🐾 How My Cat and Two Dogs Flew to Puerto Vallarta With Me

I want to document my entire trip in hopes that it helps others who are traveling with their pets.

For this journey, I flew from Oakland, California to Guadalajara, Mexico. Guadalajara wasn’t my final stop but it was the best option for my dogs. The airline available to me that allowed my dogs was Viva Aerobus, and they had a direct flight from Oakland.

My final destination was Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where I live part of the year.

There were a few reasons I chose to land in Guadalajara instead of flying directly to Puerto Vallarta:

• Airlines flying directly to Puerto Vallarta do not allow Pit Bulls. I have a Pit Bull.
• Several airlines do allow all breeds, and my favorite airline to Mexico is Viva Aerobus. They have a great pet program, service has always been smooth, and my pets have always been well cared for.
• The drive from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta is about 4–6 hours depending on traffic. When I factored in the time and stress of rechecking my pets during a layover plus the cost driving the rest of the way simply made more sense.

✈️ Planning the trip

I started planning my trip about six weeks in advance and thank goodness I did.

I’m new to Oakland, and I quickly learned many veterinary clinics have rules about accepting new patients. After living abroad for the last three years, I honestly didn’t realize how much paperwork was involved.

First things first, I used PetVoyage.ai to look up:

• Mexico pet import regulations
• Viva Aerobus airline pet requirements

Mexico requires rabies vaccinations for dogs and nothing for cats. To be safe, I updated rabies vaccines for all of my animals and gave internal and external parasite treatments as well. The airline required all of this plus a Health Certificate (HC).

I also learned that:

• some veterinary clinics do not issue health certificates for international travel
• some will only do so for existing patients

I ended up going to Jack London Pet Hospital. They set everything up over the phone for me and scheduled two appointments:

• one for vaccines
• one for health certificates
• The health certificates had to be issued within 7 days of travel. Because the HC was needed only for the airline, not the country, I didn’t have to get them USDA certified.
• If you’re taking pets to Mexico, my advice is to get only the minimum vaccines required in the U.S. Why? Because you can get the full vaccine workup in Mexico at a much lower cost. This has honestly saved me thousands of dollars.

🧳 Carriers and crates

The next steps were easy because I already had pet carriers I’ve used many times. My dogs each travel in IATA-compliant cargo crates My cat travels in a hard/soft backpack-style carrier. These meet the requirements for flying to Mexico; however, always double-check country and airline regulations because some airlines still require hard-sided carriers only.

😼 Day of travel

The day of travel is always stressful but this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve done this many times.

My vet prescribed gabapentin for my cat to help keep her calm. In my experience, one tablet works for the entire trip. Always talk with your vet before giving any medication. Airlines typically don’t like sedatives, but gabapentin doesn’t suppress breathing, and keeping my cat calm is important to me.

My dogs are crate trained and know the routine. I gave my cat the medication three hours before the flight.

Note to self for next time:

• Don’t feed her within 12 hours of flying. Every time, she poops in the carrier and I end up cleaning it in the parking lot with wipes.

Pro tip:
bring baby wipes and extra kennel pads. Assume accidents will happen eventually they do.

🛫 At the airport

I usually fly alone but have someone help me get everyone checked in. My best friend drops me off, I get the crates ready, and by the time he’s back, the dogs are checked in and luggage is stacked.

My crates have detachable wheels extremely helpful when traveling solo with a small zoo.

At check-in:

• we went to the pet line
• the agent reviewed my paperwork
• security checked the dogs
• everything was approved
• I said goodbye to the dogs and my best friend and went through security with my cat.

When scanning, I’m required to remove my cat from the carrier and hold her through the scanner. She did amazing and, as usual, we had a small audience waiting to see whether she’d bolt.

We made it to the gate.  She was calm. I finally relaxed. On the plane, I placed her carrier under the seat and took a much-needed nap.

🛬 Arrival in Guadalajara (GDL)

Once we landed, it was game time. I gathered my things, grabbed my cat, and headed through customs. The Guadalajara customs area is very organized. As a resident of Mexico, I usually have a shorter line. We picked up luggage and waited for the dogs. They arrived safely tails wagging and I immediately gave them water in the attached bowls. Your dogs will be thirsty. Bring water or buy some before landing.

After that, we went to SENASICA (the office that checks pets). Because I already had health certificates, the process was quick they didn’t need to do full exams on all three animals. We were cleared and ready to meet our driver.

I’m only covering the trip to Guadalajara in this post I’ll write another blog soon about the drive from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta.