Concerned Moving Cat To Thailand

[Ambrosia]

Moving to the Chiang Mai area in a couple months and I'm worried about a few things with my cat. Firstly, does anyone have a good web link with all the info, vaccines, paperwork necessary to bring her over?

Also, once we're there I worry about her getting eaten by all the strays that wander around. She is an indoor cat now and I can keep her in but cat sitters might not be so careful. We'll be going back to the US rather often and I would want someone to watch her while we're gone so she doesn't have to deal with flight stress.

Vets and quality food/litter are also things I'm clueless about.

If anyone has experiences or tips for me I'd appreciate it. My cat is my baby and I want to make sure she's able to transition as easily as possible.

[Nienke]

Import requirements:

http://www.dld.go.th/dcontrol/move/menu31e.html

http://www.dld.go.th/dcontrol/move/imex_e.html

Indoor or outdoor cat:

Worrying about cats being attacked by free-roaming dogs (not always strays) is quite legitimate. It does happen. And the diseases FIV and Leukemia under the free roaming cats is high.

An option would be to rent or buy a house and make an outdoor enclosure or fence of your garden (cat-proved, that is). I've seen some very nice designs on the internet.

There are good veterinary clinics, cat food and litter available in Chiang Mai.

[toffeedoll]

Hello, we brought our two cats over from the UK this year. I was really worried about the whole process, not least because there was conflicting advice given about requirements, and so in the end we instructed a specialist company to help us and they arranged the export certificate/import licence, took them to the airport for us (although we all flew on the same flight) and then had an agent meet us in Bangkok who dealt with customs for us.

The company we used were called Petair - I am sure there are similar in the US, and indeed might even be able to help as I know they fly animals there. It wasn't cheap, but we were lucky in that that my partner's company paid for it.

Now we are here, we live in a busy part of Bangkok, and so for many reasons have chosen to keep them indoors. They are happy though, as we have a big apartment and I am here for most of the day to keep them company.

We haven't gone away for any length of time yet, but friends we have made have helped us on the odd occasion, changing the automatic feeder, staying for play/attention etc.

Hope that helps!