Cats and car trips

[leebee]

My daughter has to take her 2 kitties on a reasonably long car trip- about 6 hours. They are about a year old and not in love with riding in the car. How have YOU managed a car trip with cats? Have you tried medication, did it work, would you recommend it? Do you have suggestions for helping them stay calm/relaxed? What have you done, what would you change, would you do it again?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Keep them in carrying cages or other containers. I've found something online (Amazon) that is a spray that is supposed to calm them. Forgot to use it when we moved 1100 miles away. But while we were showing our old house, we took both the cats and the dogs out for a drive while we had to be out of the house. Maybe try some shorter drives so they get used to it. And leave the cages out with the doors open so they can sleep in them from time to time during the day. If they don't like the shorter trips, get something from the vet to calm them.

 

[AgentMama]

Be prepared for them to have accidents in the crates and supplies to clean it up with, replacement crate bedding, etc., most cats are terrible travelers

 

[Micca]

We've driven some cats in the course of moving houses. It's not great, I suppose a crate would be a good idea. We didn't use one and the cats just crawled under the front seats for the whole drive. I'd say either the cats or the passengers should be sedated

 

[Planogirl]

My DH moved our two cats several hundred miles some years ago. He was a bit shell-shocked because one of them howled loudly the whole way.

 

[VandVsmama]

1 of our cats pees every time he has to ride in the car in the cat carrier. We had another cat years ago who would poop in his carrier every. single. time. OMG, it was awful.

 

[hopemax]

I helped my Dad move from WA to FL with his cat. In the weeks leading up to the day, he acclimated her to the car. First, just let her explore the car, then turning it on but didn't move it, then he started driving to the park about a mile away. When the time came, she was pretty vocal the first couple hours. But we would talk to her, and we'd pet her. She was very responsive to her name. Our drive took 5 days. On Day 3 she tried to hide in the hotel room, and didn't want to go back in the carrier. On the last day, she was over it. She just curled up and slept, totally ignored us. When all was said and done, she was more freaked out by my parents' temporary 1 bedroom tiny apartment after having a huge two story house to roam around in, than the car ride.

For only one day, I would just work on acclimating the cats to the car in advance. Try to make it a positive thing, reward with treats.

The spray, another poster mentioned is probably Feliway.

 

[amberpi]

I just want to say good luck!

 

[LilyWDW]

I would never do it again. That 7 hour trip was the worst car trip I have ever taken.

 

[SaintsManiac]

My daughter has to take her 2 kitties on a reasonably long car trip- about 6 hours. They are about a year old and not in love with riding in the car. How have YOU managed a car trip with cats? Have you tried medication, did it work, would you recommend it? Do you have suggestions for helping them stay calm/relaxed? What have you done, what would you change, would you do it again?

We did a 3 hour trip with my cat during a hurricane evacuation. We gave him a tranquilizer prescribed by his vet. He stayed in his carrier and didn't make a sound until we were literally a mile from our destination. The he meowed very loudly and pooped. UGH!!

I highly suggest the tranquilizers. It makes it easier on them, especially if you know they won't like it. Good luck!

And no, I would not ever want to do it again unless I had no other choice.

 

[wombat_5606]

My husband and daughter just drove from Idaho to FL with her two cats in a Penske truck-2800 miles! She kept both cats in their separate carriers, stacked one on top of the other between the bucket seats.

The female cat is very anxious and she used calmings chews called Pet-Eze(I think they have these in pet stores.) and also ones from Doctors Foster+Smith(these she may have gotten online.) This cat also wears a calming collar every day. My daughter rescued her and she has some deep issues, but she traveled very well this time, her second transcontinental car ride.

She used another product for the first couple of days that goes in her drinking water, Whisker City Calm Down. I think you can find this in pet stores.

One major suggestion, is to make sure they are very, very safe in their new environment. After many hotel rooms, in and out of cars, and being on the go, this cat found a place to hide in the condo once they got to FL. We might not have found her if it hadn't been for the male cat. She either couldn't or wouldn't come out on her own.

And as you can tell from my post, yes, we did it again. But, if this daughter does it again, she's on her own and it's not because of the cats!

 

[kweeyore]

We evacuated last year for Hurricane Irma (7 hours) with our three cats - so we really didn't have time to prepare the cats (and they are normally not good travlers). A few things we did to make things easier:

• We pulled access to food and water a few hours before we left to prevent any accidents in their carriers
• We put favorite toys/blankets in their carriers
• arranged the carriers so that they could see each other - our litte girl was real nervious if she couldn't see her brothers
• Sounds icky - but we took some of their used litter with us, to entice them to use the litter box when we got to our destination
• I would not reccommend it- but we did let the girl kitty out of her carrier for awhile (we were stressed and she was meowing, which then made her brothers meow) once we let her out (she sat in my lap - my boyfriend was driving!) everything was fine
• Bring highly regarded treats - helped keep them calm, and gave them a bit of food without over feeding them - bacon from Waffel House and Turkey from Earl of Sandwich were favorites (snacks that we normally give them, I woudn't try somehting that hadnt been fed to them before)

 

[Mermaid02]

Moved to Virginia 2 years ago and that meant a 15+ hour ride for my cat. Put him in his crate- the vet suggested a snug crate because they feel more secure in a small space- he could stand and turn around. The vet also gave him some kitty prozac for the trip. He didn't eat or drink all day, not even his favorite treats. He didn't pee or poo either. I will say when we got to the new house he was CRAZY all night, running around. Not something I would want to do very often, but it went better than I had expected.

 

[leebee]

DD is coming north for Thanksgiving and wasn't having any luck getting friends to come feed her kitties; most of them are also going "home" for the holiday. We found a solution, though: www.sittercity.com. For what it'd cost for the Feliway and the stress on her cats, it's worth paying a little more for them to stay in their own home. She has a friend who has used the service and says they are reliable. WHEW! I was really worried about those kitties!

 

[Deb & Bill]

We did have these to use in the hotel with our cats, but if you have enough room in the car, you might set one up in the car. It was big enough for small litter box. It has mesh across the front (the picture window).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L36K7EE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[J'aime Paris]

Our poor cat gets extremely car sick! No car rides except when absolutely necessary.
Just a short 10 min trip to the vet means a poo and vomit in her carrier.
We've also tried holding her in a towel on someones lap; same results.

 

[Cubbiecakes]

Get a tranq script from your vet. One of ours will howl from the moment he gets put in the carrier to the moment he comes home and is let out.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Glad to hear you found a sitter! One of my cats is usually OK in the car, but the other is prone to getting a little carsick. Thankfully, we've never had to go further than about a half hour with them.

 

[jasmom1022]

We travel from MA to NH (1.75 hours each way) with our cats multiple times throughout the year. One cat is completely fine and mostly stays in the carrier. The other does fine for most of the ride. But she tends to vomit either just as we get started or just as we are arriving at our destination. We are always prepared with clean-up supplies. She also knows when she is going to vomit and typically goes to the passenger so they can catch it in paper towels. We have a large carrier that they both fit in. It's lined with a towel or blanket and one of those dog pee-pee pads in case she pukes in the cage.

We have tried two different medications from the vet. One was for motion sickness and the other was for anxiety. The motion sickness one didn't work and we didn't like how she was after taking the anxiety medication. We just deal with the vomit.

You might wonder why we travel with them so often. DH doesn't like to leave them home. We go to NH to our condo so it's their home away from home. They really love it up there so the vomit-potential is worth it.

 

[disneychrista]

We had another cat years ago who would poop in his carrier every. single. time. OMG, it was awful.

This is our cat. The only time he didn't poop was when the reason he was going to the vet was because he wasn't eating & pooping.