Any experience with travel sickness in dogs

badlywornroy

badlywornroy

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Anyone's doggy pals suffered from this ? any remedy or cure ? will it just ' go away' in time ?
 
We have two rescue dogs from Turkey arriving this coming wednesday. I have been told that one of the dogs vomits every time it travels in the car. I know no more than that. We have owned dogs before for years but never had a problem with doggy travel sickness.
I have been reading about this doggy affliction but am interested in 'real life' experiences.
 
I had 2 rescue dogs one from a pup and the other we got around a year later and was around the same age as the other dog at that time, the one we got as a pup never had any problems in the car the other one however was a different story she could do about 30 minutes max so any journey longer than that was a very long journey and required some real planning, basically a 15-20 minute stop every 20-30 minutes. She never got over it and trust me dog vomit in the car especially no a hot day is not pleasant.

As above you never know the situation with rescue animals, I would get them insured PDQ one of ours had serious heath issues that we and the rescue centre were unaware of and had we not added her to our pet policy before picking her up would have been a very expensive pet her medication alone was around £100 a month and that was about 10 years ago.
 
The dogs are being rehomed by the registered charity Animal Friends of Turkey (AFOT)
I personally know the founder of this charity. The dogs have the required vet clearance and necessary documentation.
The lady who initially rescued these dogs from certain death has not owned a car for years after having hers stolen ( in turkey) so the dogs have very little experience of car travel. Occasionally when a friend takes the dogs to the vet one of them invariably vomits.
 
One of my dogs couldn't lie down in the car, he had to sit up. A bit like avoiding sea sickness by looking at the horizon....:rolleyes:
 
Our current one throws up if we feed her before a morning journey. But she's fine if I feed her when we're at the destination and going for a walk for a couple of hours before heading home again.
Of her predecessors, the girl was fine, but the boy was pretty bad for throwing up. We got some drugs off the vet but they were silly expensive and you shouldn't give them more than 2 or 3 consecutive days - useless for a 2 week holiday round Scotland. So we used to slip him a standard human Stugeron which worked well.
 
boogie man said:
My brother in law has a Boxer that doesn’t travel well and he uses Benadryl to settle him.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I will read about Benadryl with dogs.
 
BethAtTheHug said:
Our current one throws up if we feed her before a morning journey. But she's fine if I feed her when we're at the destination and going for a walk for a couple of hours before heading home again.
Of her predecessors, the girl was fine, but the boy was pretty bad for throwing up. We got some drugs off the vet but they were silly expensive and you shouldn't give them more than 2 or 3 consecutive days - useless for a 2 week holiday round Scotland. So we used to slip him a standard human Stugeron which worked well.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I will read about Stugeron for dogs.
 
I will return to this thread. Our two rescue dogs have been with us for 10 weeks now. They have/are settling in very well.

The ' cuckoo in the nest ' is the aforementioned travel sickness in one of the dogs. No we haven't cured it.
We tried desensitisation from day 1. Sitting in the car for a few mins here and there, no travel. Then a few really short journeys just minutes and while Lucy ( subject dog)
was obviously not happy in the car, no sickness.
'V' (vomit) day arrived the very 1st time we took her a decent ride, after approx 3 miles the entire contents of her breakfast were deposited in the back of our estate car. Yuk.
At that stage we were feeding both dogs twice a day, morning and evening. We immediately made a change to 1 meal a day, early evening. Most of our journeys are in the morning
and by feeding the previous evening then there is little (if any) food left in the stomach.
While this in no way stopped Lucy 'heaving' at least there was little to 'bring up' She has all the symptoms, i.e slavering, drooling, panting, shaking and even on short journeys
say max 5 miles she will bring up frothy liquid. We just keep an ample supply of old towels that get changed and washed.
Remember Lucy is travelling in the rear of the estate car with her long time 'buddy' dog, you would think that would be a comfort wouldn't you ?
We have tried a covered small cage in the rear for her. Blanking off all the rear windows so she cannot see out. Ginger 30 mins before travel. Herbal anti-sickness pills.
Dog pheromone spray, herbal anti-sickness & pheromone spray on the same journey. The latest attempt is she gets 'cuddled' in the front passenger seat by either my wife or I.
This is not ideal because we have to ensure an ample supply of towels are handy to protect our clothing and the car seats. We have only completed two very short journeys
under this regime so it's too early to say.
We have so far resisted the ' nuclear option' i.e Vet prescribed medication, it may come to that, especially for the longer journeys. What a P.I.T.A this is.
 
Did you give the Benadryl a try? My bro in law’s Boxer suffered very badly with motion sickness when they went on road trips in their RV but Benadryl completely sorted out the issue. You can buy it from a chemist like Boots without a prescription.
 
How old are they? It's normal with puppies, something to do with the under-developed inner ear but they grow out of it eventually. But the bigger the breed the longer it takes.

Our Pointer was bad for it but generally OK now. But on long drives she can still have the occasional heave. She is now ~2.5 years old.
 
First and foremost, don't feed them before travel. Start with short journeys of less than five minutes, then build it up to ten minutes etc. By the time you reach forty five minutes that should be good enough. In addition, make sure they have fresh air in their face and that they can see out of the window. Making them lay down in the footwell etc. is the worst thing you can do in my experience.

We've always had dogs in the family and this method has always worked. Although I did have a Whippet in the early eighties who could never eat before travelling, but other than that he was fine.
 
Thanks for the replys. Let me answer you all. @boogie man, no we haven't tried Benadryl, will make a note of that. thanks.
@bass-junkie83, the travel sick dog is 4 years old, she is very small 6kg. The other dog is 3 1/2, she is fine.
@Sky, while I thank you for your thoughts most of your recommodations are covered in my post ? Some advice says don't let them see out of the windows? we have tried both with no improvements. When the weather is amenable we lower some windows.
 
boogie man said:
Did you give the Benadryl a try? My bro in law’s Boxer suffered very badly with motion sickness when they went on road trips in their RV but Benadryl completely sorted out the issue. You can buy it from a chemist like Boots without a prescription.
Click to expand...
Well, I read about Benadryl, and why it helps to make dogs 'drowsy' and can sometimes help with anxiety / travel. I also read this where in some forms
" If you are looking to use the liquid form, however, be aware that some may contain xylitol which is deadly to dogs, so be sure to read all of the ingredients before you administer it. "

If you have a 'car sick' dog you need to be aware of this.
 
badlywornroy said:
Well, I read about Benadryl, and why it helps to make dogs 'drowsy' and can sometimes help with anxiety / travel. I also read this where in some forms
" If you are looking to use the liquid form, however, be aware that some may contain xylitol which is deadly to dogs, so be sure to read all of the ingredients before you administer it. "

If you have a 'car sick' dog you need to be aware of this.
Click to expand...
Good point about xylitol, I hadn’t actually realised there was a liquid form. BiL has always used tablets crushed up in the dog’s food with no ill effects. You’d need to weigh the dog first to work out the dose.

We’re lucky with our Lab it seems, she loves going for rides in the car and happily lays down in the boot, just sticks her head up to see what’s going on if we stop at traffic lights etc. “Are we there yet?” :)
 
boogie man said:
Good point about xylitol, I hadn’t actually realised there was a liquid form. BiL has always used tablets crushed up in the dog’s food with no ill effects. You’d need to weigh the dog first to work out the dose.

We’re lucky with our Lab it seems, she loves going for rides in the car and happily lays down in the boot, just sticks her head up to see what’s going on if we stop at traffic lights etc. “Are we there yet?” :)
Click to expand...
Yes, we are in unknown territory here, many dogs over many years and never had one car sick before. All my dogs learned to love the car ? it meant they were going on another 'adventure'
 
I hope you can get this sorted or at least reduced Roy. Well done on the adoption.
 
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