experience with cat quarrantine?

[mangosteen]

My two cents:  

1)  As I recall, it is a Singapore law that an animal may not arrive in the country in the passenger cabin.  So all the airlines will tell you the same thing:  you must put the cat in the cargo hold.  You will also NOT be allowed to see the cat on any stopovers, for example in Tokyo.  

2)  The 29-hour flight from the U.S., plus the 30-day quarantine, were traumatic for all concerned.  Our cat was eight years old at the time and in good health, but he had a very hard time.  He even took to sleeping in his litter box -- a sure sign of kitty depression.  Just remember that your cat will forget all about it as soon as he arrives home with you.  

3)  Definitely use PetMovers -- much simpler to let someone else handle all the details.  We were able to see our cat when he arrived at the airport (although he was so furious he wouldn't even look at us).  

4)  It's worth it to pay for the air-conditioned quarantine.

Good luck!  

[catlover]

LUFTHANSA allows cats in the passenger cabin. We flew out from Singapore once on Lufthansa to Europe and there was a German woman travelling with her two children and a cat... admirably managed, I must say. This was in economy class at that. I tried to find out which other airlines allow this but couldn't find the information.

Check with Lufthansa. And all the best!

The quarantine thing is a bit miserable (and pointless, going by experiences of the other posters) but if it has to be done, then well... for the sake of having your cat with you. Probably worth it.

[USgirl]

Dear Essex Girl, mangosteen, and catlover,
Thank you so much for your replies. I have added them to my printouts.
(I would have thanked you sooner but we have changed apartments & I've been off-line).
I also thank you on behalf of my cat (even though she would never deem to express gratitude).

If we make the move, I will post a summary of the airline/quarrantine ordeal!

Many thanks!

[raffaella]

Hi Usgirl, the previous posts cover almost all aspects. we flew our cat in the main cabin with us on a SwissAir flight, but it was before the company went broke and was refunded, so I'm not sure they still do it. Lufthansa allows you to, whereas all the other companies that normally permit it have a different policy when the destination is Singapore. Remember to verify who the carrier really is: sometimes you buy a ticket with Lufthansa but it is opearted by Singapore Airlines so cats are not allowed in the cabin (we almost got tricked!)
We were very worried about the quarantine too, but all the vets we asked said the stress of being left behind would be much worse than the trip and quarantene experience (which he did not take too well I must say despite the aircon cage).To make it better they have visiting hours, so I spent my first month exploring SIngapore public means of transportation. I used petmovers but i remember reading somewhere that they are not in charge of the quarantene anymore. Check this too.
Good luck!

[Petru]

Hello USgirl,

We brought our two cats from Finland in the plane cabin. We flew Finnair (the Finnish airlines). They have a nice flight from Helsinki to Singapore (via Bangkok). The economy class seats are too small to put your cats below the seat in front of you - what we did was that we flew in business class with plenty of room.

Delta Airlines has a nice set of carrying bags for pets that are specially designed to carry pets inside plane cabin. They fit nice undet the seat and they look like ordinary bags so that cat-haters don't even notice that you have a cat with you. We bought our from mail order shop ELLOS and if you are staying in Scandinavia you should be able to get those from there, if they are still avaialble.

When you fly to Singapore don't fly so that you arrive during Friday or weekend. Otherwise your cat has to stay the whole weekend at the airport quarantine area. If you are taking your cat with you in the cabin be sure that it gets enough water to avoid dehydration. I used a normal syrigen to inject the water to my cats mouth during the flight - same way when giving antibiotics. If the cat is flying in cargo - I would ask to see it after the flight and check that it is ok and it gets water.

We used Pet Movers to get all the documentation correct. The guy meeting us at the airport was really nice and everything went really smooth. At the quarantine premises our cats had to stay outside for a while to get pesticided before getting to the airconroom (that is defenetly the best option - the cages outside are not really nice).

The cage was of course not nice, but most probably best that you can get in the quarantine. We used towels to cover some sides of the cage so that our cats got some privacy and we also put some mats and pillows to the cage so that it was more comfortable. I also build a hut for the guys of a cardboard where they could go hiding and sleeping. I also recommend to bring your own food.

The visiting times where quite bad because I had to sneek out of my work to visit the guys. Anyway I went there every thay except Sunday. I took MRT and bus. I took around 40-50 min to travel there from Chinatown.

Our cats took the quarantine quite well and since then they have been indoor cats and enjoying it. They stayed in Singapore for 2 years and now they are back in Finland already - but that is another story.

Good luck to you and your furry friend.

Petri

For Sneezy: I hope we cat lovers do not cause any harm to the people travelling with the same flight, but to answer your question:

'Amazing really. You prefer to have a human suffer just as badly if they are allergic to cats rather than have your cat put out.'

Why do you ask these stupid thing after you have read what we are doing for our furry friends. Doen't all this show what we are willing to do for them and how much they mean to us. If I had to choose between my cat and you - it wouldn't be really that difficult. And really - there are also thousands of people travelling with their pets in the cabin too - not just the cargo - if you like it or not. And when cat are inside their carriage bag and below the chair it shouldn't cause too much problems even to the most allergic persons. The thing is that when you are telling me to put down my cat because of you - you just take away the whole base of everything you have said.

[Island Boy]

Wow..so many helpful replies. I have just recently left Singapore with the prospect of having my cat sent on later.

Can anyone recommend a good transporter to Australia? Or does anyone have any experiences with transporting animals to Oz. I know things are really tight here.

Any infomation regarding prices. I did check but if someone has a better connection I'd love to hear about it.

Oh. bets of luck US girl. Hope you enjoy Singapore. I know I did (4.5 years!).