Has anyone transported their cats to Bulgaria either by road or by air. We would be nterested to hear of your experiences. We are planning on bringing our two cats over next year and would ideally drive them over but taking into consideration the long drive of several days I am not sure if this is wise.Most cats don't like going in the car and ours are no exception. However, is flying them over any less stressful for them ? We would be interested in hearing your views.

Haven't done it myself but here is some useful information

Airpets Heathrow +44 (0) 1753 685571 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Petair UK +44 (0) 1725 551124 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Par Air +44 (0) 1206 330332 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Pinehawk Livestock Shippers +44 (0) 1223 290249

The above are services recommended by BA.
Be careful there are companies posing as BA approved pet travel services.


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... -companies

I know it's only been 2 days but I'm surprised no one has mentioned 'Little Johns' at least I think that's the name that keeps cropping up with regards to moving pets to the UK from BG. Try searching "
Johns"


Personally if it was myself I think apart from transporting the animal myself it would be by plane, at least that way any stress would only be for a few hours and not forgetting you could always get some pet tranquillisers from a vet if you thought it would make you feel better.
(Then again, with my last dog, no way would I even think of putting him in the car, or at least without using double sound-proofing ear defenders)
Yes, he just howled from the moment the engine starts until it stopped.
Or there is this one:
[url:1w0u0xoi]http:
//www.
paws-kennels.
com/[/url:1w0u0xoi]

I think flying them over would be the least stressful for the cats but the most expensive option (if that's an issue). As mentioned before, you can get medication from the vets but that will only last for a matter of hours so would be fine for flying. If you consider driving them, then you may want to get a cat harness so it can get out and do it's business from time to time.

Well done everyone for support I don't have any animals but as PhilH has posted the Paws link - we don't know them but have heard good reports re [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Might be worth having a with them.

We used Pet Air to transport our dogs, more expensive than some but excellent service and helpful staff.

For every good story there is a bad one, our experience with PAWS Kennels means we would not recommend them to anyone, our dog has been left with serious scars from bite wounds she received whilst in their care. I would not put the photographs on here as they do not make good viewing but even the vets here (who were excellent in treating her) were appalled that such injuries could be inflicted without being noticed and treated.

I don't know Paws Kennels other than reading the odd article and am not therefore trying to defend them, but in all walks of life things/accidents can happen and it's always worse when the incident is aimed towards us.

But back on the method of transport, as I said earlier a plane ride is only a few hours, whereas cross country will be 4 days travelling and probably at least another 2 or 4 in kennels for the before and after journey.

Not forgetting much less chance of a breakdown with the aeroplane against a van full of different animals.

Is it possible to put a price on how much stress we want to inflict on our pets?
Plus I think it would be interesting to know what the difference in cost would be!

oddball wrote:

Well done everyone for support I don't have any animals but as PhilH has posted the Paws link - we don't know them but have heard good reports re [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Might be worth having a with them.

Phil-H wrote:

I don't know Paws Kennels other than reading the odd article and am not therefore trying to defend them, but in all walks of life things/accidents can happen and it's always worse when the incident is aimed towards us.

I don' think any of us know them but they did join the fourm back in 2010 but never posted

oddball wrote:

oddball wrote:

Well done everyone for support I don't have any animals but as PhilH has posted the Paws link - we don't know them but have heard good reports re [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Might be worth having a with them.

Phil-H wrote:

I don't know Paws Kennels other than reading the odd article and am not therefore trying to defend them, but in all walks of life things/accidents can happen and it's always worse when the incident is aimed towards us.

I don' think any of us know them but they did join the fourm back in 2010 but never posted

We used Paws to transport our four dogs from Turkey and the service was excellent. Added to that Phil helped me carry our king size bed and mattress up our stairs and then aided me in putting it all together, otherwise Annette and I would have had to leave it all until the next day and sleep on the floor in the meantime.

We originally took one dog and parrot from the UK by air to Turkey, but there is a lot of paperwork to do and reading the instructions from Defra to comply with the export sequence. Your usual UK vet will need to be able to sign the export licence, not all UK vets have the licence and so it is worth checking that your vet can do everything for you.

Good to see very helpful advice flowing in..just don't forget to have the animals vaccinated against just about everything you can think of, given that there are so many stray and wild cats about in this country.

I brought my cat over in 2011 by road in a 4x4 with a hard top.I can't say it was easyh because you cannot leave the cat alone all night as they can get a bit stressy.My wife and I took it shifts at night to be with the cat when we booked hotel rooms.The journey took 3 days and as we got to Romania the temprature climbed quite a bit as it was August.We arrived at the hotel and found our cat hiding under a large pillow and panting with the heat and we managed to get a pack of ice which did the trick to cool it down. So it depends on when you travel and if I had known I would come over in the Autumn which would have been more comfy for the cat temprature wise.I wouldn't recommend a back seat in a car though as you need to bring a litter tray etc.

Coming late to this now the dust has settled for me but I just flew with my 3 cats from China to Bulgaria via Amsterdam. I did all the paperwork etc myself. My kitties are all oldies - the eldest being 15, so their health and wellbeing was paramount. I cannot speak highly enough of KLM's pet policy... it is simple and not expensive. They also have the most advanced animal transit centre at Schipol airport where they vet check, clean the animal crate and restock food and water for you while the animal transits.

I don't know where you are flying from or how many animals you are bringing but the only headache I had was that short haul planes can only carry 2 animals in the hold and the spaces get booked up very early so you may need to carry the animal in the cabin - which KLM permit (not many airlines at all allow this anymore).

Timing of jabs and chipping and sign off from Govt vets etc is critical and the paperwork is substantial, but it isn't impossible. 3 cats from China to here cost me around 1100 euro in airfare/vets fees. If I had used a pet relocator, it would have been in excess of 7,500 euro!