Tips for loooong car ride with cat?

[LittleBirdy]

We are moving 700 miles - about a 12 hour drive - away. Any tips for the car ride with our cat? I feel like I've read that cats won't eat, urinate, etc while travelling because they don't feel "safe". Is this true? Should we try to get him to at least drink some water?

Also, he is the most complacent cat in the world but he HATES going to the vet. And the only time he goes in the cat carrier is when he goes to the vet, hence he HATES being in the cat carrier. Is it safe to let him roam free in the car during the ride?

TIA for any advice.

[Talula Fairie]

I don't know if it's truly unsafe, but I let my cats roam when we moved 2 hours away. One sat on our roommate's lap and one sat on the passenger seat.

It was my experience that the cats didn't eat/drink/urinate during the trip until way after we got home, but 2 hours isn't that long of a drive. Not sure about 12 hours. I think a cat carrier might actually make the cats feel safer on a drive that long? Certainly try offering water or food but the cat may not take it.

[phatchristy]

OK, well as for urinating or defecating sometimes being scared or uncomfortable WILL cause them to do one, or both! But, for eating/drinking it's pretty fair to say it's relatively common that they won't eat or drink much, if at all if it's a short trip.

Best case scenario, if you have time you can start leaving that carrier out and get kitty used to it. Feed him treats, or do things to associate the carrier with good stuff. You could also keep him in it for a short period each day, getting him to be desensitized. 1Is it big enough so that you can fit one of those small cat litters (they have them at walmart or dept stores for like $3-4)?

That is what I do during a cat show trip. I use a small litter pan, wedge it way at the back. I also line the bottom with a towel, both for comfort and accidents.

You can offer food/water during your stops. They also have those little food dishes which stick onto the sides of the crates...which I think is fine for food, but seems like whenever I've done water in them they mess things up!

Personally, I generally wouldn't let them roam free in the car, both for safety and honestly some cats just kind of freak out when you do that. Though, I'll admit I had one cat that I did just that with. But ONLY because that dude would sit on my lap or my feet on the floor and sleep. He was abnormal and deaf LOL. So, never did act like a regular cat! He was more like a dog in that he needed to be with people all the time!

[LittleBirdy]

Originally Posted by phatchristy

He was more like a dog in that he needed to be with people all the time!

:

This is my cat. Visitors at the front door? Larry is there... gotta check out who these new people are! Mom and Dad want to sit on the back patio? I will sit at the window and cry from my lonliness (this led to what is referred to in our house as The Great Kitchen Compromise of 2008: when we go out back, we open the kitchen window and Larry lays against the screen. This seems to appease him). This is what makes me want to let him roam free, I just don't want to put my little fuzz man in harm's way

I will check out those little mini litter boxes though... I just can't imagine him not going to the bathroom for 12 whole hours.

[Chamomile Girl]

About a year ago we moved with our two cats 24 hours away California to Nebraska (now we're about to do it again,the other direction, only with three cats). Plus I have done this a couple of times before (Michigan to Oregon, and California to Oklahoma). Your cat will be fine, but you pretty much have to leave them alone. Put the carrier in a place in the car that you can easily check on them from your seat, and that they can see outside (through a window) if they want to. They probably won't eat or drink anything while they are in the car, and that is ok. Plus it will take a couple of days for them to settle down in the new place, and thats ok too. If you normally let your cat outside...don't for at least two weeks so they can get used to the new place and won't run away on you.

Oh, and some cats will cry and cry when they first get into the car. It doesn't usually last more than an hour (but youwill be suffering that first hour let me tell you). Just keep telling yourself that the cat is ok, just freaked out. If you have a very neurotic cat treat them with a rescue remedy spray on their fur before you go (don't get it in their eyes).

And be glad that you don't have to unload your cat into a motel room for a couple of nights on the road!

ETA: IMO the litterbox is a bad idea. My cats always want to retreat to the back of the carrier at first, and if there were a litter box there they would be pissed. Just bring extra bedding to swap out incase of an accident (although with moving 6 different cats one have never had an accident). But 12 hours is really no problem for a cat to hold it.

[Mrsboyko]

everytime my cat went in the car (for any reason) he would poop and cry (loudly) the whole time. And the poop was not in a litter box. So every ride ended with a kitty bath. I'd have to sedate our cat for that long of a ride

[phatchristy]

Oh, forgot to write too that you could ask your vet for a prescription for acepromazine. That's typically what people will just as a mild sedative.

[Minky]

We've moved several times with cats and I can say from experience that letting them roam in the car is a bad idea. They can freak out and claw you or crawl under the seat and refuse to get out (or dart out at a rest area, never to be seen again). Luckily we've never lost a cat while moving, but DH's idea of letting his cat out in the car resulted in me getting clawed multiple times.

We now keep the cats in their carriers, offere food and water at every rest stop (they took nothing), and only allow them out into a single room of the new house after we get there, until they've adjusted.

[oiseau]

We're going to be moving about that far (10-12hrs) with our 2 cats sometime this month. We're moving back to where we used to live 2yrs ago....we have a lot of pets and had no problem moving them last time, but the cats are a new addition. I can move rats, tropical temperature sensitive frogs, turtles, an iguana, geckos and hermit crabs easily...the cats scare me though.

Here's my plan so far: I got a big carrier for the 2 cats to go in together. They're sisters who've never been separated, so I think they'll do better together than in separate carriers. I will probably be putting that carrier together shortly to see if I can get them used to it. They're micro-chipped, but I also got them harnesses with ID tags with both my partner's and my cell phone numbers. They don't like them too much, but they settle down once they've been on for an hour or so. I did pick up a little litter pan and I haven't yet decided if it'll go in the carrier or out of it. Thanks PP for making the suggestion that they'd probably prefer to curl up in the back of the cage, not have a litter box there.

I'll have their food and water bowls with us and plan to offer both food and water at each rest stop. I might offer to let them out of the carrier, with the car doors/windows closed while stopped. They've never been outside as far as I know and I'm probably overly worried about the possibility of them escaping and having to drive on without them. While driving, I'll keep them shut in the carrier. I think they'd be more comfortable and secure feeling in there, plus I wouldn't want to risk a freaked out cat getting in the way of the brake pedal or anything.

We'll probably take a test drive beforehand and depending on how they do, my vet has offered to dose out some benadryl for them. I'd prefer not to have to medicate them though. I've only been in the car with them once, on the way home from the shelter and they were fine for that 30min trip.

Some advice from my vet that I thought was helpful was to make sure to have a bunch of extra towels I wouldn't mind parting with as well as garbage bags in the back of the car. In case of accidents, just change out the towels in the carrier and bag them up and either throw them out at a rest station if the mess is really awful, or I suppose just contain the smell for the rest of the drive.

Best of luck...if anyone needs advice on transporting any more exotic pets, I'm a pro at that!

[broodymama]

If you think you might want to let him roam free, you might want to do a test drive with him first. About 3.5 years ago we moved from GA to WA with 7 (yes, 7) cats and a 1 year old. We have a mid-sized SUV and we set up a travel litter box in the back of the car and let them roam the car. We had traveled with them before and they were all good travelers. At every rest stop we would offer them some food and water and scoop the box.

[rhiOrion]

Just a word of warning, my cat FREAKED on the acepromizene (sp). It made him 10x worse than not having anything. He shredded his claws, I was finding shards of cat claw in my car for weeks.

For anything shorter than about 3 hours I just put him in his carrier. He screams for a while and eventually settles down and only screams occasionally.

For longer trips (we've driven 12 hours in one day with him, and many 6 hour trips) I made a mobile home for him.

I got the biggest cardboard box that would fit in my backseat, and I cut windows out of both sides and the front. I then used some tulle to make "screens" for the windows (note, this might not work for a REALLY crazy cat who would just tear up the screens). I also cut one very small (1 inch x 1 inch maybe) hole in the front for us to stick a finger through, because sometimes being able to rub up against our finger would make him happy.

I lined the corner of the box with some plastic grocery bag and put a very small litter box with a tiny bit of litter. I taped down two little bitty bowls on the other side with a little water and a few kibbles of food. In the middle I put a small three sided box with a towel in it to give him a place to relax.

As I'm typing this I realize it sounds a bit over-the-top, but we were making the trip from Rochester, NY to North Carolina pretty frequently at that time, and Squirt the cat has some serious urinary issues (has had his penis removed!), so we absolutely wanted him to be able to pee, because I did not want to go through yet another UTI with him. He actually did learn to use the potty in that litter box.

The downsides were that it took up half my backseat, and was maybe not quite as safe as a carrier (but certainly safer than letting him run around, as he would try to get under my feet).

[Sharlla]

Originally Posted by LittleBirdy

We are moving 700 miles - about a 12 hour drive - away. Any tips for the car ride with our cat? I feel like I've read that cats won't eat, urinate, etc while travelling because they don't feel "safe". Is this true? Should we try to get him to at least drink some water?

Mine didn't, we went from WA to MO in the car. I put a harness and leash on him and walked him at rest stops though. He laid on the passenger side floor board the entire time.

[rainbowmoon]

15 years ago I moved across country with a cat and also traveled with the same cat for 12 hours each way on another move. It took 4 days the first time and I used sedatives and a cat carrier in the car. The second time I did not sedate her (but she was contained in the carrier for most of it) but I wish I had used the drugs after the fact as it seemed like it was much more stressful for her unsedated. (though 3 days shorter that time)

it was really hard to get the pills into her when I did choose sedation just an FYI if you go that route.

Another thing to think about is going through mountains cats don't seem to appreciate elevation changes much. (sedated or not)

She barely ate or pooped either time. Just peed. I used paper towels and newspaper in her box (paper towels on top and newspapers underneath.. MUCH easier than litter while traveling.

[SunShineSally]

Sadly my cats (all 4 I have ever had) always pee in the carrier! also my one cat Barney he peed in my van in the summer! and we only went to the vet that is 15 minutes away they are all different my sister girl cat she LOVES the car rides!

[SunShineSally]

[quote=Rhiyaya;13704217]Just a word of warning, my cat FREAKED on the acepromizene (sp). It made him 10x worse than not having anything. He shredded his claws, I was finding shards of cat claw in my car for weeks.

For anything shorter than about 3 hours I just put him in his carrier. He screams for a while and eventually settles down and only screams occasionally.

For longer trips (we've driven 12 hours in one day with him, and many 6 hour trips) I made a mobile home for him.

I got the biggest cardboard box that would fit in my backseat, and I cut windows out of both sides and the front. I then used some tulle to make "screens" for the windows (note, this might not work for a REALLY crazy cat who would just tear up the screens). I also cut one very small (1 inch x 1 inch maybe) hole in the front for us to stick a finger through, because sometimes being able to rub up against our finger would make him happy.

I lined the corner of the box with some plastic grocery bag and put a very small litter box with a tiny bit of litter. I taped down two little bitty bowls on the other side with a little water and a few kibbles of food. In the middle I put a small three sided box with a towel in it to give him a place to relax.

As I'm typing this I realize it sounds a bit over-the-top, but we were making the trip from Rochester, NY to North Carolina pretty frequently at that time, and Squirt the cat has some serious urinary issues (has had his penis removed!), so we absolutely wanted him to be able to pee, because I did not want to go through yet another UTI with him. He actually did learn to use the potty in that litter box.[quote]



Okay I just have to say I am picureing the cutest kitty house ever!!!

[outlier]

I've done a few 12+ hour car trips with my cat. I always have her in a carrier because I'm afraid she might try to wedge herself under the pedals while I'm driving. My cat never wanted any water, no matter how many times offered, and wouldn't even sniff at a litterbox when it was offered. The first couple moves I assumed she didn't want any food either after refusing water. Then the last few hours of our longest move, the 16 hour drive, she got VEEEERY loud and obviously distressed (I think we were both crying at that point!). I know now the poor thing was starving, so on subsequent trips I offered kibble at every stop, which she eats up. It keeps her much quieter. I initially thought she didn't pee for the 16-hour drive, but later did find a few small dried pee spots on the towel, almost like she was trying to hold it but some drops came out anyway.

Good luck to you and your cat!