Has anyone had cats in Quarantine?

Hi all, new to this forum, I looked around for the best place to put this post and this seems to be it, apologies to the mods if that is incorrect.

I have four adult cats here in Antigua, I have been offered an excellent job in Malta and will be moving there in March or April of this year. I have began the process of getting the herd ready to enter Malta but even with that taken care of they are going to have to spend four to five months in quarantine when they get there.

My other option is to leave them here and find a housesitter, however I have real concerns that placing them in the care of someone that is less than dependable might be more traumatic for them in the long run. Ifl I am in Europe and my housesitter decides to up and leave then things will be really bad.

Does anyone have an experience of how their animals reacted to quarantine.

Thanks

Adam

I have not done it myself but a friend had to put her two cats in quarantine for six months when moving from the US to the UK. She was able to go and see them every month. But she said that they were very depressed and lost a lot of weight. However, when she finally got them home they soon regained everything and both lived long lives.

Hello and welcome to Tcs

Malta is linked very closely to the UK,There is now a Passports for pets/Pet travel scheme.
If you are coming from a qualifying country as long as you vaccinate your cats
and satisfy criteria they won't have to go through quarantine.

Here is a link you may find helpful.Its a PDF so you can save it to your Pc

http://www.airmalta.com/generic/mark...0Scheme%20.pdf

Just a word of caution though,follow the directions exactly by the book,because if something,any slight thing,is out of place,they won't accept them on the Passports for pets scheme/Pet travel scheme.

Good luck

4-5 months? that is so sad they have to go through that. that is so long for them to be in a cage. what do they have to be quarintined for? what is the disease risk they are concerned about? are you allowed to go visit? where the heck is malta? sorry for all the questions and no help in answering yours

Jen they are being quarantined for Rabies. Even though I live in Antigua which is a rabies free nation. The PETS scheme that furryferals mentioned will allow me to get them into the country without the need for quarantine.

However to do that would require that they enter six months after a negative blood sample is returned from a lab in the UK. Which means you need six months notice before moving your animals, which I didn't have. For god knows what reason only the government vet here is allowed to vaccinate animals for rabies and only when they are being exported so it wasn't even a 'just in case' option for me unfortunately.

So as a result if I bring the cats to Malta in March then they wont be able to get out of the quarantine facility until late July or maybe even August.

Oh and Malta is an island nation in the Med, just south of Sicily. I plan to call the Maltese government vet on Monday to run a bunch of questions past him or her (as they don't answer their emails). Although I am leaning towards leaving them in my house and trying to find a responsible house sitter until their six month window has passed and I can bring them in Malta without them doing time.

I think faced with your choices and me knowing how life can be hell for some animals in quarantine and some pets do die,I think I personally would get the ball rolling with the Passports for pets scheme and find a sitter.
At least then,they won't have any disruption to their lives except for the travel.


Jen,The incubation period for rabies can be anything upto six months,Thats why it's so long in quarantine,and yes some places do allow visits but I don't think it's full access,that must be torture for the pet

I have just recently moved from Kenya to England. I was very anxious about what to do with my two little bombay cats. I looked into all the options to avoid quarantine and in the end I decided I didn't want to be apart from them that long. They have both been in quarantine for two months now and are doing really well. It is important to chose a quarantine place that has a good run outside. I spent months worrying about how they would cope and to be honest it was me that was the most stressed. They are about 120 miles from where I live. I visit each 2 weeks for about 2 hours of play. Initially they lost a little weight but after a couple of weeks probably due to the flying and upheaval but they are now fine and getting everyone at the kennels to fuss around them. I bought lots of toys for them and scratch posts, they love to get a visit and naturally do cry a little when I leave. I have never told the kennels when I am arriving and each time I visit their new home is always clean with fresh food. As I only have to wait 4 more months I really do think its the best decision I could have made. If you have more than one cat its great as they keep each other company and seem happy providing they can go outside and are fed.