Preparing Your Pet for Boarding or a Pet Sitter

Leaving an animal behind is uncomfortable enough without the arrangements going wrong, and most of what goes wrong is administrative rather than emotional.

Vaccination windows close earlier than people expect. The information a sitter genuinely needs is rarely what gets left on the counter. And the question of who can authorise treatment, and pay for it, is almost never settled in advance, which is exactly when it turns into a problem.

Start four weeks out, because of the vaccinations

This is the part that ruins trips.

• Core vaccinations must be current, and most kennels will not take an animal whose booster has lapsed, even by a fortnight
• Kennel cough is usually required separately, and typically has to be given at least two weeks before arrival so that protection has developed. Some kennels ask for longer
• A first-time vaccination course cannot be rushed. If your animal has never been vaccinated, or the records are lost, you may be looking at several weeks of doses rather than one visit
• Ask the kennel for its written requirements before you book, not after. They vary, and the deposit is usually non-refundable

Call the facility, ask precisely what they need and how far in advance, then look at your own records and count backwards. Four weeks of margin covers almost every version of this.

Parasite treatment before you go

Flea, tick and worm treatment should be current and given a few days before arrival rather than on the morning. Kennels and multi-pet sitters are exactly where parasites move between animals, and an untreated animal is both a risk and, in many places, a reason to be turned away.

Weigh the animal first, since dosing is by weight and a growing dog may have outgrown its last dose.

Choosing where they stay

Visit before you book, and go without an appointment if you can. What you are looking for:

• Clean, dry, ventilated accommodation that does not smell of ammonia
• Water in every enclosure, and clean
• Shade and airflow, and a sensible answer to what happens during a power cut. This matters a great deal for flat-faced breeds
• Secure fencing and double gates, so an escaping animal has a second barrier
• Cats housed away from dogs, out of sight and ideally out of earshot
• Who is on site overnight, and whether anybody is there at all
• Their vet, and their emergency procedure. Ask directly what happens at 2am
• Whether animals from different households are mixed, and how that is supervised
• The animals already there. They tell you more than the building does

Be wary of anywhere unwilling to show you where animals are actually kept. That is the single most useful warning sign there is.

A sitter instead

Often better for cats, who mostly cope poorly with being moved. Cats bond to territory more than to routine, so staying home with visits usually beats going somewhere new.

If you use a sitter, settle in advance: how many visits a day and how long, whether they stay overnight, what happens if they fall ill, whether anybody else has keys, and whether they have transport in case the animal needs a vet. A sitter without a car is a sitter who cannot get to a clinic.

Have them come once before you leave, while you are there, so the animal meets them and they see where everything is.

What to leave, and what to pack

• Enough of the animal's usual food for the whole stay plus a couple of days, measured into daily portions if you can. A sudden diet change on top of a stressful move is how kennel diarrhoea happens
• All medication in its original labelled packaging, with written instructions: what, how much, when, with or without food, and what to do about a missed dose
• Unwashed bedding, or a worn item of your clothing. The smell genuinely helps
• A familiar toy, and for cats their own litter and tray if the sitter arrangement allows
• Their own bowls where permitted
• Vaccination records, or clear photographs of them
• A collar with a tag, and a harness if the dog pulls

Leave the extremely expensive irreplaceable blanket at home. Things go missing.

The information sheet nobody leaves

Most people leave a phone number and the feeding amount. What is actually needed is more specific, and it fits on one page.

• Your number, plus a second number for somebody who can make decisions if you are unreachable or on a flight
• Your vet's name, address and out-of-hours arrangement
• The microchip number
• Current medication and doses, and existing conditions
• Known allergies or previous reactions
• What the animal is like: what frightens it, whether it guards food, whether it is safe with children, whether it will bolt through an open gate
• Normal appetite and normal toilet habits, so somebody can tell when it changes
• What counts as unusual for this animal specifically

Our free pet travel and boarding checklist is printable and covers this in one page, and the pet health record holds the vaccination and chip details it refers to.

Settle the treatment question before you leave

This is the conversation people skip and later regret. Agree in writing:

• Who may authorise veterinary treatment in your absence
• A spending limit above which they must reach you first
• Which clinic they should use, and that you have told that clinic your animal may arrive
• How treatment will be paid for on the day

Without that, a kennel facing a genuinely unwell animal at midnight is left guessing, and the usual outcome is a delay while somebody tries to reach a phone that is switched off at 30,000 feet.

Reduce the stress of the stay itself

• Do a trial night before a long trip, particularly for a first stay. It tells you a great deal and costs one night
• Keep the goodbye short. A drawn-out farewell makes it harder, not easier, and the animal takes its cue from you
• Do not change anything else that week. New food, new collar, neutering, a house move. One change at a time
• Exercise the dog well beforehand, so it arrives tired
• Tell them honestly what your animal is like. Hiding that a dog is reactive or an escape artist puts staff and other animals at risk, and they will find out anyway

Coming home

Expect a couple of quiet days. Tiredness, mild diarrhoea from stress or water changes, drinking more than usual, and clinginess are all normal and settle within two or three days.

What is not normal, and needs a vet: a cough starting in the week after coming home, which is very often kennel cough incubating; diarrhoea with blood, or lasting beyond two days; not eating for more than a day, and for a cat considerably less than that; obvious weight loss; sores, wounds or ear problems; or any lameness. Check the animal over properly on the day you collect it, while you are still standing there.

The awkward part of boarding is that it arrives bundled with everything else a trip costs, and the veterinary requirements land in the same week as the flights. Boosters that would otherwise have been spread across the year all become due at once, which is why they get skipped and why people end up at a facility that does not ask for them.

Core vaccinations, kennel cough and the consultations they need are covered on Skeepy Pet HMO plans at any vet clinic in Nigeria, so the paperwork for a trip stops being an extra cost arriving at the worst possible moment.