Lymm Mover

I know this has been done a hundred times before sorry:

What is the total cost of shipping a large dog (Golden Retriever) from Manchester to Brisbane?
Which company do you recommend?
What was the age of your dogs at the time (ours will be 7 - is this too old)?

thanks

The BBs

Hi Lymm Mover,

We have just sent our dog to Australia so I can help you a little with your query. By the way, there are no kennels in Brisbane so your dog will most likely have to be sent to Sydney for its 30 day quarantine!

We sent our dog (flatcoat retriever) with Pet Air and that cost us around £3000 which included her being collected at our house (in Devon) by them, her travel cage and of course her flight. The quarantine costs came to about £1000 on top of that so you are looking at around £4000!!! We have to get her from Sydney to Brisbane and we will most likely fly her up. The estimated costs for that are around £350.

Our dog is just over 5 years of age - if she was a little older, considering she is a pedigree, we might have had second thoughts about it as her estimated life is probably around 10 years! I am not sure if you are ware that your dog will need to go through quite a few things including blood tests etc. She will be assessed by your vet and by another vet at the airport prior to flying out of the UK to make sure she is up to it.

It's a difficult decision to make - ours cost us a small fortune - enough to buy a small second hand car! But seeing her leave our house last week inside a cage was really hard for all of us to see, especially our kids, so for better or for worse, we are glad we made the decision for her to come with us!

Also bear in mind that finding rental properties that allow pets is a little hard though not impossible! I may be able to give you more advice once we are out there (19th of October) and able to assess the markets!

Good luck and please feel free to ask more questions if you need to ok?

Best regards,

The BBs

Lymm Mover

Thanks, my mum and dad would have the dog if we decided not to take her. My two boys would be heart broken leaving her, but at her age it might be a little traumatic (for the dog) not to mention expensive to take her.

Bermudashorts

Before we brought our pets over, I used to frown upon people that left theirs behind, a pet is for life and all that blah blah blah. However we had a traumatic experience of quarantine and I vowed never again will I take a firm line on this.

My cats were extremely stressed in quarantine and stopped eating and drinking for a period of time and we had the vet out three times, one of the cats was particularly bad and the other sort of copied, it was a nightmare for us at the time. The quarantine stations are not nice either, although at least the dogs can go out for walks, the poor cats are in tiny cells all the time.

Having said that 7 doesn't seem particularly old, the overwhelming majority of animals emerge from quarantine unscathed and there is enormous benefit of bringing a pet, when ours arrived out of quarantine it was probably the point when we started to feel like the house was a home. And the cats are as happy as anything now.

heldownunder

I really wanted to take my 7 year old cat to Brisbane, but the stress and cost dettered us. Like you my brother offered to have her which was the perfect solution. I love my cat but knew she would hate the kennels and flight ( and back as on 457) also would we get the most from living out there whilst restricted with a pet. So on saturday we drove her to my brothers, by the time we had had lunch she was curled up on the sofa :-) i did cry lots but definately feel it was the best decision- though I do keep looking for her!!! Would i have left her wuth strangers- NO. I know cats are not totally comparable.... My dog's ashes were packed on the container today!!!

Wendy66

I brought 4 dogs over of various ages up to 13.5 years, all were healthy and have always travelled very well.

We used Overhills and will def use them again when I want to import a puppy. As previous poster says they go to Sydney quarantine which are brilliant. We visited after they'd been here a week (it was Easter so they were closed to visitors) and they all looked great, we drove down from Qld to collect them after their 30 days, although Dogtainers will fly them up to Qld for you if you are unable to drive down.

It was about 4800 pounds to fly them all, then quarantine I think, can't really remember but was about $1800 for them all. You don't say when you are coming but if your dog is due for a vaccination do not have the LEPTO part of it, as it interferes with one of the blood tests they must have before they came. We stopped the Lepto part of the jab at the vets 2 years before we came.

Price will never come into it with us, the dogs are part of the family but if your girl is not healthy or doesn't travel well that's only a decision you can make if your parents are happy to give her a good life.

Lymm Mover

The problem is she doesn't travel very well in the car so I don't know how she will cope on a plane. Also she has only ever stayed in a kennel for one night and took a while to recover from that, so we do not want unessasary stress for her.

heldownunder

only you know best ...... leaving the cat has been the best decision for us as we know she has a good home....

when are you going????

We leave nantwich for Brisbane on 30th Oct. any advice just shout!!!

Lymm Mover

We don't know when we are going yet, we still haven't had any joy with selling the house. Fingers crossed though someone will want it.