Everything You Absolutely Should Know About Traveling Internationally With A Pet
It's Perilous! Stressful! Expensive! Bureaucratic! Meltdown-Inducing! ... But Of Course It's Worth Every Penny & Here Are Ten Tips to Help You
To the left of my computer screen, I have a curated list of Chicago veterinaries categorized under the columns ‘TO CALL’, ‘YES’, and ‘NO’.
I’m on veterinary number four, staring at said list, when a woman with a tired voice answers:
“Chicago Veterinary for Fluffy Friends*,” she deadpans, nearly sighing as she says it.
*not the actual vet name
“Hey there,” I begin my rehearsed monologue. “My name’s Lindsey and I have a tabby domestic short hair cat - nearly 5 years, fully spayed,” I rattle off details. “And we live part of the year in Colombia, the country not city, and so I’m looking for an international health certificate and any necessary vaccine updates prior to flying. I’d be a new patient, do you guys by chance do this service?”
“We don’t,” she quips.
I pause briefly for her to follow that up with any helpful information, pointers, or even a courteous, short sentiment but the line stays quiet.
“Alrighty, well thanks anyway - appreciate the call,” I say.
She hangs up abruptly as I copy and paste the vet’s information into the “NO” list behind the other three veterinaries who have also passed.
Defeated, I rise from my desk to heat a cup of half-drank coffee in the microwave and rest my head against the kitchen wall.
When I say that I hate this part of travel with an animal - I really cannot enunciate just how much.
I can handle the airport security lines (albeit always a nightmare with a cat), the actual flights, the coordination of booking an animal onto a flight, the credit card pet fee swipes, and the sore shoulder from lugging her around in a carrier - but the vet preparation for the travel unnerves me to no end.
It’s moments like this I lament that if I just stayed in one place I’d have a vet I could rely on to return to annually or monthly or however many times I go through this ordeal in a year. But, I don’t. I continue to choose to not have an address anywhere in any country and one of the downsides is constantly needing to pinpoint new vets, be a new patient, and go through the painstaking process of finding one to take my cat, Smudge.
As I watch the coffee mug circle the microwave, I reflect on how this time last year I was also dealing with the exact same circumstances at present - only in Montreal - and as that memory comes rushing back it momentarily puts in perspective how much worse these travel experiences can get.
Last January, while living in Canada, I catastrophically errored on cat logistics.
Thinking I was “ahead of the game,” much like today, I called the vet my Canadian ex uses for his dog and miraculously they were taking new patients so I promptly booked an appointment 9 days before our flight to Medellin and wiped my hands clean.
Side tip: Colombia, and many Latin American and European countries, require an international health certificate certified within 10 days of the actual flight - adding additional stress that if you eff up you have very limited time to recorrect.
As the vet called to standardly confirm the appointment 24 hours before - the front desk lady paused as I mentioned we planned to stop in New York on our way to Colombia. “I’m sorry, did you say you’re going to New York first before Colombia?”
“Yes! For two days,” I replied gleefully.
Her silence unsettled me. “One second,” she finally said.
And it began to dawn on me the moment she pressed hold.
“Oh my God,” I remember mumbling, my adrenaline rising. Surely, I couldn’t have been so dumb.
“Lindsey,” she returned, interrupting my thought - but by then I already decisively knew. “Because you’re doing the paperwork in Canada, you can’t bring the cat into the USA and then go to Colombia. It voids the health certificate the moment you step outside the New York airport because it’s no longer a Canadian departure.”
“Yep,” I groaned, having also come to that conclusion myself. “I’m an idiot.”
No sooner had I hung up, I was frantically - and I mean FRANTICALLY - calling vets on the border of the United States and Canada.
I not only had business in New York I had to attend to in the two days we’d chosen to layover, but the flights I’d booked for my now ex and I had been astronomically expensive (it ain’t cost effective flying from Canada to Latin America lemme tell you) — and what do you know? Astronomically non-refundable.
I believe at one point I flat out bribed a vet.
Eventually, and to this day I still feel relief writing this, I found a compassionate, small vet in Newport, Vermont, who agreed to take me on the following morning at 8:00AM.
They warned they’d never submitted an international certificate so they had no idea what to do, but they were accredited in the right way (another side tip to keep as note when looking for international travel vets) and were willing to help.
I remember getting up at the crack ass of dawn, shooing the cat into her carrier — and driving the two hours each way over the border (to a very confused Canadian border guard) to make sure this feisty, mean-spirited, spoiled little feline was equipped with an American health certificate to get to Colombia in time for our flight.
We spent over six hours at that little vet office and I had to call prior vets in Austin and Florida to graciously help the Newport vet through the paperwork process … but on we sailed error-free to Colombia in February 2024.
So, cheers to Newport Veterinary Clinic. On a cold, snowy January day — you saved my irresponsible ass. 5 stars. 10/10. Will always recommend and appreciate.
As I take the coffee out of the microwave and return to the vet list, I’m reminded that today’s rejections pale in comparison to that fiasco. I’m in Chicago now. Plenty of vets. And we have a flight straight to Bogota this time. I will figure it out.
And I do. Albeit not without patience. The very next call I made to a Chicago vet near the Magnificent Mile said they were willing to take our appointment…
Only after I’d given all my information and a deposit, I was informed it’d be a whopping $450 to do the paperwork, of which I audibly gasped.
“$450,” I exclaimed, hoping I’d heard her wrong. “I’m used to $100-200. Did you really say four-hundred and fifty?”
I had not in fact heard incorrectly, which leads to another side tip:
If you have the time, call around to get a better international health certificate price. $450 is robbery.
So, while I kept the appointment for the time, I continued dialing and after 1.5 more hours, I eventually found the right place for budget and time.
A lovely VCA in Lincoln Square who takes new patients, charges $89 for the cat examination, and $100 for health certificate processing, and can get me in during the 10 day period before I fly.
Hallelujah — I threw my hands in the air.
Now, fingers crossed it all goes to plan with the airlines and airports.
As you may surmise, airports, airlines, and animals are the triple AAA of flying hell.
The pandemic years were rough for animal travel. When I first went to Latin America in 2021 there were only two airlines that would take a cat internationally: American and Avianca. American pets could only be in the cargo at the time, which was a no go for me, and Avianca, whom I only had heard of from history (and the Narcos show on Netflix)… and suffice it to say, it wasn’t a happy ending.
However, I went with Avianca so she could be in cabin and they were great. Not cheaper in that I had no credit card with them so I couldn’t book a bag for free and the cat fee was as expensive as any other airline, but they were always easy to call and work with. For years, I’d call the day I booked a flight to ensure there was room in the cabin (side tip: most airlines allow 2 or 3 pets max on a flight so you have to call ahead), pay the pet fee, go over the rules for her carrier (side tip: always check the dimensions - sometimes they check, most of the time they don’t but every now and then you’ll run into someone who cares about their job) and vaccinations, and be done with it til travel day.
For years, I took the same 6AM flight straight from NYC to MDE. Side tip: there are laws about pet layover times (like making sure they aren’t in transit so long they can’t eat and pee etc.) and back in the pandemic years they were even stricter so instead of worrying about delays that might mess up our flight times, I’d take direct flights to Medellin when I could.
Also to side tip: every airport is different, but back in 2021-2022, Medellin didn’t have animal control airport people to check in my cat past 7PM (or so they said) so I’d only book flights that arrived within the standard 9-5PM weekday to avoid any issues at the airport.
And another side tip: this was to avoid any potential of her getting quarantined overnight - which - true story - happened to my ex when his dog was shipped in cargo from Canada to Colombia with a layover in Panama and the flight arrived late at 12AM and they wouldn’t let him leave with the dog until airport staff arrived at 8AM… yes we ended up staying overnight with the dog in the cold ass cargo bunker of an airport and the poor baby was understandably totally traumatized. However, the few Colombian airport security people still working overnight did let us take the dog on a walk around the outside of the airport at 4AM, a walk I can assure you I’ve never felt as so insanely unsafe in my life lol.
^ proof of overnight quarantine disaster in cargo at MDE airport lmao don’t I look tired and disheveled?
Anywho, horror story aside, things feel like they’ve loosened up this past year around the world with airports as the pandemic officially ended. Montreal airport last year was always easy with the cat - they just checked for rabies vaccination and had staff no matter what time. Mexico City, easy as well and only required rabies. And Medellin, as of late 2024 now apparently has people 24/7 to ring in arrival pets (though we shall see) and other airlines are also back to flying internationally with pets, like United, which we’re taking this year to Colombia in February.
I’ll let everyone know how it goes. I’m definitely nervous to fly a different airline and arrive much later than I usually would (10PM and on a Saturday feels like a complication waiting to happen in Colombia!) so we shall see. I told my boyfriend if the cat gets detained overnight due to lack of employees on hand, he better be ready to make a damn pallet in the cargo area and have a coat with him because there’s no way I’d leave her in a carrier in a foreign airport overnight.
She’s no sweetheart so I doubt anyone would want to steal a rather saucy cat, but she’s still my girl. My lil ride-or-die these past five years. And I can’t imagine doing the nomad thing without her.
So, to wrap this up for all the folks who probably didn’t feel like reading my novel of airline, airport experiences above — I summed up 10 tips that I hope will help you in your quest to travel internationally with your baby.
Feel free to ping me anytime or write me an email or follow me on Instagram. I’m always happy to chat.
10 TIPS FOR INTERNATIONAL PET TRAVEL
Set your vet appointment process early - 30 days or more - to ensure you can find a vet who is accredited correctly and can handle the paperwork (and doesn’t price gouge you).
Check the specific country specifications on health certificates and pet vaccines … and its window of time leading up to travel (a lot of countries only allow the certificates to be within 10 days of travel) Consider giving yourself 1-2 days cushion in case your flight gets cancelled.
Check the airport you’re flying into and ensure they have staff on hand at all hours to check in your pet. Do it or you may find yourself sleeping in a cargo space of an airport at 3AM and trust me, it’s unpleasant at best.
When you find the flight you wish to take, call the airline before booking it. One time, I booked and paid. Called 15 minutes later and was told there were already 3 pets paid for that flight. I had to pay like $150 change fee.
Call the airline before doing anything actually. Most of the time the websites are updated - but not always. Call and confirm everything.
Check the airline carrier dimensions. Like I said, most workers are lazy and don’t really care to full out check the dimensions, but you’ll catch workers who do and one time an airline employee gave me shit at 4:55AM about the cat carrier being 2 centimeters too tall. She let me go anyway, but it was a reminder that some DO check.
Pack food and portable litter … and Gabapentin or another anti-anxiety med for your pet if needed. I haven’t given Gab to my cat in awhile but the first couple of times we flew she needed it. There are great portable, packable litter boxes on Amazon. I don’t have a preface on them really.
Make copies of vaccines and health certificates. You just never know. Keep copies in carry on and checked bags and of course, in your purse or whatever you carry on you.
Beware of airport security absolutely wigging out your pet out omg. The first couple of times I forgot to wear sweaters or sleeves and didn’t put Smudge on a harness and leash and when they made me take her out of the carrier to walk through security, she freaked out and absolutely tore my arms to pieces. I was bleeding, the TSA people were bug-eyed and one time - she stress-wiggled out of my arms and ran underneath the security equipment and it took like 4 of us to coax her out… needless to say, embarrassing lmao.
Pick the right type of carrier that won’t strain your shoulder. I finally found a carrier on wheels that works for me. Instead of straining my shoulder I can place her carrier on four wheels and wheel her around the airport. It makes for some good laughs too (see below in Montreal) :)
Cheers everyone!
You tell quite the story Linds. We are traveling on Friday, but no pets! Be safe and keep us updated.