Hello everyone

Sorry this is a long post, but if you are bringing animals to Australia please do take the time to read this...

At the moment I have two cats and one horse in quarantine. I do not want to put anyone off bringing their animals with them, because I know that my experience is the exception and not the norm, but please learn from what's happened to me...

Horse: dead easy, call IRT in Newmarket. They are fantastic. Go and stand with your horse, or get someone who knows it well to go, when it is being loaded at Heathrow. Mine was in his stall for about an hour and he did not bat an eyelid because my friend was with him. I met him of the flight at Sydney and he was so delighted to see me, neighed his head off. BUT he ran a temperature while in quarantine and I have (on the vets advice) left him in NSW for a couple of weeks to recouperate before trucking him down here. IRT picked up that he had a temp within a couple of hours and they were amazing. I could not recommend them more highly. Use Goldners for interstate transport - they are reputed to be the very best and IRT will not use anyone else.

Cats: Hmmm, shame IRT do not ship cats. I used Airpets and they were really good, however that only covers getting the cats on the aircraft... Despite what they all tell you, you CAN be at the quarantine station to meet the animals when they arrive and my cats were so pleased to see me, so it is really worth the effort. I could also brief the staff on what medication my cat needs every day.

HOWEVER, that is when it all went wrong. I suddenly had a real hunch that I had to go visit my moggies on Saturday, so i jumped on a flight and found one of them under his bed in the most indescribable state. In an emergency they can take the animal outside the quarantine station, so within half an hour the manager was driving me flat out round Melbourne to the vets with my poor puss in a blanket in my arms. They operated straight away, and thank God he is alive. I have to say that the quarantine staff were really fantastic, and they were as devastated as I was. Pure human error - they had not made a "meds sheet" up for my puss so he had not had any of his medicine. He would have been like that for at least 3 days and would have died within 24 hours. The staff leave them alone if they seem timid, so my cat hiding because he was unwell had escaped their notice.

But, having spent two days with the staff at Spotswood, it did give me an amazing insight into their work there, and this is what I learnt...

- do meet your animals when they arrive - it makes a real difference
- the people there are good, and they do make a huge effort, but they have hundreds of animals through the place every year and occasionally something gets missed. So send the animal with a written sheet describing it's normal behaviour, and double check that it has a meds sheet and that it is written up on the white board if it has any medication.
- if the animal is especially nervous, they will bend the "two visits a week" rule
- quite a lot of people stay in Melbourne while their animals are there. If I possibly could, I would do this.
- if you think your animal is nervous, do not fly your pets to Adelaide, drive over and get them. I have heard that the domestic flights do not take as much care as the international guys, and I have see a dog in a crate looking dead scared just left in the middle of the freight terminal at Adelaide waiting for its flight. For international flights they have special warm, dark rooms where they put them in the quiet.

- and most important of all, the manager said to me please, send your animals in purpose built wooden crates, and do not think that you are being kind by getting a big crate, just stick to the IATA guidelines (it's on the internet) as they do see animals that have been injured (not badly) if there is turbulence and they are in too big a crate. And the plastic ones are not good. Send your animals with a nice piece of Vet Bed for them to lie on and absorb any spills, and most of all, please make sure that they have a really deep water container, as with most of them the water spills when the aircraft takes off. I asked for two water containers in each crate just in case they forgot to refill them in Singapore.

Anyway, I really do not want to put any of you off flying your animals, but you can make things much better by just watching out for the things I've talked about. There are hundreds of animals at Spotswood that I have walked past many times over this last weekend, and they all look a bit bored but really OK. But if you can make things better for them, please do.

My mogs get out on 22nd July - I am counting every minute.

Lou

PS Apart from all that, and me having gone down with flu, Adelaide is FABULOUS!

Lou,

I have really appreciated your post here – some excellent comments and well placed remarks. Thanks for this.

We are hoping to take our 2 young cats out too. So far though, we haven’t really done the required ground work or research as we’re still very early days in our progress. It is very comforting to read about your experience and I think it will help calm some of our more ‘back of the mind’ issues about the logistics and issues.

Would you mind if I asked you how much you think the exercise has cost you to ship your 2 cats, from start to end.

Many thanks
Graham

Lou, I nearly had a heart attck when I read Horse - dead....but then easy!!!!!
Phew :sign68:

Im so glad everything is working out now, and your advice was excellent for anyone bringing pets. When can your horse come out to see you?

Thanks for taking time to post your experiences and I am so glad that everything has turned out ok for you in the end. However I do have a few comments to make regarding the shipping/quarantine etc. It is possible to send detailed forms about conditions the animal may have along with any meds however these can be lost in s/pore and have been told that on numerous occaisions meds that have been semt with the animals are removed in s/pore anyway so the best way to get around that is to gte your vet to write a letter for the quarantine staff to say what the condition is and what meds the animal needs so they are aware of this as soon as the animal arrives. Also many many families simply do not have the luxury of a)meeting their animals from the flight or b) are able to visit them in quarantine due to time and expense but this does not mean they do not care or are not as worried as those who are able to do so.

we fllew our beloved sasha over and were unable to visit her in melbourne and had her flown from melbourne to adelaide without a hitch. I appreciate your comments fully but the amount of animals to enter quarantine is immense but there are only a few of them who end up ill etc. Most people are feeling bad enough about not being able to see their pet so it is important to understand that these instances are uncommon.
Glad all is well and you will soon be reunited ith your lovely animals
C
XXX

Louise!!

How the devil are you? Glad all is ok now with the animals KJ was quite worried about your horse and how it would cope but she will be relieved when I tell her. Have you found permanent accomodation yet?

Look forward to seeing you in 2 weeks

fiona :spin:

Fantastic post - thanks Louise. We will be paying close attention to your advice.

Sam :D

Thanks for the information. We are taking our two dogs, age 10 + 8. I am worried that they are too old for the journey and they have never been in kennels before. I am feeling sick just thinking about it.
I would be happy to sit in the pet section of the plane with them if they would let me - thats how bad I am feeling.
I am speaking with Pet Travel Service in Fife and they have mentioned all the things you said in your post.

Hope your horse and two cats are ok - I bet you cant wait to have them with you.

Lynne

Hi Mr & Mrs E

We just moved a 14yr old an a ten yr old from England to Adelaide - they were absolutely fine but quite fat when they came out of quarantine. I used Animal Airlines who I could not fault - they were fabulous - and I didn't visit when they were in quarantine - apparently unless you're going to be there every day you shouldn't go at all as each time you arrive and go it can unsettle dogs that otherwise would have settled for the month quite happily without us believe it or not! I think a lot of that is down to the individual animal and of course whether they're alone or not.

I DID make the journey to Melbourne and picked them up on the car though - I really didn't feel I wanted them to go through the container and plane thing again - especially at their age. It gave them ten hours to lie in the back of the car, snoozing without all the barking of the kennels and a chance to get over the initial excitement of seeing me before they saw the rest of the family!!

They now walk and swim on the beach and LOVE the outback trails sniffing roo poo so it was well worth it - goodness knows what'll happen when their noses actually lead them to the poo maker - they're in for a BIG surprise! :lol: :D :o

Judes
x

Thank you all for your comments.

Candice, I did get a full vet history printed off for each cat, plus a letter from my vet, and I personally handed them to the quarantine staff on the day the cats arrived. But I did not check that thequarantine staff had done a "meds sheet" which is crucial.

Cost of two cats incl quarantine was a little under GBP2,000. I used Airpets, they were good.

You can't sit with the animals when they fly (apart from a horse), but they really do fly well, it is just dark and warm and cozy in a separate part of the aircraft hold from all the luggage.

I thought the comment about visits unsettling them was very wise - I had not thought of that.

I'm going to see the horse at the weekend as he is out of quarantine but just resting on a farm near Sydney. I can't wait! He'll be here in Adelaide in a couple of weeks.

Do PM me if I can help anyone further.

By the way, Fizzbot, don't forget the shopping list and flight times, I have bought a huge car just for all your luggage and have a couple of nice ponies here waiting to meet KJ! Pls tell Becky that I have not set foot in a pub since I got here so I am eagerly awaiting her arrival too!

Bye for now

Lou