travel with a dog

You didn’t mention which airport for your arrival so I’ll report two types of experience.

In past years I brought our cats into Mexico at ZIH. (They are no more.) The documentation was essentially as you described. Unlike some of my experiences with aduana, the fitosanitario experiences were consistently good.

Now I have brought my dog into Mexico at MEX twice. I will be arriving again this week. Each time Aeromexico has told me that my dog was checked through (YVR-MEX-ZIH) and that I would not see my dog until ZIH. I didn’t believe them. At MEX I asked AM personnel. The information at YVR was incorrect. The pet is offloaded at MEX. Documents are presented in the same area as baggage pickup. The dog must be presented along with the papers, but they have not taken the dog out of the crate.

If I had not checked with AM personnel, I would have headed on to ZIH with my dog left behind at MEX.

My documents are not quite as you described, but include the same information.I have a veterinarian in Canada and a veterinarian in Ixtapa. The veterinarian in Canada gives the letter of health. The veterinary treatment records (rabies, etc.) are from my veterinarian in Mexico so are not included in the Canadian veterinarian’s letter

I also bring copies of my microchip registration.

If you come through MEX, be careful about your flight connections. The dog must be re-checked with AM. It is not forwarded like luggage is. This means you have to exit the secure area, get upstairs to Level 2, then re-check the dog with all of the papers. Be sure to have extra copies of documents.

AM requires the dog to be checked in three hours before departure. On my first trip, my connection time was about four hours, but by the time I got through immigration, received my dog, did the paperwork, got through customs, and got to the location to check my dog again, I had missed the three hour cutoff. AM rescheduled my flight to ZIH, but I had about a five hour delay.

Heart worm and mange are endemic. My dog adopted me in Troncones. He was a street dog who spotted a good thing and kept following me until I agreed that he and adopted me. When I took him to the vet he had numerous infections including intestinal parasites and heart worm.

After all of the veterinarian treatments to get him healthy, I have kept him on Nexgard Spectra year round (in Mexico and Canada) to keep him protected.