Best route to get cat halfway across the world?
February 14, 2016 12:05 PM Subscribe
I've read past threads about transporting pets and they've put my mind at easy that Lola will survive the 20+ hour plane ride from the US to South Africa, even if she's not thrilled with me afterwards. Of course, I still want it to be as easy and non-traumatic as possible. There are a few different options and I'm having a hard time finding information on which would be best for our collective mental health.
She's a pretty hardy two-year-old cat and doesn't get stressed especially easily, but she's never traveled before and I'm not sure how she'll react. This is made a bit more complicated because South Africa requires that all pets enter as manifest cargo. The options I've found are:
Go with me in-cabin from the midwestern US to DC (about 6 hours, one layover) , where we'd spend a few weeks. Then, a 17.5 hour flight from DC to South Africa (including a short re-fueling stop, which makes me nervous), a two hour layover, and another two hour flight. Total travel time from DC to destination is 21 hours, all in cargo. The 17.5 hours seems brutal and she'd have to get used to a whole new place for a few weeks, but this route has by far the least travel time overall.
Go straight from home to South Africa, via a four hour layover in Atlanta and a 15.5 hour flight from there to Johannesburg. This is also about 21 hours total. She'd have to spend 14 hours in a kennel in JNB, then get on a 2 hour flight to my city. All in cargo. This avoids the brief move to DC and gives a chance for a decent rest in both Atlanta and Johannesburg, but still involves a very long flight and spending the night in a kennel. 38 hours from takeoff to final landing.
The third option, which may or may not be possible, would be to fly straight to Europe in cabin (11.5 hours, including one short layover). Spend 26 hours in a kennel, then another 11.5 hour flight in cargo to the destination in South Africa. This minimizes the amount of time spent in cargo and breaks up the two long travel legs, but it's a full 48 hours from takeoff to final landing and may not be doable depending on my travel schedule.
If you've moved with pets, how have they handled it? I've talked to the vet but he doesn't have a strong opinion either way. Should I just go with the cheapest/easiest option, or choosing correctly make this a less unpleasant experience?
She's a pretty hardy two-year-old cat and doesn't get stressed especially easily, but she's never traveled before and I'm not sure how she'll react. This is made a bit more complicated because South Africa requires that all pets enter as manifest cargo. The options I've found are:
Go with me in-cabin from the midwestern US to DC (about 6 hours, one layover) , where we'd spend a few weeks. Then, a 17.5 hour flight from DC to South Africa (including a short re-fueling stop, which makes me nervous), a two hour layover, and another two hour flight. Total travel time from DC to destination is 21 hours, all in cargo. The 17.5 hours seems brutal and she'd have to get used to a whole new place for a few weeks, but this route has by far the least travel time overall.
Go straight from home to South Africa, via a four hour layover in Atlanta and a 15.5 hour flight from there to Johannesburg. This is also about 21 hours total. She'd have to spend 14 hours in a kennel in JNB, then get on a 2 hour flight to my city. All in cargo. This avoids the brief move to DC and gives a chance for a decent rest in both Atlanta and Johannesburg, but still involves a very long flight and spending the night in a kennel. 38 hours from takeoff to final landing.
The third option, which may or may not be possible, would be to fly straight to Europe in cabin (11.5 hours, including one short layover). Spend 26 hours in a kennel, then another 11.5 hour flight in cargo to the destination in South Africa. This minimizes the amount of time spent in cargo and breaks up the two long travel legs, but it's a full 48 hours from takeoff to final landing and may not be doable depending on my travel schedule.
If you've moved with pets, how have they handled it? I've talked to the vet but he doesn't have a strong opinion either way. Should I just go with the cheapest/easiest option, or choosing correctly make this a less unpleasant experience?
Changing environments can be pretty traumatic so although option 2 has the least active travel time, kitty will just be settling in to DC when she gets moved again, so I would avoid this option.
I would opt for a single move with the least amount of change -- so from your description, straight from home to South Africa. It's still a pretty brutal amount of travel, but it minimizes the change in environments and lands kitty in the ultimate destination fastest, and she can immediately start acclimating to her new home.
posted by DoubleLune at 12:43 PM on February 14, 2016
I would opt for a single move with the least amount of change -- so from your description, straight from home to South Africa. It's still a pretty brutal amount of travel, but it minimizes the change in environments and lands kitty in the ultimate destination fastest, and she can immediately start acclimating to her new home.
posted by DoubleLune at 12:43 PM on February 14, 2016
It is not the refuelling stop that you should be concerned about. It is the ground transfers. The minimal number of transfers is the minimal number of opportunities for you cat to be lost by ground crew.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:01 PM on February 14, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 1:01 PM on February 14, 2016 [5 favorites]
Can you tell us why the need for the long layover in Europe if you do that option? I would say cabin to Amsterdam and then a direct flight to your destination out of Schipol would be the least stressful option.
posted by MsMolly at 1:15 PM on February 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by MsMolly at 1:15 PM on February 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far! The long layover in Europe is necessary because there's only one flight a day. If we arrived on time it would give a 1.5 hour layover, which isn't enough time to get her checked in as cargo. The only option would be to wait for the next day's flight.
posted by exutima at 2:27 PM on February 14, 2016
posted by exutima at 2:27 PM on February 14, 2016
I want to recommend a product to you called "Feliway," which I discovered during recent efforts to socialize the beautiful semi-feral tuxedo you can see in my profile pic (who is lying peacefully in the middle of the living room rug right now being beautiful). It's a spray (also available as a diffuser but that requires AC power) derived from synthetic cat cheek pheromones. I thought it was likely snakeoil but our girl was so miserable and nervous that I sprang for it ($20 a bottle).
And contrary to my expectations, it has been a ****miracle**** for reducing anxiety and stress. I wrote in detail about it here. People do use it for transport purposes, by the way. If I spray my cat's bedding (which I don't need to do anymore) and let it dry, she gets basically gets too blissed out to care about anything but her bed. This from a cat who was afraid of her own shadow when she arrived. We use the diffuser now and it's still magical.
Apparently the results vary by cat (of course, cats being cats). But I would definitely experiment to see if it calmed your kitty. Vets recommend it, it's not total bullshit.
posted by spitbull at 3:20 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
And contrary to my expectations, it has been a ****miracle**** for reducing anxiety and stress. I wrote in detail about it here. People do use it for transport purposes, by the way. If I spray my cat's bedding (which I don't need to do anymore) and let it dry, she gets basically gets too blissed out to care about anything but her bed. This from a cat who was afraid of her own shadow when she arrived. We use the diffuser now and it's still magical.
Apparently the results vary by cat (of course, cats being cats). But I would definitely experiment to see if it calmed your kitty. Vets recommend it, it's not total bullshit.
posted by spitbull at 3:20 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'd take the last option, since half the time could be spent in cabin with you. I used a specialist in moving pets when my kitties came to Hong Kong, and among other things they recommended the best airlines in terms of safety track record and handled all the customs/medical papers for me to make the whole process easier. It wasn't cheap, but it helped set my mind at rest.
posted by frumiousb at 3:22 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by frumiousb at 3:22 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you have not used feliway before, I recommend testing before the trip. We used it on our cat for the first time when she did a long car trip, and it turns out she reacts to feliway as though there is another cat in her space, with hissing, back arching, and panicking. She fought the blanket we sprayed it on so hard it was tragic (her previously favourite blanket), and the problem stopped when it was removed. I can't imagine how awful it would be for a cat to be en route to a destination trapped with that stuff if they have that reaction (which admittedly is fairly rare I think.)
posted by lollusc at 5:21 PM on February 14, 2016
posted by lollusc at 5:21 PM on February 14, 2016
I have moved internationally with my dog three times. The first was to Korea in 2005, then back to the US in 2007. For the first move we used a pet transport company, which was expensive as hell and involved a lot more travel than what us humans did. (Including an overnight in Amsterdam.) This was because of restrictions on pet cargo in the summer (my dog is too large to fly in the cabin). On the way back to Houston we flew in November and so the dog was able to fly on the same plane as us, and we were able to walk him during a layover in SF.
This most recent move was also in November, from Houston to Amsterdam. Dog will be 14 next month, and so this move was considerably harder on him than the move a decade ago. Total time apart was close to 12 hours, with customs and everything else. It took him a good two months to readjust.
That said, I would HIGHLY recomment taking the most direct, least complicated travel plan possible. Each interchange and transition is another opportunity for things to go wrong. Dogs are obviously different than cats but I think we underestimate their coping abilities. And I'd say the transition issues this move had less to do with the actual flight and more to do with the drastic change in environment by doggle has experienced. Best of luck.
posted by Brittanie at 7:15 AM on February 15, 2016
This most recent move was also in November, from Houston to Amsterdam. Dog will be 14 next month, and so this move was considerably harder on him than the move a decade ago. Total time apart was close to 12 hours, with customs and everything else. It took him a good two months to readjust.
That said, I would HIGHLY recomment taking the most direct, least complicated travel plan possible. Each interchange and transition is another opportunity for things to go wrong. Dogs are obviously different than cats but I think we underestimate their coping abilities. And I'd say the transition issues this move had less to do with the actual flight and more to do with the drastic change in environment by doggle has experienced. Best of luck.
posted by Brittanie at 7:15 AM on February 15, 2016
« Older Help interpreting NOAA weather data, please | Analogue Interfaces to Digital / Hybrid Devices Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Freedomboy at 12:30 PM on February 14, 2016