Our dog is older and gets anxious even with normal car trips, so I'm dreading the actual travel day for our move more than almost anything else in this whole process. Anyone brought an anxious or elderly pet through a long-haul move and have tips that genuinely helped?
Used a vet-prescribed calming option specifically for the travel day. Worked for our dog, though I’d be cautious generalising that to every animal.
Dreading this exact thing, following closely.
Did a couple of short practice trips in the carrier beforehand. The desensitising helped far more than anything we tried on the actual day itself.
OP here — hadn’t thought of practice trips at all, going to try that before our own move.
No advice, just sending good energy for the flight.
Did anyone use a specialist pet relocation service specifically for an anxious animal, and was it actually worth the cost?
Used one and it was worth it purely for my own peace of mind, even though our cat probably would have been fine either way.
Booked a direct flight even though it cost more, specifically to avoid a stressful layover and re-screening for an anxious older dog.
Following, our vet appointment to discuss exactly this is next week.
A worn item of clothing with our scent on it in the carrier seemed to genuinely help ours settle faster than anything else we tried.