Relocating my cats abroad by airplane

[rihanna4]

Has anybody transported their cat in the cargo hold of a plane? How did your cat cope? How stressful was the experience?

I feel awful about potentially putting my cats through this.

Thanks in advance.

We brought a cat back from Australia. She was young (about 2) and healthy and she was fine. My Mum picked her up from the airport and said she was covered in wee and so had to wash her and then she hid on top of a wardrobe for about a week (but also was in a new house with a dog and new people) but then was fine and definitely no long lasting effects.
Where are you bring them from/to?

We moved from California to Alabama 15 years ago and used a professional animal transport firm (O Brien Animal Transportation) to move our middle aged cats. It cost the same as our tickets but they sent a pet taxi to collect the cats, checked them in, and they were put in the section of the hold for skis and surfboards which was supposed to be pressurized and temperature controlled - to avoid them being smothered by luggage. I think they used Delta airlines because they were able to guarantee that the cats would not be put in the main hold.

I asked our vet about sedating the cats and she told us not to as their body temperature can go dangerously out of whack. We put bowls of ice cubes in their cages for them to drink as they melted. They had absorbant puppy pads under the blankets in the cages to absorb any urine. I also put in t-shirts I had worn and their toys. If I had known about Feliway I would have sprayed that in the cages as well. The cages we used were large dog cages. We weren't allowed to put the cats in a cage together.

Fortunately they had a direct flight and DH was able to pick them up as soon as they landed. They were displeased and threw all their bedding around when they got to their new home. They did settle down after two or three days. DCat1 took her revenge by stealing DMIL's dental plate and hiding it so that it never turned up again.

Our cats flew from the UK to the far East in cargo and were absolutely fine. It was arranged through a dedicated company who handled all the paperwork. We flew before them and picked them up at the other end. We had to go through vet checks but when we got them back to where we were staying the crates were completely clean - one of them did nearly go cross-eyes having the longest wee ever in the litter tray as he'd obviously been holding it in! They flew back to Europe a few years later and were equally fine.

Many thanks for your replies. I'm moving from the UK to the Middle East.

We shipped our cat from UK to US about 10 years ago using PetAirUK, who were excellent. He seemed a bit shell shocked when he arrived, but he got over it quickly.

Thanks @VimFuego101 

@Lalux Would you mind sharing the name of the company you used?

We used PetAir UK too on the way out and on the way back we used World Care Pet Transport I think they were US based but we weren't coming back to the UK so I'm not sure if they do ex UK transport.

2 very well travelled cats 3 countries and about 8/9 house moves and we only lost them at 20 and 21 years old.

I take it you've never listened to Cabin Pressure?

No, never heard of it.

@Lalux thank you