Cross-border pet medical tourism is on the rise, and Tijuana, Mexico, has become the hot spot for Americans in California and other border states who want to get their dogs and cats MRIs at a much lower price point.
At 6:30 a.m. on a recent Friday morning, Emma found herself speeding south toward the Mexican border from Los Angeles, her recently adopted rescue terrier, Charlie, whimpering in the back seat. He had a veterinarian appointment in Tijuana in just a few hours, and Emma did not want to be late.
Black and white and 19 pounds, Charlie had suffered some kind of ball-related accident while under the care of a dog sitter; at least one tooth was loose, but the veterinary chain in West Los Angeles where Emma took him estimated it would cost at least $2,000 to get it removed. The bill would go higher if more teeth needed to come out or if there were other complications, all of which was quite possible for the middle-aged mutt, who was already missing two teeth. Emma couldn’t afford any of that. She and her husband were saving up for a home and, more immediately, budgeting for IVF. She adores her dog, she says, but “even a simple dental cleaning with anesthesia is over $1,000 — just excessive. It’s just insane.” At the veterinarian’s office in Tijuana, Charlie ended up getting not one but two teeth removed and undergoing a neutering procedure . The entire bill came to about $800. It hit $1,000 — less than half the original United States estimate — only after a few optional expenses were incurred on the trip, such as not one but two stops for seafood in the oceanfront resort town of Rosarito she visited while waiting for Charlie, the $75 she spent on pottery at a shopping plaza, $10 for road tolls, and $59 for a medical pass at a local hotel spa. Emma hadn’t actually come in for a treatment, but the spa was happy to be paid to help her access the express lane at the border and bypass what could otherwise be several hours’ wait to return to the States.in the pursuit of profits. A survey released last year by Gallup and PetSmart Charities found just over half of pet owners passed on needed veterinary care, many citing prohibitive costs. Then there’s the matter of America’s besotted canine and feline moms and dads who are more and more anxious to invest in their pets’ health, paying for MRIs or procedures to fix ACL tears. The upshot is that just as Americans are crossing borders and flying to other countries seeking cheaper dental and medical care for themselves, they are now doing the same for their pets. In border states, some pet owners caravan to Mexico to cut costs. Some people organize vacations around it: A hair colorist who works in Beverly Hills tells me her dad and stepmom in Arizona are part of a group that travels to Mexico several times a year to stock up on both human and pet pharmaceuticals. And of course, some enterprising Americans are now acting as middle men — offering concierge services to get pets across the border and back in the span of a single workday. Anna Ginsky, a bilingual barista in San Diego, had been bringing her hound mix, Ellie, to Tijuana when, you might say, she sniffed out a business opportunity and began taking other people’s dogs and cats along with her. Her business, MexiVet Express, now has 11 full-time employees driving seven vehicles to Tijuana and back a couple of times a day, morning and afternoon, with up to four or five pets in carriers or cages. Her drivers accompany the pets to the vet and act as translators between the Mexican medical professionals and American owners. It’s not always the easiest of jobs. A significant number of pets in MexiVet’s temporary care are, as Ginsky delicately puts it, near “the end of their veterinary needs.” Other times, while the pets are delightful, their humans are not. “Some people you just can’t please,” she says with a resigned tone in her voice. Demand is so high that two of Ginsky’s former employees, TJ and Lizette Froelich, now run a competitor called PetMex International. Their concierge service is more personalized: They take only one pet over the border at a time. “We offer a VIP service, almost like an Uber Black,” TJ says. Some Mexican veterinarians also offer transportation., a canine grooming shop located near the border city of Chula Vista, California. Former Orange County mortgage broker Ron Richards runs a veterinarian hospital, Vet Playas, in Mexico less than 20-minute drive from the San Ysidro crossing. He started the business after he lost his job during the 2008 financial crisis and teamed with his then-girlfriend and her veterinarian brother. After a few years of scraping along, Richards put up a website in English — and business boomed. “We hired two doctors, then four, eight, ten, 12, and now we have 18,” he told me. “I think the cost of service in America is just going totally out of whack. A spinal surgery for a pet in America can cost $12,000 to $18,000. Even rich people can’t afford that.” Venice life coach Katherine Ferro was already tapped out after paying $13,000 in 2023 for an emergency spinal surgery for Coconut, her six-year-old Jack Russell. But then, a few months later, the dog was back at a large chain clinic with a painful growth on its rear; after being referred to a veterinary hospital, Ferro says she asked for an estimated cost breakdown and was told she would need to pay some $8,000 for diagnostic testing and an appointment with a specialist. On the advice of a Los Angeles–area women’s Facebook group, Ferro took Coconut to Tijuana instead. There, she says, the veterinarian sat patiently with her and her partner, talking with them and examining Coconut for almost a full hour before pulling out a needle and draining the abscess. The cost was less than $180 — and it included soon-to-be-due vaccines for both Coconut and Ferro’s other dog, Luna, who had accompanied the family on the trip. No surgery was needed. “It’s a night-and-day experience,” says Ferro. “They’re more nurturing here,” says Sabrina Hernandez, a senior at the University of San Francisco who came to Tijuana’s Hospivet with Layla, an elderly Chihuahua mix in late-stage heart failure. At home in suburban Orange County, she says, it was challenging to reach the veterinarian and the costs were prohibitive. But in Tijuana, where Layla was later hospitalized for eight days, Hernandez received frequent videos of the staff playing with her and walking her, as well as a text informing her that when her beloved childhood pet refused to eat day-old chicken, the staff purchased fresh meat. The bill, around $1,500, was much cheaper than the minimum of roughly $3,400 Hernandez had been quoted for just a 12-hour monitored overnight stay at a Mission Viejo private-equity-owned emergency veterinary facility. The U.S. veterinary Establishment seems less than thrilled with pet-vet tourism. The American Veterinary Medical Association notes that only one veterinary school in Mexico meets U.S. accreditation standards. “The initial savings may be appealing, but there are often hidden costs and risks that deserve careful consideration,” AVMA president Dr. Michael Q. Bailey said in a statement. Yet for many of these beloved family pets, it’s Mexico or no treatment at all. “I tell people in the United States it’s not cheap, it’s just cheaper,” Vet Playas’ Richards tells me. “The people who work here at my clinic, even the doctors, could they afford torn-ligament surgery, which is about $2,500 to $2,800 in total? I don’t know. The regular workers definitely could not.” Still, cross-border pet medical tourism is poised only to grow in coming years. Europeans are also dealing with private-equity veterinary consolidation and surging prices — so much so that the U.K. is in the process of mandating that clinics publicly post costs for common procedures, while the Netherlands is contemplating banning incentive-based pay for veterinarians entirely. Some are headed to Turkey: Outfits like the Saluss Medical Group, with offices in coastal Antalya and Istanbul, now offers veterinary-service coordination in addition to arranging for cosmetic and dental surgery procedures for humans — a direct result of client demand. In the future, the human maintenance could be incidental or even an add-on. As theChas Danner Is the minor excursion very complete, ending in a couple weeks, or just beginning? Here’s the latest on what Trump feels in his bones.The U.S. Army was investigating why an Apache helicopter was hovering outside Kid Rock’s White House–style home in Tennessee.March has been a bad month for the president in the polls with his Iran war and its economic effects having a clear impact on his popularity.The president said he’s “so busy” fighting wars. But that didn’t stop him from breaking out the props to defend his precious ballroom.As thousands of troops deploy to the region, the Pentagon is reportedly preparing for weeks of ground operations. Here’s what we know.The Speaker blew up a Senate bill reopening DHS because he didn’t want to wind up like Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted by the Freedom Caucus.Wait times appeared to be easing at U.S. airports on Monday with workers set to receive their first paychecks since the DHS shutdown began weeks ago.With 36 states holding gubernatorial elections in November, there’s a good chance a midterms Democratic wave could hit down-ballot too.He’ll probably never admit it was his mistake, but if he wants to pin it on others, here’s who he might pick.The U.S. treasurer said this unprecedented honor is “well deserved” because Trump has led us into a “golden age economic revival.”The Senate has agreed to end the airport chaos and put off the ICE fight. But Trump could still change his mind, and House GOP hard-liners may revolt.Rex Heuermann, who was arrested in 2023, is expected to admit to the seven murders he has been charged with during a court appearance next month.A new poll shows Platner leading Governor Janet Mills by 27 points, a sign that the oyster farmer is still in firm control of the Maine primary.New York
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