Riding In Cars With Cats

I think that we all have these stories. The ones that start out like; "it took thirty minutes to get my cat in her carrier, and then once we started she pooed!" We all have them. It is life with cats who have not been trained or are carrier ready.

Keep your mitts off the sedatives!

They don't make things easier for the cat, they make them easier for you. You are in fact putting your beloved pet at risk. You wouldn't put your child at risk, would you? So why would you sedate your pet?

There is a good chance that you will be greeted with a loud cat, one that doesn't like the situation one bit. Mine would yowl and howl and generally make a big fuss in her carrier. I can't tell you how many times she peed or even pooed in there, and that is when she really got upset! It didn't matter if it was a short trip, she would soil herself. Yay for me! There is nothing more pleasant than bathing your cat in the gas station parking lot!

Now I start planning well in advance and do a couple of things that help us avoid the unpleasantness as much as possible. One of them is to remove food at bed time and another one is to remove their water first thing in the morning. You want to let them drink, but you don't want them to start the journey on a full tummy or bladder. This will let them start the trip without the need to purge themselves if they are easily afraid.

Make sure that you talk to the vet before traveling to make sure that you have all of the medical records. While you are there, speak with them to see if they have any recommendations.