First visit to a veterinary clinic

All dog, cat and ferret owners must visit a veterinary clinic within 72 hours after arriving to the territory of the Czech Republic. At some border crossing and assistance centers, the veterinarians are available and provide this initial careright there. During the very first visit, the veterinarian will examine your pet to find out if it shows any symptom of rabies or any other infectious disease. If your pet does not have a microchip, it will be applied. Be aware that you need to assist with the clinical examination and other interventions and if your pet is difficult to handle, you should warn the staff. Ideally, if you have it, bring a muzzle for your dog. If there is any illness your pet has been suffering from and/or your pet takes any medication, tell the veterinarian. 

When you leave the vet, you need to keep the pet quarantined, i.e., it should not meet any other animals. If you observe any change of the pet’s health condition, you must contact the veterinarian immediately. 

After next few days, you will need to visit the veterinarian again. If everything will be fine, your pet can receive a rabies vaccine, which is obligatory for all dogs above 6 months of age and voluntary for cats. The veterinarian will issue a vaccination/pet passport for your pet and will submit the information about your pet to the State Veterinary Administration as requested by the legislation. If you need to travel with your pet to another country, see the corresponding section below.  Please, be aware that issuing the pet passport is not required by the law and even the veterinarians providing the obligatory interventions for free may charge you.

Links and downloads:

New legislation regarding the entry of animals of an uknown origin from Ukraine to the Czech Republic issued by SVA on March 16th, 2022 (available in CZ only): Link

Rules for dog, cat and ferret owners after arriving to the Czech Republic (ENG) : Link Download

Form with information on a pet animal from Ukraine needed for SVA (ENG): Download

Rules for dog, cat and ferret owners after arriving to the Czech Republic (UA): Link Download

Form with information on a pet animal from Ukraine needed for SVA (UA): Download

Directory of veterinarians offering the obligatory interventions for Ukrainian refugees with pets for free:

https://ukrajina.vetkom.cz

Assistance with finding the right veterinarian – VSF CZ – call us on phone +420 776 469 986, (CZ, ENG) or if you speak Ukrainian only, just text us “I need help” to the same phone number and one of our Ukrainian speaking volunteers will call you back. You can also reach us on email address info@vsf-cz.eu or Messenger – Veterináři bez hranic ČR (Link)