Moving long distance with horses/dogs

[LindaL]

Only 7 more weeks til Deb and I move from Oregon to Florida!!

I am getting excited, but am also getting a little anxious about the "move" part. We have the movers set up to come pick our stuff up on Sept. 3rd, we are leaving with our 3 horses and 3 dogs on Sept. 4th (caravaning with others to Tulsa). Will be in Tulsa for AMHR Nationals thru Sept. 17, then headed to Florida from there arriving on Sept. 18th and our stuff to arrive on the 19th or 20th. That is the plan and it sounds easy enough, but I am stressing about the "what ifs".

And traveling with all the animals...especially the dogs...will be an "adventure" to say the least...

I really need some suggestions from others that have done this (maybe not moved, but at least traveled) with your animals.

 

[Watcheye]

Well I am absolutely no help as I have not moved in many years and I was too young to help with the big stuff when I did. I just keep picturing you guys whenever you talk about it. On your great adventure. It puts a smile on my face. And you have a Snowberry Farms horse I believe. Jet? I love Snowberry Farms! I have two of their horses!.... Oh am I ever off topic. Good luck and have fun!!! Im excited for you!

 

[Marty]

We looked like a motorcade of the Clampetts moving up here with trucks, vans,trailers, u-hauls dragging more trailers. Oh gosh what were we thinking????

Kids, grandma, dogs, the cat and the bird. I think avoiding sickness will be the biggest thing for all of you due to stress and weather changes. We all ended up deathly sick but the animals were fine with the exception of the bird who did get deathly ill upon arrival and died upon arrival within days. We did not have a doctor in place nor a vet. I thought we had both lined up in advance but learned quickly we couldn't count on either of them. I'd say having a doctor and vet in mind would be important.

Anyhow what I can tell you mostly is to be sure your animals are in top health to begin with. The weather changes will also have an effect and running from into air conditioning and back out to the humidity can take its toll not only on the animals but on you. Everytime you make a potty stop walk the dogs really good. If you have crates that can be a plus but don't over crate or let the dogs come in contact with other dogs. Keeping a cooler of water and gatorade where you can easily reach it is a good thing. I always keep a couple of small towels handy shoved under the seats and medicine like asprin and stuff for upset stomach was in the glove compartment as well as vomit bags! Someone always pukes.

You probably figured this one out but when you get to your new home you will have to be extra careful not to let your dogs off leash mostly because they could come in contact with a snake or gator, possum etc. and not used to seeing that stuff especially if you will be living on a canal or near one or have a pond or access to a pond or one of those very deep draining ditches. And don't plan on walking barefoot because of the sandspurs and watch out for those red ants.

 

[Shari]

I have done a few cross country moves. Knock on wood the only one that had any issues was my then very young son... would got car sick.

Imagen moving 3,000 miles twice.. with a child that got car sick!

Anyway.. I moved with a cat or cat(s), my DS and will have to again when we can get this place sold.

Just take your time, take lots of breaks and if you both get really tired stop for the day. This works really well for people and the animals.

I will have tags on my cats that have my and DH's Cell phone number and if you have one, the address to where you are moving to.

Make sure I have food and water for both my family and Pets. As there were many areas along the way we could not find food for us due to allergies or the cats.

Keeping your pets on the food and water they know, goes a long way to having no issues.

Medical kits for both people and pets, which has everything under the sun in it.

And Thank goodness my now 20 year old son no longer gets car sick.

Safe trip Linda!!

 

[kaykay]

All of our stuff left first. Then we waited a couple days (moving trucks take longer) and headed out with the kids and dogs. Our dogs are notorious for getting car sick so we got meds from the vet to help. Put them in crates and took off. Once we got there we had the horses delivered about a week later. that gave us time to get hay, get the new barn ready etc. We had our entire herd trucked here in one huge trailer LOL. It was a nail biter but it all came out okay

 

[LindaL]

We will be bringing dog crates, food that they are used to, etc. for the dogs (good idea about the dog tags...will need to get new ones made!) They do not get car sick, thankfully!

We will also be bringing extra hay/grain for the horses, so they will have what they are used to til we can get new hay there. Since we will be stopping at Nationals, they will also have all their stuff.

As far as stopping when we want, since we are kind of at the mercy of the others we are caravaning with to Tulsa (they have horses as well, so I know they will stop for breaks), I just have to hope we don't need to stop at any other time. If we need to, we will meet up later at the night stopping point.

We have limited space in the truck bed (with canopy) and horse trailer, so I want to take as much of what I think we may need with us, but...there may not be room!

If it gets packed in the moving truck, we wont see it for 3 weeks...at least (meaning IF we can find whatever it is we may be looking for...lol)

 

[LindaL]

Well I am absolutely no help as I have not moved in many years and I was too young to help with the big stuff when I did. I just keep picturing you guys whenever you talk about it. On your great adventure. It puts a smile on my face. And you have a Snowberry Farms horse I believe. Jet? I love Snowberry Farms! I have two of their horses!.... Oh am I ever off topic. Good luck and have fun!!! Im excited for you!

yes, we own Jet!

Thanks!

 

[Sterling]

Oh I love road trips! So many times when we were little we went cross country. Didn't travel with animals back then, but as an adult I have. When we went to Oklahoma a few years ago we had so much FUN having our dogs with us! I researched many months before (and I know this may not pertain to your situation right now) and made sure along the way I found dog friendly everything from hotels to rest stops. What I did to prep was to make sure all their shots were current and up to date. I made a copy of their rabies and vaccination records and kept that in the glove compartment. I also did up a "In case of Emergency" page where I listed telephone numbers of people to contact should something happen to us on the road, our pups would be cared for and re-routed back to the family. In it I included their vet, my family members to be contacted and personality profile of both dogs. Dogs can act differently when they are in a stressful situation and since we own a Boxer and a Cane Corso, doing this would give ER helpers a heads up of what to expect and how to handle our girls should the need arise.

I took plenty of their food with us, their own bowls and treats. Just in case meds just in case they got sick, water from home to begin with and then had several jugs of bottled water because I didn't know how they would take to water from different states. This helped keep their little bodies stable and not get diarrhea. I also packed some toys (very important to while away the boredom of traveling, and a long line for when we got out at rest stops they didn't have to be on a short leash. These are just some of the things I can think of that we did and it made our trip very pleasant. We can't wait to do it again...plans are in the works.... Good luck with your move!