Dear Pet Lovers,

As of today, we will be meeting at this corner with a new topic every month.

In the meantime, I’ll be very happy to have your feedback and questions about everything concerning your pet, living in Turkey with your pet, health problems or any other topic that is of interest to you, so that we can develop this corner about the topics that are more important and more helpful to you. Also, if you have questions about the topics we have mentioned on our page or any other topic related to your pet, please do not hesitate to contact me at vet@vetelite.com.

During the past years, we’ve had many enquiries in our clinic regarding pet travel to foreign countries from Turkey. Although I am planning to cover mostly health issues in this page; knowing all the difficulties you encounter on paperwork when leaving Turkey, I have decided to write about some regulations for traveling with your pet to other countries as our first topic.

If your pet is brought to Turkey with you from abroad, you may have already fulfilled some of the requirements listed below. If you have adopted your little one from Turkey, you may need to get more work done.

EU countries usually require more procedures, so we’ll start by theirs first. Other countries usually require most of the information below, except the rabies antibody test. For specific requirements regarding your destination country, please check with their authorities.

Here are the procedures you must fulfill before traveling to an EU country:

1) Your pet must have a microchip. The microchip must confirm ISO 11784 /85 standards.

Microchipping is a very short procedure that you may have done at your veterinary clinic during a regular visit. It is a very tiny device that is inserted under the skin with a simple procedure that looks just like an injection. It doesn’t require any form of anesthesia and most clinics don’t use any anesthetics because it is a very short procedure. Although it is a very short procedure, I find the injection needle a little thick, so in our clinic we prefer to apply local anesthetics first just on the chipping area with a very tiny needle to make the area numb and make sure that your pet doesn’t feel any pain during the procedure.

Microchipping is also a great help for lost and found pets. The data on the chip is entered to a website by your veterinarian and the owner information of the recovered pet can be reached by those websites thanks to the easy scanning techniques which work by only holding the scanner close to your pet’s body.

2) Vaccination against rabies.

Since the disease is not completely eradicated in Turkey, annual rappels are needed while your stay here. If your pet is not vaccinated against rabies before, you may think about planning the rabies shot at least 4 months before you leave, because you will need to wait a month after the vaccination for blood test mentioned below and another 3 months after that to leave the country.

3) Blood test for rabies antibody titer.

This test will show that the vaccination has produced enough antibodies in your pet’s blood to give protection against rabies.

The blood shall be tested after at least one month following the rabies vaccination.

The test must be carried out in an accredited laboratory for EU standards and must reveal an antibody titer of 0.5 IU/ml or above.
Currently, the only accredited laboratory in Turkey is in Ankara, but the clinics in Istanbul and other areas will complete the procedure of sending the material to them and getting back the results for you. You just need to go to your veterinarian to give a blood sample from your pet.

4) Please take note that your pet needs to stay in Turkey for at least 3 months after the blood test date, so start in advance for your procedures and make your travel arrangements accordingly. This is because an animal that is infected before being vaccinated would not be protected against rabies but its blood test might give the same result as one for an uninfected animal that had been vaccinated. Three months is the time needed for an infected animal to display any clinical signs of rabies which would prevent it being brought into the EU.

5) Some EU countries like England, Malta, Ireland, Sweden that require quarantine do not necessarily demand the blood test. Please check with destination country’s authorities.

6) For non EU countries, the rabies antibody titer test is not required. Some countries require a health certificate written by your vet showing that no rabies case has been reported within a radius of certain kilometres.

7) Last, but not least is the official paperwork from Turkish authorities to get your pet out of the country. The procedure for those paperwork and where you should get them from will depend on where you live. Mostly there are two places you should address to and two documents to obtain. If you live far from the central municipalities, you may need to address to one more place before going to the Ministry of Agriculture for your international certificate. Please make sure to have the vaccination booklet, the document showing the rabies antibody titer test results (when applicable) and your pet with you for both documents.

The documents you will need to obtain are:

a- Certificate of origin.
The certificate of origin may be obtained from The Veterinary Affairs Department of the municipality that your home address belongs to. The validity of this document is 21 days.
You will need to bring this document with you in order to obtain the international certificate of health from the Ministry of Agriculture as mentioned on title b.

b- International certificate of health.
This document may be obtained from the Animal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. The validity of this document is 48 hours, so you should plan to take this right before you leave.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please take note that Turkey’s special breed cats and dogs can not be taken out of the country (Kangal, Van, Angora, etc.).

All the information above is subject to change depending on your destination country and also due to new regulations in Turkey. It is strongly advised to contact the related government authorities of your destination country to make sure you have fulfilled all the requirements.

By Çağlar Kondu
For further information or help, please do not hesitate to contact me at vet@vetelite.com or call me at (0216) 478 15 95-96.

Ms. Çağlar Kondu has completed her middle and high school education at Lycee Charles de Gaulle French school and Barnstable High School (Boston, MA). Because of her love for animals, she continued her college education at Istanbul University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and graduated at 2001. She has worked in several animal hospitals for experience until she opened up Vetelite Veterinary Clinic at 2006.

She has also been the consulting veterinarian of Whiskas and Pedigree companies in Turkey since 2006 and a judge in a famous TV show about shelter animals “Can Dostum” .

Some of her certificates include Exotic Animal Medicine, Small Animal Veterinary Gastroenterology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Miyocardial and Valvular Diseases, Neurology, Osteoarthritis and Ultrasonography. As a member of Istanbul Chamber of Veterinary Medicine and World Small Animal Veterinary Association, she has attended many national and international congresses.

She is very fluent in English and French.