The Animal Health Certificate (AHC)
What is an Animal Health Certificate?
An AHC allows you to take your dog, cat or ferret with you on holiday to the EU (and Northern Ireland, Norway, Switzerland). It is valid for 4 months of travel in the EU, or until the rabies vaccination expires, whichever comes first. It is valid for 10 days to enter the EU.
It is an official travel document issued by an official veterinarian to show your pets have gone through the correct procedures to be able to enter the EU and re-enter the UK. An AHC can be used for a maximum of 5 pets.
The AHC can only be used for personal travel and can’t be used if the pets are to change ownership when in the EU.
https://www.gov.uk/taking-your-pet-abroad/getting-an-animal-health-certificate
Cost
We charge £100 for an animal health certificate. There is an additional fee of £25 per additional animal on the certificate.
This includes delivery of the certificate to your door within a 10 mile radius of Wrexham. There will be an additional charge if the home visit is outside of this area.
Details required to complete the AHC
To be able to complete the AHC, we will need some details of yourself, your pets and where you will be traveling to. We will send you a form by email to complete these details.
Part of the certificate is a declaration of non-commercial travel to be signed by the person mentioned as owner on the certificate. The declaration will be provided and needs to be signed at the time of issuing the AHC. This person needs to be present when we issue the certificate.
Additional documentation
We will require proof of the vaccination (and any previous rabies vaccinations) to be able to complete the certificate.
To prevent fraud, this would need to be in the form of the clinical history (just of the date of the rabies vaccination) emailed to us directly from the practice that administered the vaccine.
It is important that the history contains the following details:
- Owner details (the same as entered above)
- Pet details including the microchip number
- A statement from the vet in the clinical notes to say that the microchip was checked before the vaccine was given
- The name of the rabies vaccine and manufacturer of the vaccine
- The batch number of the vaccine
Common problems
There are a few commonly seen problems:
- Other vaccinations given at the same time as the rabies vaccination. Some vaccinations are not licensed to be given at the same time as the rabies vaccination. It is best to ask your vet not to give any other vaccinations at the same time as the rabies vaccination.
- No mention of the microchip being checked at the time of the rabies vaccination. It is important this is noted on the vaccination certificate (if provided) and the clinical notes.
- Missing details of the rabies vaccine used (no batch number, no manufacturer or no name of the vaccine)
- Tapeworm treatment not given at the correct time or not correctly recorded on the certificate (it needs a date and time at which the treatment was administered and the details of the vet that administered the treatment.
- A different person presenting the pet than is mentioned as the person traveling with the pet on the certificate. As there is a declaration to sign, it is important that the person mentioned as traveling with the pet is present when the certificate is issued.
Usefull information
There is a facebook group with a lot of very usefull and reliable information. Much more than I can provide here.
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