Pets and vacation

[indimom]

We have a neighbor (teen) and a nephew (preteen) who normally take care of our ferrets when we are gone. The ferrets are pretty easy to take care of since they use the litter box, stay in their condo most of the day, and entertain each other. We usually have the "sitter" come to the house once a day to clean and feed them and to let them run/play outside the cage for a while.
On our trip last July, Smokey had been sick for several weeks and was on three types of meds. This was a problem. It was pretty much a two man job to get those pills and liquids down him and ferrets are VERY wiggly when they want loose. Also, you had to pry his little mouth open and ferrets have sharp teeth. It was difficult for us and we are not intimidated or upset by the occasional nip.
We weren't sure what to do as ferrets are not traditional pets and bording places will not keep them. Our last ditch effort was the vets' office. They do not normally board animals, but they had been treating him and understood the situation. They agreed that they could keep him. They only charged us $12 a day, including giving him his meds twice a day at no extra charge. Our nephew cared for Bandit at our home. Everything went well and the ferrets were glad to see each other after the weekend. We were thrilled.
Sadly, Smokey passed away at the end of summer.

 

[NMAmy]

I have a friend with two college aged sons that argue over who gets to come stay with our dog. I get a housesitter and petsitter all in one and I pay the same as it would cost to kennel her. They spoil her mercilessly and she's always exhausted from all the playing when we get back home.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We board the 2 cats and the dog mostly now. The price just went up though. It's 15 a day per cat and 30 a day for the dog.

Our friend who normally comes over and feeds/plays with the cats, doesn't have as much available time so she can't do it anymore. Now she just brings in any boxes that UPS delivers while we are gone since that's easier for her to squeeze into her schedule.

And we've always boarded our dog. She gets to play in their doggie day care with other little dogs and she loves it.

I keep thinking I might hire a pet sitting service since they'd also bring in any boxes delivered from UPS and mail but haven't gotten around to looking into it yet.

I forgot about the fish. Our friend also feeds the fish every couple of days. We've got a 4 day beach trip coming up and she isn't going to be home either so I'm going to try one of those automatic feeders this time.

 

[calypso726]

I have never boarded my dogs when going on vacation. I have 8 dogs (show dogs) so that would get rather expensive. When we go on vacation I have DBIL stay over and take care of the crew. Fortunately, he lived with us while he was going to college and learned how one manages 8 dogs and if one of my girls is in season knows to make certain she does not go out to potty or play anywhere near the boys I can't just trust anyone to do this and make sure no "accidents" happen. Could you imagine if I came back home from vacation and found that my oldest boy Disney (in my signature pic) had bred his daughter

There was one time we went on vacation and DBIL was also out of town. I hired one of the vet techs at my vet's hospital to do the dog sitting and it went very well. My vet also shows dogs so her staff is used to working with show breeders. You will find that many vet techs do pet sitting on the side, so you can check with your vet's office also.

 

[pl71]

Our dog goes to the kennel. They give her lots of attention and she's happy there. It's a little country kennel that is highly regarded, even our local seeing eye dogs in training group recommends them.

I also have cats, fish and parrots and we use a pet sitter with twice a day visits for them. My parrots need lots on interaction so twice a day visits are important.

I did have to switch pet sitters. The first one I had was fine the first few times I used her, then we came back from a trip to find that she'd allowed one of her employees to do our house by herself and she wasn't able to get our cat to take her medicine. As a result the cat peed everywhere and we had to replace over $800 worth of items. I couldn't believe we didn't get a call that our cat wouldn't take the medicine, my mother would have come over to do it. That still makes me angry.

Our new pet sitter is wonderful and doesn't have any employees. She's had no problems giving the cat medicine (she used to be a vet tech) and she cleans all the litter boxes, takes out the trash, gives the birds fresh foods each morning and washes out their bowls each night. Our birds were the first ones she watched but she liked them so much now she's a foster mom for a parrot of her own. Since she is a one person operation it means I have to schedule her early, but I've never had her not available when needed.

None of it is cheap, the pet sitter is $40 a day for the twice a day visits, the kennel is $15 a day.


Calypso, that's one good looking dog! I'm sure his puppies are adorable!