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Canine Health Questions


Robin Of House Hill

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We have a 12 year old, spayed female Border Collie Mix.  In the past three months, she has had 2 incidents of urinary incontinence while sleeping.  I know there are breeds that are susceptible to this, but hers is not one of them.  I've also noted that her water intake has increased slightly and she needs to urinate more often, so I'm suspecting the onset of diabetes.  She's due for her rabies shot, next month so we'll have her tested at that time.

We plan on moving from the US to Ireland in about 18 months.  Assuming no other health issues, would it be risky to take her on a trip that is a minimum of 10 hours flight time, plus transport two and from airports and medical inspection upon arrival?  I should mention that she is quite nervous around strangers.

We could postpone the trip, if necessary, but with my luck, she'll live till 20, and then I'll be too old to make the trip.:rolleyes:

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Hard to really say without the vet's diagnosis.  Still, your pup will be nearly 14 when you move.  The flight alone is tough on even young dogs.  Ten hours flight time probably translates to something like 14+ hours in the crate for full travel, more depending on medical inspection.  There are big temp changes, pressure changes, it's a scary, new, stressful environment.  I think it could be quite risky considering age and possible health issues.  However, it could also be risky finding her a new home.  I don't have a good answer here.  This is really tough.  Fingers crossed that the doc has good news at her next appt.

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Urinary incontinence, twice in 3 months, at that age... I wouldn't stress about it - get it checked out just in case, but don't start worrying.

 

10 hour flight for a 14 year old dog... with all the attended stress, hassle and care... that may well be too much.

My cousin is a professional dog trainer/competitor, and he regularly travels the world, and heads to the states a few times a year. He never takes his dogs on a plane at all, though he has been known to review from the UK to Moscow (and get disciplined by the UK team) rather than fly out - with young, professional-athlete dogs (all collie or collie-cross).

 

I'm sorry, there's no right answer for this, but rehoming your dog is likely to be kinder than putting her through all that at her age.

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An addition to the above.

I saw my Aunt this morning, she said that when Laura (cousin's wife) moved to the UK, she drove LA-NY, then came by boat (NY-Southampton) with the dogs - took about a week (on the boat, that is). Sounds like a far better option, but pricey.

I dunno if there's a passenger boat from NY direct into Ireland, but England to Ireland is a piece of piss

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5 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

An addition to the above.

I saw my Aunt this morning, she said that when Laura (cousin's wife) moved to the UK, she drove LA-NY, then came by boat (NY-Southampton) with the dogs - took about a week (on the boat, that is). Sounds like a far better option, but pricey.

I dunno if there's a passenger boat from NY direct into Ireland, but England to Ireland is a piece of piss

There are many reasons travel by ship is out of the question, but the biggest one is that Ireland requires she be treated for tape worms no longer than 5 days prior to her arrival.

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On 12/20/2017 at 11:14 AM, Fragile Bird said:

How about driving to the east coast and flying from, say, Boston? Much shorter flight.

My wife has only driven once in the past 15 years, and that was when we moved from Los Angeles to Tucson, and that was on a road we were familiar with.  Driving to NY or Boston through heavily populated areas, wouldn't be my choice.  I'd drive, but I lost my driving privileges in 2003, due to an unpaid license surcharge incurred in 1990 that I was unaware of, and which had accumulated so much interest, I said the hell with it.

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Even if driving were an option, I think a road trip that long would also be terribly hard on her, too, especially if she's not used to being in the car.  That would be close to a 40 hour trip, just drive time.  I road trip with my dog all the time, he goes everywhere with me.  But it's still hard on him at times when we're on the road for days and he's at the height of health.  

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On 12/22/2017 at 6:23 AM, Dr. Pepper said:

Even if driving were an option, I think a road trip that long would also be terribly hard on her, too, especially if she's not used to being in the car.  That would be close to a 40 hour trip, just drive time.  I road trip with my dog all the time, he goes everywhere with me.  But it's still hard on him at times when we're on the road for days and he's at the height of health.  

I agree.  when we moved form Los Angeles to Tucson, it was an 11 hour trip, of which the first 2 hours, she was quite agitated.  This is beginning to look like a no-win situation.

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10 hours ago, Robin Of House Hill said:

I agree.  when we moved form Los Angeles to Tucson, it was an 11 hour trip, of which the first 2 hours, she was quite agitated.  This is beginning to look like a no-win situation.

I'm sorry.  This must be a really difficult decision to have to make.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

I should point out that we took our dog to the vet.  She was given a clean bill of health and should be able to make such a trip, according to the vet.  The vet also advised that there are several sedatives she can be given that are very low risk, and we can get samples to test the effects, some months prior to moving to determine how she reacts to them.

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