International Flying with your cat

Abstract

It can also be stressful on your animal, I highly recommend that you consider leaving your animal at home, or at least initially taking some shorter trips first to acclimate your animal to travel. Flying in a carrier can be a terrifying and loud experience, and the pressure changes may be painful.

That being said, sometimes it's worth bringing an animal along. I travel to Europe for months at a time, and instead of leaving my cat at home lonely and miserable, she comes with me and (after the flight) is a much happier animal.

Sedatives are discouraged because it is unknown how it will effect the animal at altitude. I used to use acepromazine, which acts like a sedative (but is not). It's like turning down the volume knob on her senses, and she calms down considerably. If you're using acepromazine, I suggest doing a test dose before your flight day so your cat can get accustomed to taking it and so you can figure out how long it takes for the acepromazine to kick in - I started giving it to her about 45 minutes or more before the flight. These days she's travelled quite a bit (she racked up about 1/3 million miles before passing), and I don't give her any meds, which is quite a change from the cat who would start howling if I even carried her outside my house.

This document outlines the steps that I needed to go through to import my pet cat to Sweden. I've since flown her into a few other countries in Europe using the Pet Passport system, which greatly simplifies this process. I couldn't find this information in one place, and it's rather complicated, so I've compiled it here. This is for non-commercial import of animals (5 pets or less). Your mileage may vary, please read all the documents and check with your vet to be sure.

I've used Sweden as an example, because they're one of the hardest European countries to import animals to (except the UK), in fact it used to be impossible without a 6 month quarantine.

While in Europe, I highly recommend getting a EU Pet Passport from a European vet. This will make return to Europe in the future much easier, I wish I had done it on my first trip.

Bringing the animal back to the U.S. should not be a problem if you've done all the paperwork that Europe requires - I've travelled with my cat many times and had no problems. The cat is a U.S. cat in my case, and the U.S. lets you bring animals back after travel.

The U.K. used to be near impossible to bring animals into, but they have (finally!) relaxed their rules. See UK Pet Import Requirements

Steps/Timeline

1. Buy airline tickets
2. Microchip
3. Rabies (after microchip)
4. Titer (rabies blood test - 120 days after rabies)
5. USDA endorse vet cert E9.163 (within 4 months)
6. deworming (within 10 days of travel) - fill out deworm certificate
7. Go to Europe!
8. In Europe: Go to an EU approved vet and get a Pet Passport!

See the Website section for some airline regulation resources.

Microchip

It's not clear whether the USDA endorsement needs to be done within 10 days of travel or not (i.e., before or after deworming). Sweden doesn't seem to care, they just need it signed within 4 months of travel, but the USDA tells me that some airlines require this. Call your airline and check. United told me that they suggest "within 30 days" but they won't turn animals away without health certificates (that's an oddity).

Once you have the blood test (titer) paperwork showing the microchip number, your vet will fill out the E9.163, excluding the "Serial Number of the Certificate" (section 1) and the "Endorsement by the competent authority" (section 5). Send E9.163 to the USDA with $24 and a SASE.

Some countries/airlines may require the "International Health Certificate" (stating that the animal is healthy) and some may require the "Bilingual Health Certificate" (E9.163). I've used just the E9.45 (the old E9.163) and been fine, but the USDA will sign both of them for the same cost as one. If you're unsure, just do both, though getting a health certificate requires having a vet checkup beforehand.

The USDA has told me that the rabies cert must be more than 30 days old but within the last year. If it's more than a year old, they claim you need a booster, though Sweden claims that no booster is needed if the vaccine hasn't expired (i.e., if you are going back to Europe after a year). This information will be on your past rabies certificate - most vaccines last 2-3 years.

Finally, the E9.163 certificate has a section for "tick treatment" but I've called sjv.se and they've told me that it's not required (which explains why it's not listed on their website).

See the Website section for USDA contact info.

Deworming

The cat needs a deworm <10 days before every entry into Sweden! That means if you travel to another country first that needs deworming, and then enter Sweden more than 10 days later, then you need to deworm again. My vet tells me that the deworming pills should be safe for multiple uses such as this.

Go To Europe!

2007/04/19: Talking to the Swedish Board of Agriculture I'm told the deworm needs to be 1-10 days before, and that with the passport is all I need.

Addresses/Websites

• United Airlines has changed their policy so that pets are not allowed in business or first class anymore for international flights, so now it's time for me to find a new airline.

Litter Box?

As far as on the plane, a few times I took her to the restroom and setup the litterbox, she refused to use it every time - probably because it was too loud and different to use the box in piece. She only had two accidents on the plane, I put pad liners on the bottom of the box and fortunately it was never a disaster and never got to the plane's carpet, which was a relief.

One thing to keep in mind is that cats and dogs have far better bladder control than humans do - remember that they often use their bladder for marking territory, so my cat was more than capable of holding her bladder for 16 hours of travel, though she certainly was relieved to use the box once we landed - sometimes I would setup in the destination airport for particularly long flights, but usually she'd make it to where we were staying. If it was a long flight I'd sometimes take her water away about an hour before we left, but I also would worry about getting her too thirsty, because she also wouldn't eat or drink on the plane as well.

UK Pet Import Requirements

1. Animal is travelling with a current EU Pet Passport
2. Animal has not been in high-rabies risk countries (see DEFRA)
3. Rabies is up-to-date (and has been kept up-to-date) and > 6 months ago.
4. First rabies shot was titered
5. Rabies/passport is linked to microchip
6. Animal can NOT travel as PETC (in cabin) but must be in cargo. (Travelling w/ pet in cabin to the UK is illegal)
7. Tick & tapeworm done 24-48h before checkin at airport
8. Animal must be transported on approved transport (airline/boat/..) as per the DEFRA website regardless of what the airlines may claim.

Contact:

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