Has anyone here ever flown with their cat?

[chrissyk]

My DH and I are flying from Boston to Orlando with our 2 cats next month. We've never flown with them before. We're flying JetBlue, and the cats will be in the cabin with us. I am really nervous about taking them on the plane. They are 8 1/2 years (male) and 6 1/2 years (female). The male should be fine, as he has travelled (by car) with us since he was a little kitten. The female is a nightmare in the car. She gets SO carsick for one thing. Even when she's not sick and uncomfortable, she is yelling!

We know that we have to sedate her, but we are not sure what would be safe and effective. Our vet gave us 1/2 of a sedative pill to give her the last time that we had to drive her somewhere, and it wore off after 1 1/2 hours We tried Benadryl for car sickness, and that just made her sicker. What should we ask the vet for? Is there a tried-and-true sedative that will keep her calm and comfortable during our journey? We are taking the cats along because we're moving to FL. This is the first of 2 round-trips by to FL plane that we will have to take with them.

 

[Rajah]

I've flown with one cat (Skye) when he was a kitten, then Leo and Gabi flew to us when they were kittens, but no experience with adults flying.

Bumping to see if someone has any advice for you. Best I can say is talk to your vet and let them know what happened last time.

 

[The--Doc]

Just read this today.

Airline officials in Belgium are blaming a jetliner's emergency landing Monday on a cat in the cockpit.

The SN Brussels jet with 58 passengers on board was en route from Brussels to Vienna, Austria. About 20 minutes into the flight it was noticed that a passenger's cat had escaped from its cage.

The airline said the kitty slipped into the cockpit when the door was opened to serve the crew's meal. It said the cat got "agitated and nervous" and scratched the co-pilot, whereupon the pilot decided to fly the plane back to Brussels as a precaution.

The airline said the cat was in an internationally approved "flight transport bag" but said procedures may need to be changed for pets in the cabin.

 

[Lisa F]

I don't understand why the cats need to make 2 round trips if you are moving to florida. Shouldn't they only have to make a single one way trip?

 

[Toby'sFriend]

two round trips?
Is there anyway you can cut that down to 1 One Way?

Is there a tried-and-true sedative that will keep her calm and comfortable during our journey?

Not that I'm aware. Many Vets won't give a sedative at all. First it makes the animal unable to brace themselves against jostling and makes them succeptable to injury. Second, it can be unreliable and if they have some sort of reaction you will find yourself at 30,000 feet with a sick animal or stuck in a strange airport with no access to a Vetrinarian.

Personally, I'd try very hard to limit the amount of travelling. My experience with cats says that the less disruption in their lives, the better.

 

[chrissyk]

We have to make 2 trips with the cats, but the second one won't be a round trip. I don't know what I was thinking there, LOL! Anyways, this first trip is to meet our stuff down there at the new house. We'll be there for 2 weeks. Then we come back up here for about 6 months, and then we move down for good. We sold this house a lot quicker than we thought we would, so we'll be in an apt. here until around January because of DH's job.

My cat has had a sedative before and done fine with it, but it just didn't last long enough I am mostly worried about her feeling sick, so if they could give me an anti-emetic, that would be even better. So far, nobody has been able to tell me what a safe anti-emetic would be for a cat, though. My vet says that there aren't any, but I could swear that I read about one a long time ago.

 

[Lisa F]

Please consider kenneling your cats for the first 2 week trip. Flying will be traumatic enough on them without making them do it 3 times. I normally don't suggest that you kennel cats since they prefer their own home but if they don't have a home, I think a kennel would be preferable to subjecting them to flying... not only is there the motion issue and the fact that one of your cats gets motion sick but there is also the pressure change and the general stress that it puts on their body to be THAT agitated. Flying isn't as simple as just showing up at the airport anymore so you're talking about a 2.5 hour flight plus another 90 minutes of being at the airport plus travel time to and from the airport. I'm also guessing that after the first time you do this, you are NOT going to want to do it twice more...

Or, better yet, find out how much it will cost to put your stuff into storage for 6 months and have your stuff arrive when you are ready to move in.

I've done several moves with my cats and I pretty much have bent over completely backwards to try to make things as easy on them as possible because you can't just explain to them what is going on. Flying was hands down the most traumatic way of travel for them (but since we were flying from TX to MD I figured it was the best way, I now have to wonder if it wouldn't have been better to just get as big a crate as would fit in the back seat and put them in there for a 3 day car trip).

 

[MosMom]

We flew from Alberta to Indiana with our cat and we gave her a sedative before the flight to help her out. She did fine. Lost a lot of hair but she is still with us nearly 7 years later.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I agree with Lisa.

I've never flown a cat and I would only do so if I could think of no other solution. Especially if your cat is a howler. People get grouchy enough over fussy babies on airplanes.

I can only imagine the reaction your going to get sticking a pissed off cat in a carrier under some other passenger's seat.

 

[Rutt and Tuke]

I agree with the thought to only take the cats the final time with you. I love cats, but they can trigger severe asthma reactions in some people and a plane is a closed environment.

 

[chrissyk]

We can't kennel them. The male has a life-threatening recurrent health problem (urinary blockages). My sister usually stays with them, but she can't this time around. Our vet won't even keep him when we go on vacation, because urinary blockages have to be noticed and dealt with immediately and there is nobody in her clinic 1 day a week (Sundays). Believe me, if I had an alternative to flying them with us, I'd be using it.

As for people's asthmatic reactions to cats, I don't know what to think about that. This particular airline allows up to 3 pets of 20lbs or less on each flight, so any flight that a person takes on this airline could potentially have 3 cats in the cabin. I actually had to book both of my pets way ahead of time to make sure that we could get spots for them on a particular flight. Only 2 airlines that I know of allow pets in the cabin on this route. There are several other airlines that don't. I imagine that people who are desperately allergic to one animal or another probably book on the airlines that don't allow pets in the cabin.

MosMom, why did your cat lose a lot of fur after the sedative?! That's a little worrysome

 

[Figaro]

Check with the airlines to find out how much they charge and what the requirements they have as far as being up to date with their shots. A friend of ours just flew with his cat back to California and the cat had to be certified by the vet no more than 10 days before the flight.

Make sure you have a harness on the cat with an attached leash in case they ask you to remove the cat from the carrier to inspect it. Also, make sure that the harness won't slip off of the cat, as you don't want to have to take the cat out and then have it run off at the airport.

As far as a safe anti-nausea medication, our vet prescribes zofran. It is used with cats when they have to have chemotherapy and we used it when our little Sunshine guy was being treated for kidney failure. It comes in 8 and 4 mg tablets and you will need to cut it down to about 1-2 mg with a pill splitter or razor blade. These are VERY expensive pills and the 8mg cost about the same as a 4 mg, so get the larger size and cut it down. It is one of the few medications that is not hard on a cat liver and it helps immensely.

And as a person who is allergic (had to be desensitized) to cat dander, don't worry about anyone who might be allergic(smile). Those of us who are sensitive know to take medication with us because you never know what you might run into. Plus, my allergist told me once that on a plane you can very easily end up sitting next to someone with lots of pets and they will be covered with the dander and cat hair. A cat in a carrier under the seat is much less likely to cause problems then the person sitting next to you covered with cat hair and dander(smile).

Good luck with your cats!

 

[chyam]

I'm not MosMom but my cat too lost a lot of hair when we took him in the motor home on vacation and we didn't sedate him, my dad said he was finding white hair in the motor home for years after I think some cats do that when they are stressed, not because they are sedated. Perhaps you could just take the sick cat with you since you said he does well traveling and leave the other in a kennel so you only subject her to one airline flight. Are you not driving when you return for good? I ask that I guess because I figure you will have cars to get down here..........just a thought to save you a flight down. I have often thought of how I would do a move with my cats since I have 4 of them, and I think I would just put them in a large crate in the back of the SUV since I know mine would howl to no end! Not only that but I have one that pees everytime she goes to the vet, now that would be awful to smell on a 4 hour flight!!!

 

[Lisa F]

How about a pet sitter? When we had no family nearby to rely on, we paid a pet sitter (who was also a vet tech) to look in on our animals. Just trying to brainstorm an alternative for flying them so many times.

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by Figaro


As far as a safe anti-nausea medication, our vet prescribes zofran. It is used with cats when they have to have chemotherapy and we used it when our little Sunshine guy was being treated for kidney failure. It comes in 8 and 4 mg tablets and you will need to cut it down to about 1-2 mg with a pill splitter or razor blade. These are VERY expensive pills and the 8mg cost about the same as a 4 mg, so get the larger size and cut it down. It is one of the few medications that is not hard on a cat liver and it helps immensely.

Oh, this is fantastic! I'm going to ask my vet about it right away. I already have Zofran 8mg for myself, because I get bad migraines with nausea. Does it work really well? Is this a commonly-used medication in cats? I may need to find some information on this to show to my vet, as she is a holistic vet and does not usually OK allopathic meds. In this case, I think she'll be cool with it as long as I can show her that there is some information out there that this is safe for cats.

As for driving to FL when we move, we are going to drive down with the remainder of our stuff, fly back to pick up the cats from my sis, and then fly back down. We could easily drive down with the male, but we just can't do it with the female. She gets sick on a 1/2 hour car ride

 

[chrissyk]

Lisa F., the pet sitter would actually have to stay at my house. The urinary blockages come on fast, and they have to be noticed immediately. It's really horrible Even when we catch one right when it starts, it's still over a week of intensive IV fluids, etc. before he's better. So far, I haven't found a pet sitter who will do this. He got blocked once when my sis was watching him, and it took her and a coworker to get him into his pet carrier so my sis could get him to the vet for fluids The weird thing is that our male cat doesn't seem to care that we exist while we're here, but the minute that we're gone on vacation, he makes himself sick with grief. My sister calls it "angry cat's remorse," LOL!

 

[Figaro]

Hi, chrissyk!

I just noticed that you wrote that one of your cats has problems with kidney stones. A friend of mine had a terrible time with two of her cats who had the same problem and it completely and totally stopped as soon as she switched them to drinking distilled water. It doesn't have to be the pure distilled water, as you can use the purified water from the machines at the store. She went from having problems every few months even with the special food to having no problems ever again. In fact, after a couple of years on the special water, she took them off of the stone reducing catfood and has had no problems.

 

[Figaro]

(Just read your other post). Our vet specializes in cats who have cancer and has used it for years with no problem. It is the standard medication given for nausea that cats get when they are on chemotherapy and when they have kidney failure there are changes in their blood chemistry from the kidney failure so they also have nausea. They tolerate it with no problem at all. Towards the end of our Sunshine boy's life, he was taking 4mg with no difficulty and it made an enormous difference in the quality of his life. You could watch it kick in and see his appetite return. I am sure your vet can find the information about it from any online vet site, as it has been used for quite a few years.

The dose for an average size cat is 1-2 mg. Cutting the pills down because of their shape is kind of a pain(smile), but I have learned that if you use a pill cutter and carefully cut one 8 mg down the middle and then balance the cut end against the blade and carefully cut, you can get pretty even 2mg doses. Plus, if they crumble, just use some hairball goo to hook the pieces up in and give that to the cat.

Can you tell I had lots and lots and LOTS of practice using zofran?(smile).

 

[chrissyk]

This is great information. I hope that the Zofran will help with her motion sickness. I think that she will stay calm if she feels OK. Well, she may make the occasional squawk, but nothing too bad. I'm going to ask my vet about it asap. I'm taking my sister's dog in for her spaying on Thursday morning, so I'll be able to ask our vet then

As for the urinary blockages, they're actually not kidney stones. Sorry if this is TMI, but it seems to be some sort of mucus plugs that block him up. It's a weird and potentially deadly problem.

 

[Figaro]

Having watched the zofran work for my cat, I'm pretty sure it will work fine for your cat. Our little guy was getting up to 3 times a day towards the end of his life and all it did was shut off the nausea. He would go from looking awful and drooling with that high pitched kind of cry that they make before they get sick, to eating and looking okay.

What our vet told us, is that it is difficult to find medications that cats tolerate because they don't have very sturdy livers. And that zofran works so well because it was designed to be used for people on chemotherapy who also couldn't have either their livers or kidneys stressed because of the damage the chemotherapy was already causing.

A friend of mine has a cat with ulcerative colitis and she (the cat that is)(smile), uses zofran along with cortisone to control the nausea/vomiting. It works beautifully for her cat too.