Traveling to Canada from the US

Hey everyone,
I ended up driving my chin into Canada (from the US) with me this past weekend cuz he was in GI stasis... I had to go for my cousin's wedding... he's still on meds and I didn't want to leave him at home without meds for a week for fear he would relapse and go back into GI stasis while I was gone.

I had no problems bringing him in... didn't need a health certificate... I am a bit worried about bringing him back... from what I understand I don't need a health cert but I am going to double check... I was just wondering if anyone else may have had experience with this before?

I would have figured this all out before I left but these decisions were kind of last minute and I really didn't want to leave him at home. I was originally planning on staying home and missing the wedding but he was back to his perky self by the time my family was leaving and I found an affordable pet friendly hotel in the area where my relatives live so I decided to take him with so I could continue taking care of him AND attend the wedding. He's handled the trip well and is happily hanging out in his full-sized cage in the hotel room...

My cousin who is getting married as well as the rest of my family think I'm crazy... lol they don't understand how much this little guy means to me!!

Tagna brought a chin from Canada to the USA and had to provide a health cert. This was last month.

I could be wrong but I remember a number of years ago when someone brought down maybe 25 chins for me she was held up at the border. (I don't think she had a health certificate...) She had to wait for a vet to inspect before they let her through.

You probably should get a health certificate to be on the safe side, or see if you can call ahead to ask.

I don't think you "need" one, but if you don't have one their vet has to inspect. I think if you already have one then they let you through more easily. Good luck either way, I think it kind of depends on who's working sort of deal.

Thank you for all the advice everyone... we tried to get a health cert just in case for when we came back to the US but being the Canada Day weekend we we're able to... I had planned to stay behind in Canada with my chin in case there were issues with border patrol until I could get a health cert but fortunately everything went well and myself and my chin are safely back home now.

Glad to hear you got across. The border people told me that technically you don't need a health certificate to cross BUT the chinchilla has to be healthy to cross. If they decide the chin doesn't "look" healthy you have no way to prove it. The health certificate is just insurance.