Transporting cats from UK to Ireland.

toomevara

Have to get two cats from the UK to Ireland. Has anyone done this? Are there any quarantine, pet passport requirements etc...Be grateful for any information. Was either going to use a pet transport service or bring them on ferry myself. Anyone any ideas?

Alun

No restrictions at all. When we brought our cat over from the UK to here, we just carried him in his carrying case onto the passenger deck with us. I've no idea if we should have done, I know that dogs are supposed to stay in kennels on the car deck, but nobody seemed to mind. That was Irish Ferries on the Jonathan Swift fast ferry.

ISDW

I brought my 4 cats with us when we moved back from the UK, they stayed in big crates in the car on the ferry, they were fine. I used dog crates, with litter trays etc in them, with a bed, something to climb on and some toys.

No quarantine between the UK and Ireland.

ABajaninCork

Nope!! Chucked my (now sadly deceased) old fella in his cage, gave him a sedative and off we went...He arrived safely, promptly went for a stroll around the house to check out his new surroundings.

Would suggest getting a piece of Vet Bed with newspaper underneath as this will keep the cat dry if he decides to piddle. My vet in London also advised not feeding or giving the cat water as it might encourage motion sickness. He also suggested spraying Feliway (sp) in his carry cage to help calm him down and I also got a diffuser to use in the living room of my new home. He settled down in no time at all!

Hope this helps and good luck for the move.

toomevara

Thanks for all the replies guys massively helpful, will take the ferry option me thinks. Just had a quote from a courier company 544 quid!!!

The Sweeper

Beware of sedating your animal - a sedated animal finds it difficult to regulate their own body temperature. For a trip you're best off feeding and watering your animal before you go, hopefully with enough time for them to poo and wee before being crated. (Most adult animals will have a poo within an hour to 90 mins of them having eaten something.)

Crate them without food or water - the water just spills and makes the environment uncomfortable and most cats won't eat when being transported because it's too stressful.

For journeys of 12 hours or less, I would say you're better off providing a litter tray and a lot of bedding in the crate - you'll also find most cats lie in the litter tray instead of on the crate bottom; this may not happen if you provide a tray plus a load of bedding.

To stop bedding sliding about, you can use that sticky-back velcro - two strips on the base of the crate, two strips on the back of whatever you want to stick to the base of the crate (newspaper under vet bed is a great idea, as another poster pointed out).

Many cats will mess their crate when travelling - at least if there's a litter tray in there with bedding they can get away from it and don't have to sit in their own urine or faeces, which happens if they have a bare crate or a crate with a single towel or somesuch.

The advantage of transporting in your own car is you CAN buy a bigger crate, as for transporting a dog, and give the cat a more comfortable environment with litter and bedding separately. (Stick the litter tray to the crate base with velcro too, and put the tray at the front of the cage - cats like to hide right at the back so if the trays at the back they'll lie in it. If it's at the front, they may lie in their bedding and move to use the tray when it's quiet and they're more comfortable.)

If you have two cats who get on, transport them together in the one large crate (it needs to be a big dog crate!!) because they can provide comfort to each other if crated together.