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Moving your pet to a new home in a new country

If you are moving home to another country, whether you’re relocating, retiring or moving for work, whatever the reason is you may be thinking about taking your pet(s) with you.  We love our pets, and having them with you would certainly make you feel happier and help you to better deal with the move to a foreign country. Moving countries for an animal, isn’t as easy as it is for people to move.  First the animal must be transported, moving is traumatic for all animals, they are often alone and with no idea what’s going on.  Your animal will most likely have to be placed in quarantine-for weeks maybe even months, and then you need to try to settle them into their new home and environment. So before you make any decisions, there are some things that you need to consider first:•    How healthy is your animal? If your pet is old or unwell, and because moving is traumatic for animals, your pet may not be able to be transported without serious risk to its health.  Are the conditions in the new country suitable to your pet, considering things like the climate of the country etc. •    Are you able to take your animal into the country you want to live in? If you are, do you need to have any medical examinations and/or certificates/blood samples etc.   It is important that you think ahead regarding this and check with the specific country.  If, for example, the animal cannot be bought into the country until a certain amount of days after this examination/blood tests-they may be placed in quarantine longer to compensate.•    Speak to your vet and make sure that the country is a safe and healthy place for your animal to be, ask as many questions as you can think of such as does your pet need any injections or medical treatment to prepare them for the move?  Will they be ok drinking the water? Etc.•    Moving your animal, putting them into quarantine and then bringing them to a new home may cause some behavioural or anxiety issues, especially in cats and dogs. They may not be as loving or as friendly to you, your children or any other animals that you may have and it is not unknown for pets to be resentful for the change, doing things they wouldn’t have done before such as urinating to mark their territory.Further to ensuring that the move is going to be suitable for your pet, you also need to ensure that financially you can afford to take your pet with you.  Moving pets to another country is very costly.  Transportation alone is expensive, you can hire a pet transportation service to take out a lot of the stress for you, but again there is an additional charge for this.  Further to transportation costs you may have vets bills to pay before you go for the examinations and blood tests that need to be done on your animal, as well as any medical treatment your pet may need before the move.  Sometimes there are vet bills to pay when you arrive too, if the county you are moving too has a stipulation that you must have your animal checked by a local vet working within that country before the animal is allowed to live there.  It is understandable that you would want to take your pet to your new home with you, but consider whether this is the best thing for your animal.  You may be doing more harm and it may be better to find a new home within your current country for the pet.