Bermuda resident Lauren Anders Brown was heartbroken when she had to leave her dog at the border in Britain because of a glitch.

Her spaniel, Paddington, had been given the wrong dewormer, so had to be held until he was given the right one.

“It was the worst 24 hours of my life,” Ms Brown, a documentary film-maker, said.

To stop situations like this happening to other pet owners, she launched PadsPass, an app designed to simplify the complex world of international pet travel.

“Pets are part of the family and travel should not be overwhelming or risky for them,” Ms Brown said. “Our goal is to give owners peace of mind by providing reliable information and resources that make travelling with their pets safer and simpler.”

PadsPass contains specific pet entry requirements for several different countries and tailors them to each client’s needs.

It also includes a free pet identifier for microchipped pets that stores pet medical records.

“It makes it simple to share the records with daycares, groomers, sitters and dog walkers,” Ms Brown said. “It is searchable by veterinarians and helps reunite lost pets with their families.”

The app’s digital pet passport offers a smart travel planner for journeys to and from Bermuda, the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada — with more destinations to come.

Using verified health records, it automatically filters out locations that do not permit entry or do not align with a pet’s travel timeline. Subscribers receive access to customer support channels, live webinars and other resources.

At $250 annually, one account can support two pet parents and up to five pets. For travellers to Bermuda and Puerto Rico, it also generates error-proof health certificates.

Veterinary practices are given free access to the PadsPass platform through a portal called Check Point.

“When one of their clients wants to travel and wants to have their vaccine record verified, they upload it to their PadsPass app,” she explained. “The clinic gets a notice through Check Point. They make sure the certificate matches what is in their files and they click ‘Yes’ to verify.”

The information is then processed by artificial intelligence and PadsPass gives the user a notification on whether they are ready to travel with their pet.

Ms Brown has been testing the prototype for three years. She took part in the eighth cohort of the Ignite business accelerator programme.

There were many hurdles involved in creating PadsPass.

“Developing something that could process at least 200 different travel requirements in a matter of seconds was no easy feat,” she said. “Raising the investment in order to do that and finding the right people to do that was possibly the biggest challenge.”

The PadsPass app can be downloaded for free from the Apple app store. Google Play downloads are coming soon.

Customers can select from several different levels of service.

The firm is an official partner of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty for Animals.

“They are supporters of our microchip programme,” Ms Brown said.

• For more information, visit www.padspass.com