Moving with pets

[alex]

Hey

As I contemplate how I'm getting everything to Ontario alive and reasonably intact in August, I thought I'd ask how anyone else who has moved a large collection of animals has done it? When I moved to SK four years ago in August, I managed to come through the BC forest fires with everything alive and well, including my entire fish tank... however, I was incredibly anal about controlling temperature and doing water changes and making sure most of the travel cages were humid. Now I've got a wider range of "safe" temperatures plus the bird and the cat to fit in my car.

Any suggestions? I pretty much think I am going to be individually packing animals again with assorted substrates, and then getting some big coolers/ice packs for amphibians, fish and my more cold-tolerant reptiles... not to mention carrying tranquilisers for the cat, the bird and quite possibly myself (though not being able to write scripts for people makes that a little bit more of a hassle).

[vanderkm]

How long will you be in transit and what species of reptiles are you dealing with?

We have had no problems transporting colubrid snakes for several days in individual pillowcases in a shared cooler during the day. I like to keep them in something insulated so that they don't overheat in a vehicle (or get chilled depending on the time of year). I return them to their rubbermaid tub each night so they have access to water. I just use paper towel in the rubbermaid for overnight - can actually transport the snakes in these if you want - just remove the water bowl, stack the tubs and secure with a strap around the stack of tubs - just need to make sure your vehicle temp stays tolerable.

Room temperature is fine for several days, just avoid feeding for a couple weeks before the trip to clean their gut out - the need for a temperature gradient is critical if they are digesting but much less important if they are not.

Have to mention that you should apply for an export permit to remove the reptiles from the province - contact Penny Lalonde, Sask Environment. The permit is free, you just need to specify what reptiles are being transported and where they are going from and destination. They do want to make sure that only legally owned reptiles are being moved. Takes about a week to get the permit.

Good luck with the move - I can't imagine moving fish, a bird and a cat all in the same vehicle - just making a cross country trip with a cat was stressful enough.


mary v.

[alex]

Probably in transit 3-4 days (depends on whether or not one of us drives a uhaul really) and then possibly up to another week to get all my stuff (if it's shipped rather than driven by one of us)
Last time I fasted them well in advance except for the babies
I don't like shipping them without water and not being able to see them all the time (especially my juvenile/neonatal animals) and so I had this double cup secured water dish thing going on in paper towel lined translucent rubbermaids... the turtles also learned to drink out of it quite well, if I could persuade them to not tear it to shreds
Species-wise, I have everything from fully aquatic to cooler montane snakes to hot dry desert snakes to humid rainforest snakes, plus the chelonians and amphibians and cat and bird... I think I'm looking at cramming about 80 individual animals in my car.

I already deal with Penny frequently for work, she tends to get us permits faster than a week I generally get them within 24 hours as long as it's a work day.

[vanderkm]

I agree on the water access - I worry about neonates for water access too - use an attached cup that is too tall to tip in their container with a slot cut out of one side so that they can drink. Many of them end up curled in the water cup - nice tight hide place during transit.

Sounds like you will really have a car-full - best of luck with the move,


mary v.

[kaley]

I'm sure that you've likely dismissed this idea already, but I thought i'd mention it anyways...

Is there any way that you could ship some of your critters out to your destination, rather than crowd your car? It might take some of the strain off if you can just have some of the collection arrive...You'd have to trust someone on one end to safely pack and drop off, or pick up and unpack...but still, it might be worth thinking about...

[alex]

I don't think I have anyone left in town I could safely leave animals with for a few days to a week... most of my friends have moved or are currently moving (it's a massive veterinary exodus), even the exotics intern and resident I like will be gone then.... so it's hard to leave delicate animals with people. My bird frequently stops eating when she doesn't see me every day, so she potentially requires crop tubing +/- SQ fluids. Ditto my snakes - I am obsessive about avoiding cutaneous mycosis in the tentacled snakes and amphibians, so I don't really want to leave them with people who aren't capable of getting on top of it. And some of my snakes are really quite aggressive... so a lot of those who've seen some of my feeding accidents are too scared to handle the snakes and they will be MEAN if they've been fasted before we leave (I came home from Christmas once and the bad cat gear was at my house). Really, the only animals I could safely leave for a week or so are the ones that I'm not really worried about and aren't difficult to move - the big slider tank, the tortoises, etc.
I know that it's quite difficult, but the thing I like about taking them all with me is I have my travelling medical kit and I can do things like crop tube, give intracoelomic fluids to small snakes I think might be dehydrated, and I don't have to worry about airlines baking or freezing anything... when they're in my car, it's easy to pull over and buy ice or clean dirty cages and do water changes.

[kaley]

That's pretty much exactly what I thought you'd say!

Best of luck getting everyone to ON in one piece!

[joeysgreen]

Alex did you get a vet position in Ontario?

[alex]

Not a job - I got a DVSc position in fish pathology, which gets me eligible to be boarded by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (which I reeeeally want and is totally brutal without a training program) and I'm mostly working with fish (since my master's project will be with VHSV) and some amphibians. It might end up transitioning into a PhD, since I'll end up needing one to stay in academia, but it kind of depends how much work my project turns into.
I'm quite excited.

[joeysgreen]

Good luck and have fun. I love research, but it looks to be stealing a soon to be awesome herp vet!

Ian