Moving to Berlin with my pets

Sapsorrow

Hi everyone,
I just finished college and so I'm hoping to move to Berlin in the next 6 months or year. I have five cats and a dog, I'm hoping to rehome one of the cats in the countryside as I know she wouldn't like to return to the city life (and she's quite wild) and the dog will have a temporary home with family until I get properly settled and find accomodation suitable for a boistrous collie. So initially I'm looking to move my other 4 cats, I was just wondering does anyone have any experience of moving animals such long distances? We are hoping to drive over in a van with all our stuff but I'm not sure how long the journey would take all together from Cork. What would be the best proceedure to follow? Are the forms to be filled out, vets visits and vaccinations to be had etc..? Also if anyone had some tips on how to make the whole experience as un-stressful as possible for them it would be great! Sorry for all the questions, I'm an awful worrier when it comes to my cats!
Thanks in advance

Wisco

You can get pet passports which has a place for the vet to sign that the animal is fit to travel etc. However, if you ever plan to come back to Ireland from the Continent, you'll absolutely need the passports, plus rabies vaccinations, plus a rabies blood test. This is because Ireland is certified rabies free, so without this documentation, your pets will be quarantined for something like 6 months (it's not cheap!)
If, however, you don't plan to come back, you won't need the passport.

Sapsorrow

Great thanks for that Wisco!
Are the rabies shots like the cat flu ones that need to be topped up periodically? I guess if it's a risk I should start the vaccination programme sometime just before we even leave!

Wisco

Here's more info on passports and rabies vaccs-
1. Go to vet and get microchipped so you can get passport
2. Get rabies vaccine
3. 4 weeks after vaccine you get blood sample taken to make sure rabies vaccine has stimulated cat's immune system (BTW, these blood tests are not cheap, usually around 60 euro each- they have to go to a lab in Cork).
4. You can leave Ireland but not return until 6 months after rabies blood test result.
Keep your rabies vaccine and passport up to date (they last 3 years) or you'll have to start over with the blood test if you want to come back to Ireland.

However, like I said before, you don't have to do the blood test if you won't be coming back to Ireland, but I would get the rabies vaccine anyway as it is around in Europe and is obviously fatal if they get it

Hope this helps. You can phone your vet too- any vets that deal with a lot of small animals should be used to giving info on passports and vaccines. You should also check with the local government where you're going to see if they require anything else.

Sapsorrow

Wow that's great thanks Wisco! I hadn't really considered if things didn't work out that it would take so long to get the pets sorted to come back home! Whether or not I can stay all depends on the job situation over there really. Thanks again for your help, really appreciate it!

Sigma Force

I'd say you might need to get the passports even if you plan to be away for a few years or aren't sure because cats can live fairly long so they could be around for a long while. They'd need to be kept as apartment indoor cats over there if they aren't used to being indoors might be an idea to start getting them used to it now.
It's generally much more dog friendly than here, although don't go anywhere without your poop bags coz they aren't behind the door telling you to clean up lol mind you it's getting like that here now.

Being a collie you might need to find a dog park or walk the legs off him lots of people have dogs in apartments but they can be fussy about noise when we lived in Germany you couldn't even hoover at certain times of the day not sure if that's changed now.

Vets costs over there can be similar to here it's just something else to consider. Not trying to put you off at all it's a very pet friendly country.

Xiney

I would make sure you're going to stay there for a good length of time before putting the money into transporting your pets. As mentioned bringing them back into the country is more of an issue than bringing them out.

Sapsorrow

Thanks guys! The plan is to stay there indefinately/permenantly alright, I've wanted to move to Germany for years so it's not a one or two year thing it's the real deal. I'm just paranoid that I won't find work over there, I've heard it's really tough. We plan on saving a lot before we head over and I'm starting to look for work myself now, if I got offered a position I'd head over alone and get settled well before the pets would be due to arrive which would be ideal.