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Shipping a "senior" pet......


Gav71

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Hi,

 

Does anyone have experience of shipping an older cat. She is 11, fit as a fiddle but VERY nervous i.e. she sulks for hours even after a short car journey.

 

While it would break our hearts to leave her behind, we really don't want to put her at risk. Do you think 11 is too old? She is a house cat (pretty much) so the outside environment in Oz would not pose too much of a threat to her.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Gav

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Dear Gav 71

 

I hope your cat cant read! 11years old is not old. One of my boys is 11 and i would not class him as old - just retirement age :)

 

Seriously the age is not a factor as long as your cat is fit and healthy. The bigger worry is the fact she hates even short journeys. The chances of something awful happening to her during the journey are minuscule, but she would have a 24 hour flight and then at least 30 days in quarantine. She will not love any aspect of it, but once she is back home with you she will settle right in again.

 

Have a think, but if you do want to take her she will need a rabies vaccination and rabies blood sample 5-12 months before the flight, but really her being 11 years old is not a reason for her not to go, you have to think what is going to be best for her for the rest of her life. Is it better her being rehomed or is it better to put her through a flight to Australia and 30 days quarantine?

 

The oldest cat we flew as 23 years old. Her owner had her since she was 3 years old and wanted to go to Australia and kept waiting for her to pass away, but she just kept on going so the owner thought "i will just have to take her". She flew fine.

 

If you fancy a chat then let me know

 

Bob

 

http://www.petairuk.com

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Oh she can read Bob......... luckily her English isn't too good.... she is Swiss ;)

 

Seriously, we will give it some thought. The thought of her on a plane for 24hrs and then quarantine does worry us but like any typical cat, she sleeps 21 hrs a day so should be ok.

 

Incidentally, does your company ship from anywhere outside of the UK..........we are in Switzerland. If not do you know who your Swiss counterparts are?

 

Cheers,

 

Gav

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Gav

 

No we cant fly her from Switzerland, but there is a company called Pro Air in Zurich i think. We have deal with a lady called Nadine there and she was great. Also there is another company called Rex Express.

 

If you need anything else give us a shout and good luck

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Our cat was 15 when we brought her. We took her to the vet and she had a geriatric work up (few quid lighter after that), and he said there was no reason not to take her. She coped with quarentine and we had no concerns regarding her care. We lost her last year at the age of 21

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  • 1 month later...
Guest pommiecate

7 years ago we flew our elderly cat to Sydney, she had never hardly travelled at all, much less been in cattery situation. She was also on medication for kidney problems, and was grumpy and skittish in nature. She sailed through the whole experience and the only trouble was she was a bit overwhelmed when we took her home to our new farm!! We kept her in na small room to start gradually introducing freedom. The quarantine people were fantastic, they have a great pen with access to snooze in the sun and we visited her every week, meeting some new expat friends

too. So go for it I say, they do surprise you.

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