British Expats - Shipping cats

Quote:

Originally posted by koala_mac
I spotted in one of Spigs's posts that they are shipping their cats out to Oz and that they (the cats ;-) ) will be drugged. We are planning on bringing our cats out too, but all the research I have read says that they shouldn't be sedated, and some carriers will refuse to take them if they are too heavily sedated (they should be able to stand/sit on their own). Actually I would be a lot happier if they had a mild sedative - one cat in particular is a nervy sort and I know it would be kinder if everything had the edge taken off with a few drugs!

Spigs - Have you spoken to your vet about this - will you be having them sedated?

Would be glad to hear more on this, or on shipping cats in general from anyone with any experience of it.

Pip pip

K_M

I'll tell you what I was told by my vet when I was bringing my cats into Aus ( from Sing, which is a 7 to 9 hour trip) . He told me that they do not recommend sedating animals on longer flights (ok for a couple of hours like two hours etc). The reason he gave me was if the cat "wakes up" during mid flight they may panic.. go ape sh*te. The other thing which he told me , because I wanted my cats to travel in one carrier/cage is he did not recommend that either (although you are allowed to this). He personally has had experiences of cats panicking , sitting on top of each other and smothering one of them to death, also panicking and fighting. So he did not recommend putting them together in one cage together.

If it's any help, one of my cats is extremely nervous of all things, he hyper ventilates when nervous and drools. He got to Aus ok...most cats are resilient little creatures. Don't worry about it.

Good luck:)