah, it has to have two shots. And then if they haven't, they will just make them sit in quarantine until they can get that second rabies shot and then wait another month. And then [00:19:00] they can get the blood test and then they have to wait another month. You know what I mean? Yes. It's like a lot of waiting.

Okay. So the FAVN test, that stands for fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test, by the way, which I had to look up.

Dr. Sugerman: I couldn't come up with that off the top of my head.

Dr. Z: We just call it the FAVN test. It has to be done at least a few weeks after the second rabies shot, again, to allow time for them to make antibodies and then hopefully pass the test with a good titer level.

And then this test has to be done less than three years or 36 months. But more than 30 days before they arrive in Hawaii. So if you're like a person that travels back and forth to Hawaii every couple of years, yeah, right? You, you don't have to keep redoing that FAVN test if it's been done within three years.

Got it. But after three years, then you need a fresh one. Okay. And then the health certificate itself, like, when you have all that finally done, then you 14 days before flying. And then the dog [00:20:00] also, or cat, has to also be treated for ticks, specifically.

Dr. Sugerman: With any tick treatment? Does it matter?

Dr. Z: I think they used to say, one of the old ones, like Fipronil, like Frontline Plus or whatever, but it's been updated as these newer parasite preventatives have come

out, and so any of the new... Like Simparica Trio or um, Bravecto or any of those are fine.

Dr. Sugerman: Okay, perfect.

Dr. Z: Because they actually probably work even better.

Dr. Sugerman: Exactly.

Dr. Z: Yeah. And then, let's see. You have to make copies of your health certificate and your original rabies vaccine certificates.

And then all the required forms, there's a couple other ones that you have to go online and fill out and send ahead of time, and you need to make copies of all that stuff. And then you have to send the originals, so you keep the copies, but you send the originals to Hawaii, again, 10 days before the flight or more.

And then you've got to bring those copies with you on the plane. And then that's what you're going to be showing these officials at the airport and be like, let me take my dog with me, I did everything. [00:21:00] And so to sum up the timeline, okay, first microchip. Then first rabies shot, and you wait a month, and then you give a second rabies shot, and then you wait a month, and then you do your FAVN test, and then you wait a couple months, and then you do the health certificate and the tick treatment 14 days before you fly and then also somehow 10 days before that you got a mail the health certificate and the rabies certificates to Hawaii and then you make your copies to bring with you and then you plan on flying there with the patient and hopefully we'll be avoiding the quarantine.

Dr. Sugerman: So just from that timeline, it seems like almost like five months, right?

Dr. Z: Yeah, I would say like you could squeeze it into three, like you can, so the FAVN results, I forgot to say, take usually three to six weeks to come back. Okay. It takes a long time to get those results. Yeah, you can rush it if you pay 300 more dollars, then it'll come back in maybe two weeks.

Dr. Sugerman: So not really, a little less.

Dr. Z: Not much faster, but yeah, a little bit. Yeah, to make it less [00:22:00] stressful for you. I would say plan, start doing those things or check everything six months before you plan on going to Hawaii.

Dr. Sugerman: Do you suggest that they come in for an appointment at six months to like, talk about all these things to make sure everything's in line?

Dr. Z: Always a good idea. Yes, absolutely. Yep. And then maybe. Start figuring out if you've already had rabies shots. Where were they? Can you get those rabies certificates? Do you have the original ones with the blue ink? Yeah. Yeah. So it helps to sit down and talk about all that first.

I think. Yeah, for sure. Also one last note on Hawaii. Every airport is different. Oh, so this is for flying into Honolulu. Okay, but there are other airports on other islands, obviously, and they all have their own like special requirements. And again, if you go to the USDA APHIS website, you can look up into Hawaii, taking your pet to Hawaii, and they have actually checklists, which are pretty helpful.

Nice. And they have them for different airports. Yeah. So you can make sure. Okay, [00:23:00] that's good to know. That you have the timeline right.

Dr. Sugerman: Does it have different airports, even per state, as well?

I was thinking about in California. If I was to fly my dog to California San Francisco versus Los Angeles

Dr. Z: You like, you can select the state, and then it'll take you to the state's website.

Yeah. For the the state vet there. Really the only requirements that are special are for Hawaii. Okay. Yeah. Really? It's just rabies shot usually to go anywhere else. Okay. Perfect. Awesome.

Dr. Sugerman: Yeah. Cool. Anything else you wanted to add?

Dr. Z: I think that's all I had for health certificates.

Dr. Sugerman: There's, there's a lot of information, right? I can see why it's hard for receptionists to know everything that they need to get and the clients to be able to know everything that they need to get.

That's a lot of work for you guys as well, it seems

Dr. Z: Yeah. Not so much for the interstate ones. Those are pretty quick. But yeah, the Hawaii ones, absolutely. And overseas are always a bit of a, Oh my God, where are they going?

Dr. Sugerman: What address do I put for Costa Rica?

Dr. Z: Let me look it up.

Great.

Dr. Sugerman: Thank [00:24:00] you so much, Dr. Z. I really appreciate you coming on to do health certificates. I know that some of our receptions were really looking forward to this one.

Dr. Z: It's been my pleasure. Thank you very much.

Dr. Sugerman: Yes. Thank you. Dr. Z

Tyler: Thank you guys for listening this week. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or you just want to say hi, you can email me at Suggs, S U G G S @ Vetsplanationpodcast.com or visit the website at Vetsplanationpodcast.com or find us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at Vetsplanation. Thank you all for listening and I'll see you back here next week.