Evacuation plans?

[ricear]

Hi! I live in an area where we are at risk for being evacuated for hurricanes. Our plan is to go to my parents house about 2.5 hours from us. Obviously we’re going to be bringing the pigs if we do leave. Does anyone have any ideas as to how to set up an emergency (or vacation cage, if you will) for when we need to leave for a couple of days to a week? It’ll be at my parents house.

 

[Lorcan]

How many pigs, and boars or sows? Depending on your pigs, space requirements etc - something like a large Ferplast might be an option, iirc the sides of those can collapse down and then you'd only have the base to worry about, and you could store it in a garage or shed if it's not in use. Get separate water bottles for an emergency cage too, and hideys - you don't want to be trying to grab up items if you need in a hurry.

Keeping a small supply of hay/pellets if you feed them/bedding at your parents place is a must too. Even if it's only for a couple of days at a time.

 

[Sweet Potato]

I would consider keeping a pet shop style cage for this sort of emergency. they're no good for their main housing as they're too small but they can be put up quickly and fold away pretty small and will do for 2 piggy's for a few days. I keep one at my mums house as I'm paranoid about house fires and like to have an emergency plan for everything but I really don't need to as the uk is pretty safe when it comes to extreme weather.

 

[Swissgreys]

I grew up in an area where we were evacuated on a fairly regular basis, and I am afraid old habits die hard - evacuation is highly (highly) unlikely where I live now, but we have an emergency box for each cage of animals we own.

Our piggy evacuation box (we have 2 one for each piggy cage) contains:

8 C&C grids + cable ties (enough to make a 3 x 2 cage)
2 fleece blankets
2 bath towels
half a shower curtain
1 water bottle
1 zip lock bag of pellets
1 syringe and sachet of recovery food
1 fleece tunnel
I cardboard box
1 vacuum packed bag of hay

It really is the absolute bare minimum, and it is all stored in a small plastic tub underneath each cage.
We also have one pet carrier per cage, so in an emergency we would only need to take the carrier (with pigs inside) and the plastic tub with their supplies.
This would allow us to set up temporary accommodation for them wherever we ended up and give us enough food for at least 2 - 3 days.

I think this sort of thing is something everyone should have, becasue even if evacuation isn't an issue, in the event of a house fire we would follow the same protocol. I know you are not supposed to stop to get your pets, but depending on the situation, I would like to have that option.

 

[ricear]

I grew up in an area where we were evacuated on a fairly regular basis, and I am afraid old habits die hard - evacuation is highly (highly) unlikely where I live now, but we have an emergency box for each cage of animals we own.

Our piggy evacuation box (we have 2 one for each piggy cage) contains:

8 C&C grids + cable ties (enough to make a 3 x 2 cage)
2 fleece blankets
2 bath towels
half a shower curtain
1 water bottle
1 zip lock bag of pellets
1 syringe and sachet of recovery food
1 fleece tunnel
I cardboard box
1 vacuum packed bag of hay

It really is the absolute bare minimum, and it is all stored in a small plastic tub underneath each cage.
We also have one pet carrier per cage, so in an emergency we would only need to take the carrier (with pigs inside) and the plastic tub with their supplies.
This would allow us to set up temporary accommodation for them wherever we ended up and give us enough food for at least 2 - 3 days.

I think this sort of thing is something everyone should have, becasue even if evacuation isn't an issue, in the event of a house fire we would follow the same protocol. I know you are not supposed to stop to get your pets, but depending on the situation, I would like to have that option.

This was super helpful! Thank you! We have travel cages from when we brought them down but we needed something to keep at my moms house. Having this deconstructed model helps with storage at their house. Thank you!

 

[Swissgreys]

This was super helpful! Thank you! We have travel cages from when we brought them down but we needed something to keep at my moms house. Having this deconstructed model helps with storage at their house. Thank you!

Thank you.
I opted for C&C grids as my emergency cage as they pack down small and can be adapted to fit into difficult spaces in a new environment.

I don't worry too much about food as I figure you can always get hay or fresh grass from somewhere, and they can do very well with minimal (or even no) pellets.
We don't even include a food dish in our emergency kit, as pellets and food can be scatter fed, and you could always find with a small bowl or dish from somewhere.
I know evacuations can be last minute, stressful, and frantic, so our goal was one compact box which was light enough for one of the kids to grab, while I grabbed the animals and got them into their travel carriers.

 

[RedLoredAmazon]

I would recommend having your name, contact info, pet's names, and vet info attached to the carrier. I remember hearing on the news that during previous hurricanes owners and pets were sometimes separated because of shelter rules.

 

[Bill & Ted]

In a real emergency a walk in shower cubicle with a sliding door or bath is ok for containing piggies if you have to get out straight away, the main thing is to get to a place of safety x

 

[artcasper]

Gosh... that's got me thinking... god forbid there was ever a fire or anything !

 

[Guineapigfeet]

Our next door neighbours house caught fire a couple of years ago and we had to evacuate just in case ours did too (fortunately it didn’t!) I just put them in their carrier and grabbed a bag of hay knowing I could make do everything if I had too but a grabable bag of stuff is a great idea