How to Travel Safely With Your Pets – National Pet Travel Safety Day
January 2nd is National Pet Travel Safety Day, and we’re using the opportunity to help educate pet owners about traveling safely with their pets. Consider the following tips the next time you and your pet are headed to a veterinary appointment or taking off on an adventure.
6 Tips for Traveling Safely With Your Pets
1. Buckle Up
You wouldn’t ride a car without a seatbelt, and your pet shouldn’t either. Larger animals can be restrained with special harnesses and restraints that are designed for safe vehicle travel.
2. Bring a Carrier
Smaller animals should be confined to a small pet carrier when traveling. The carrier can be securely stowed on the floor behind the driver’s or front passenger’s seat.
3. Get a Microchip
Pets can easily become disoriented, frightened, and lost when they’re in unfamiliar places. Collars and ID tags are a must, but permanent identification with a pet microchip can greatly increase the odds of reuniting with a lost or stolen pet.
4. Find Emergency Veterinarians
Before leaving, look up emergency veterinary hospitals located along your travel route and at your destination. No one plans on having an emergency, but it’s good to be prepared just in case something happens and you need to get your pet veterinary care quickly.
5. Check With Your Transportation Providers
Different airlines and other forms of transport often have their own set of requirements for traveling pets. Be sure to research yours before you leave so that your pet will have everything they need to get cleared for takeoff.
6. Get a Pet Health Certificate
If you’ll be crossing state lines or traveling internationally, your pet might require an official pet health certificate. A pet health certificate contains information about your pet and its health history, proving that it will not spread diseases or parasites to the area you’ll be visiting. Travel to some states and most international travel requires one, and it can take a month or so for approval. So, it’s best to look into this as soon as you know you’ll be traveling.
Pre-Travel Veterinary Appointments in Woodland Park, CO
At Compassion Animal Hospital, we can help you make sure your pet is ready to travel safely with pre-travel wellness checks, parasite preventatives, vaccinations, microchips, and pet health certificates. We welcome you to contact our office to schedule an appointment before you take off on your next adventure with your pet in tow.
