ladysprite (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladysprite) wrote2009-06-21 08:06 pm
ladysprite) wrote2009-06-21 08:06 pm
Entry tags:
Just A Little Friendly Advice
....because it's better to explain and teach than to just post a foaming-at-the-mouth rant about frustrating clients.
So, here we go: What To Do When You're Moving and You Have A Pet:
If you have a pet, and you're moving, it is incredibly important to establish a relationship with a veterinarian in your new place of residence. Admittedly, this is less important if you're moving across town, and still plan on taking your pet to your regular vet, but if you're going to end up more than an hour away from your previous home, please please please find a vet in your new area and take your pet to go see them as soon as possible - for a getting-to-know-you visit if nothing else. Yes, it's a little bit of a monetary outlay (probably in the $40-60 ballpark), but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the costs of moving, and it can prevent a lot of expense and frustration later.
Why should you do this?
1) Your new vet can fill you in on local pet ownership laws and risks. Every state is different in their rabies vaccination laws, for instance. Some require it every two years, some every three. Some require vaccinations for cats, some might not. Better to avoid breaking the law if you can.
And aside from legal requirements, every area has different health risks. Maybe your old city was in an area that didn't have a high risk of lyme disease, but your new city does. Maybe now that you've moved to a more rural area, you're letting your cat outside. Maybe the common parasites in your new neighborhood call for you switching to a different brand of heartworm preventive. A local vet can help you figure these things out, and help keep your pet healthy.
2) It will establish a setup for you to continue your pet's health care. If you have a pet with chronic health problems, this is the best way to make sure that there's no break in their care, and no missed doses of meds because you ran out and didn't have a vet to refill them. And even if your pet is healthy, they'll need vaccines and wellness care, and reminders from your old vet may not get forwarded to you.
3) It will mean that there's a vet in the area who has met your pet, and knows them and their health status *before* anything goes wrong. This can be incredibly helpful - if the first time a vet meets your pet is when they're sick, they can be missing a lot of information. By knowing their personality, their physique, and what they look like when they're healthy, they can much better interpret what they see when the animal is sick. Plus, it means that you will know that the clinic exists and where it is before an emergency happens. Nothing is worse than having a medical emergency and then having to deal with a bleeding/seizuring/poisoned/whatever animal while Googling for the nearest vet in your area and praying they're open.
So. There's why to do it. Now here's how to do it:
At least a month before you move (if possible):
Let your regular vet know that you're moving. They can help you look through your pet's records, make sure you have enough of any special foods or medications to make it through your trip and setting yourself up in your new home, and plan a schedule for any health care that needs to happen before you go, including travel requirements.
At this same time, if you can, start looking into a vet in your new neighborhood. If you can have a vet lined up before you move, that can make things a lot easier. If you have any family and friends in that area, ask them who they take their pets to. Ask your vet if they can recommend anyone - we have family in different areas too, as well as classmates and former coworkers who may have scattered to the four corners of the earth. If you can't get a recommendation, peek around the internet and see what you can find in the area. Take reviews with a grain of salt; people tend to post them when they're either very very happy or very very angry.
This is also the time to start getting your pet comfortable with their crate, if you're going to use one. The more time they spend in and around it now, the less stressy and freakish they'll be when it's time to travel.
Two weeks before you move:
Double-check your travel plans. If you're flying, confirm with the airline that you'll have an animal with you, and check what their requirements are. Some airlines require a health certificate, some just require proof of vaccination. As a note, more and more airlines are refusing to fly animals if they're sedated. This is another reason to start getting the pet comfortable with their carrier early on. If you're driving and it's going to be a trip that takes more than one day, double-check with the hotels en route and make sure they allow animals in the rooms.
Ten to seven days before you move:
If any part of your travel requires a health certificate for your pet, now is the time to get it. Most health certificates are valid for ten days, and it behooves you to get it as early as possible. The reason for this is simple: if your pet is, in fact, not healthy, this gives you a week to treat whatever problems exist, then get them re-examined and certified healthy.
DO NOT wait until 24 hours before you leave. Even if your pet looks fine to you, there may be problems that will make it impossible for your vet to write a health certificate. Then you are stuck with one night to either cancel your trip or find a friend who can keep your pet until it's better and then fly it out to you. You will be very mad, your vet will be very sad, and noone will win. Also, if you do wait until the last minute, and then your vet can't write a health certificate, do not take it out on the vet. It's not their fault, and yelling, threatening, or bribing will not help the situation.
At the same time, if you have already chosen a vet in your new neighborhood, ask your vet to fax a copy of your pet's records to them. Also, whether or not you have a new vet lined up, ask your vet for a hard copy of your pet's records. Even if there's a copy waiting for you in your new home, it's safest to have a copy on your person while you travel - that way if there's a problem on the road, you have the necessary information to take care of your pet.
Day of the move:
Make sure that you know where the records are. Make sure you know where the pet's food and any meds are, and that they're packed somewhere that you have easy access to. Once you get to the new home, set up a small, confined area for your pet and let them acclimate to that before introducing them to the entire house. This also helps minimize the risk of them escaping and getting lost as you unpack.
Once you're settled into your new home, within the next month, set up an appointment with your new vet. Even if your pet looks just fine.
Every animal and every situation is different, of course, and this is just a general surface-skimming of the necessary information. But please, at least think things through, and talk to your vets - both at the old home and the new one. It may sound like a lot of unnecessary work, but given the number of catastrophes I've seen when people failed to do this, I can say it's absolutely and utterly worth it.
So, here we go: What To Do When You're Moving and You Have A Pet:
If you have a pet, and you're moving, it is incredibly important to establish a relationship with a veterinarian in your new place of residence. Admittedly, this is less important if you're moving across town, and still plan on taking your pet to your regular vet, but if you're going to end up more than an hour away from your previous home, please please please find a vet in your new area and take your pet to go see them as soon as possible - for a getting-to-know-you visit if nothing else. Yes, it's a little bit of a monetary outlay (probably in the $40-60 ballpark), but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the costs of moving, and it can prevent a lot of expense and frustration later.
Why should you do this?
1) Your new vet can fill you in on local pet ownership laws and risks. Every state is different in their rabies vaccination laws, for instance. Some require it every two years, some every three. Some require vaccinations for cats, some might not. Better to avoid breaking the law if you can.
And aside from legal requirements, every area has different health risks. Maybe your old city was in an area that didn't have a high risk of lyme disease, but your new city does. Maybe now that you've moved to a more rural area, you're letting your cat outside. Maybe the common parasites in your new neighborhood call for you switching to a different brand of heartworm preventive. A local vet can help you figure these things out, and help keep your pet healthy.
2) It will establish a setup for you to continue your pet's health care. If you have a pet with chronic health problems, this is the best way to make sure that there's no break in their care, and no missed doses of meds because you ran out and didn't have a vet to refill them. And even if your pet is healthy, they'll need vaccines and wellness care, and reminders from your old vet may not get forwarded to you.
3) It will mean that there's a vet in the area who has met your pet, and knows them and their health status *before* anything goes wrong. This can be incredibly helpful - if the first time a vet meets your pet is when they're sick, they can be missing a lot of information. By knowing their personality, their physique, and what they look like when they're healthy, they can much better interpret what they see when the animal is sick. Plus, it means that you will know that the clinic exists and where it is before an emergency happens. Nothing is worse than having a medical emergency and then having to deal with a bleeding/seizuring/poisoned/whatever animal while Googling for the nearest vet in your area and praying they're open.
So. There's why to do it. Now here's how to do it:
At least a month before you move (if possible):
Let your regular vet know that you're moving. They can help you look through your pet's records, make sure you have enough of any special foods or medications to make it through your trip and setting yourself up in your new home, and plan a schedule for any health care that needs to happen before you go, including travel requirements.
At this same time, if you can, start looking into a vet in your new neighborhood. If you can have a vet lined up before you move, that can make things a lot easier. If you have any family and friends in that area, ask them who they take their pets to. Ask your vet if they can recommend anyone - we have family in different areas too, as well as classmates and former coworkers who may have scattered to the four corners of the earth. If you can't get a recommendation, peek around the internet and see what you can find in the area. Take reviews with a grain of salt; people tend to post them when they're either very very happy or very very angry.
This is also the time to start getting your pet comfortable with their crate, if you're going to use one. The more time they spend in and around it now, the less stressy and freakish they'll be when it's time to travel.
Two weeks before you move:
Double-check your travel plans. If you're flying, confirm with the airline that you'll have an animal with you, and check what their requirements are. Some airlines require a health certificate, some just require proof of vaccination. As a note, more and more airlines are refusing to fly animals if they're sedated. This is another reason to start getting the pet comfortable with their carrier early on. If you're driving and it's going to be a trip that takes more than one day, double-check with the hotels en route and make sure they allow animals in the rooms.
Ten to seven days before you move:
If any part of your travel requires a health certificate for your pet, now is the time to get it. Most health certificates are valid for ten days, and it behooves you to get it as early as possible. The reason for this is simple: if your pet is, in fact, not healthy, this gives you a week to treat whatever problems exist, then get them re-examined and certified healthy.
DO NOT wait until 24 hours before you leave. Even if your pet looks fine to you, there may be problems that will make it impossible for your vet to write a health certificate. Then you are stuck with one night to either cancel your trip or find a friend who can keep your pet until it's better and then fly it out to you. You will be very mad, your vet will be very sad, and noone will win. Also, if you do wait until the last minute, and then your vet can't write a health certificate, do not take it out on the vet. It's not their fault, and yelling, threatening, or bribing will not help the situation.
At the same time, if you have already chosen a vet in your new neighborhood, ask your vet to fax a copy of your pet's records to them. Also, whether or not you have a new vet lined up, ask your vet for a hard copy of your pet's records. Even if there's a copy waiting for you in your new home, it's safest to have a copy on your person while you travel - that way if there's a problem on the road, you have the necessary information to take care of your pet.
Day of the move:
Make sure that you know where the records are. Make sure you know where the pet's food and any meds are, and that they're packed somewhere that you have easy access to. Once you get to the new home, set up a small, confined area for your pet and let them acclimate to that before introducing them to the entire house. This also helps minimize the risk of them escaping and getting lost as you unpack.
Once you're settled into your new home, within the next month, set up an appointment with your new vet. Even if your pet looks just fine.
Every animal and every situation is different, of course, and this is just a general surface-skimming of the necessary information. But please, at least think things through, and talk to your vets - both at the old home and the new one. It may sound like a lot of unnecessary work, but given the number of catastrophes I've seen when people failed to do this, I can say it's absolutely and utterly worth it.