Hi all

Aside from the obvious financial cost has anyone had their animal suffer terrible stress from the experience of shipping and quarantine. I have a labrador cross whom I love to bits and the thought of leaving her behind kills me but I would if I thought the 24 flight etc would be too traumatic. Shes a very nervy dog (I know I sound like a fusspot!) fireworks and thunder just about scare her to death so I'm just concerned flight noise etc would be too much for her. Does anyone know if the animals are accompanied in transit?

Thanks

We are planning to take our dog to Australia when we (hopefully!) emigrate. I, too, was very concerned about the effect the flight would have on my dog as he is quite timid. At the emigration fair at Sandown earlier this year I spoke to a couple of companies that transport pets and what they said did reassure me, although obviously they do have a vested interest in reassuring pet owners!

Anyway they said that they send dogs to Oz every day of the week and they are nearly always ok. They may be a little bewildered at the other end but they do cope with the flights. The proprietor of one company told me she had been sending dogs - including old dogs and nervous dogs - every day for three years and she had lost two. Both of these had illnesses before that went undected prior to the flight. Also, from the dogs point of view - the flight may be noisy but they usually just settle down and sleep - if you think about it they have a comfier flight than we do - at least they can lie down!

Also, if you do a search on this forum there are threads where people have recomended companies that transported their pet safely which may be useful to you.

I hope this reassures you - it certainly has done me!!

Hi Carole and Chris

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll check out other threads. Saw a reference to Airpets.

Thanks again

Carol

Hi Cmc
I'm currently researching taking two cats to perth. Not sure if the animals are accompanied - I thought they were, but will try to find some firmer evidence. I'm sure that the hold is heated though & any real distress etc. seems to be rare, since the companies involved are very experienced with flying animals.
One thing I picked up a while back, was that animals can be doped by a vet prior to flying. This seems to be risky, since the animal can suffer other health problems. The general consensus was to avoid this.
Hopefully some more posters will add to your thread over the weekend. I know there's been a few lately who have flown animals out recently.
Regards
Larissa
PS If anyone has any other company names / contact numbers, please could you add them into this thread, or the "cats to perth" thread, so that we can make them availiable to other forum users. Thankyou!

Hi there , we flew Oscar our lab x collie to melbourne for quarantine and then up to adelaide 30 days later, he hates travelling in cars, is scared of carrier bags and his own shadow!! But he's here and he's fine.....in fact he seems more grown up, and even goes in the car to the beach now!! I think we worry about it more than our pets We used Airpets by the way and were pleased with the sevice. Good luck to you and your dog

I bought my year old Springer to NZ with Par Air (who were perfectly OK) and she arrived looking an absolute state - had obviously found the flight traumatic and was very stressed.

BUT within 24 hours was bouncing about the place and now, 4 or so weeks on, has settled in fully to the extent she is back to her normal naughtiness and has even found new ways of playing up!

Her main problem had been deydration and that was mostly due to the fact she had had diarrohea for the entire flight (by the look of the crate). That was easily rectified with lots of water (although she peed like a fountain for a couple of days!)

When I picked her up at Auckland I was berating myself for putting her through the experience but now I have no regrets about bringing her over AT ALL.

A couple of other points...

Animals are not accompanied - they travel in a specially sound proofed and heated hold and the general consensus is that they just sleep.

Pets CANNOT be doped (I don't know who told you that, Larissa) because they are not under constant supervision and so if something goes wrong, there is no one there to help them. I was told that if my dog showed even the slightest hint of being sedated she would not be permitted to fly (she was on antibiotics for a week before she flew for kennel cough that made her sleepy so we had to take her off them a bit early to be sure she would fly).

I think Crossy is right, we worry about it more than they do.

The wife desperately wants to take our 13 year old cat with us to Perth and she's decided to use a company in Shropshire called Golden Arrow 01588680240.

It's going to cost about 1k GBP by the time all the vet's fees and quarantine has been paid !!!:scared:

But it keeps the wife happy...

Sorry if I gave the impression that I recommended it... it was discussed a few months ago & I put a link to the thread in my "cats to perth" thread.
I wanted to highlight the issue, so that people aren't in the dark about it... just incase it was suggested to someone and they decided to take the advice. Vets aren't infallible and you could get some dodgy advice. People are using the site from all parts of the world & there must be dodgy carriers out there.

PS Dave T.
Would love you to have a word in Blim's ear lol... he's trying the old "its very expensive & we don't know if they could cope with it" routine on us Thanks for the shropshire no. I'll copy it into the cats to perth thread, so its all there.

Hi Larissa,

This is definitely NOT the case. They aren't allowed to be sedated in any way. They have to pass a full government vet inspection on arrival at the airport and be 100% ok.

CMc: Our dog is also afraid of fireworks and thunder but was perfect when we visited the quarantine station on her arrival in OZ.

Hi CMc,

I too have a labxGSD, she will be 10 by the time we leave in Nov.

She is also terrified of thunder etc.. and like you I was worried about taking her to Oz, but I can't be without her.

I have done a bit of research and found 'Golden arrow' very helpful, imformative, caring and competive price wise.

So we are flighing with them.

Hope this is helpful and I wish you dog a good trip

Take care

Sarbear

Hi

I too am worried about my dogs going on the flight and then into quarantine. My border collie is 7 and she is fine but hates us leaving her, when we visited Oz in 2001 we left her with my sister, she was very wary of us when we came home and I felt really guilty. We now have a border terrier as well who is one years old, does anyone know if they can go in the same pet carrier together? I was checking the BA airlines website and they stated that pets who live together can travel in the same pet carrier! Has anyone out there had experince of this?

Any advice would be appriecated


Thanks
Debbie