Jump to content

Car Sick Puppy


Shelb74
 Share

Recommended Posts

My poor little Pauly boy gets carsick and although he doesn't always physically throw up on car rides, you can see that he's stressed (pants and drools a lot) and he isn't excited about going into the car.

I'm hoping that he'll grown out of the sickness, but I'm worried that he's already associating the car with feeling horrible. So far the majority of his car rides have been weekly trips to the holistic vet to watch his big sister get accupuncture (Paul gets to explore the room off lead and gets liver treats when his sister does) and now puppy school, so I don't think he's stressed about the destination.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can make the car fun? My other dog jumps in the car as soon as she sees a door open...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My boy is now 16 months old and still gets stressed out in the car, but if you open the door he jumps in without hesitation, I would love to know if there's anything I can do to have him stress less as well

Eta: posted before I was finished typing

Edited by Taliecat
Link to comment
Share on other sites

my husband just got back from taking the old girl for her accupuncture appointment and he asked the holistic vet what could be done about Paul. She has recommended Rescue Remedy, a couple of drops about 1 hour before travel and then a couple of drops just before travel.

The next car ride will be on Saturday to the dog park so I'll let you know how we go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try a teaspoon of raw honey before travel, for sickness. I have tried the rescue remedy for my husky who sounds exactly like Taliecat. I would say it helped a little bit, I found it a little hard to give the drops at first, but then I put a little bit of honey on a teaspoon and then the RR drops and Ronin would happily lick it up. I was very skeptical but was ready to try anything.

I haven't used it for a little while now, but I would say he is a bit calmer in the car in general. Still not great, but it has changed from an absolute screaming nightmare to a slightly stressed whimper every now and again. This has taken around 10 months to get it to this stage and I started the RR a couple of months ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my husband just got back from taking the old girl for her accupuncture appointment and he asked the holistic vet what could be done about Paul. She has recommended Rescue Remedy, a couple of drops about 1 hour before travel and then a couple of drops just before travel.

The next car ride will be on Saturday to the dog park so I'll let you know how we go.

Great suggestion as well as that post by Yonjuro ( of the honey).

Months ago Horrible Herbert went ages between card rides. We had lots of dramas including great poops. :eek:

Entirely our fault. We worked on letting Herbert get in the car & drive for just 5 mins, then go home. After a week or so of daily rides, the unhappiness stopped.

Another point is to check that the tyre pressure of your car is correct. If inaccurate, it can affect the ride of the car.

Dont feed your boy before his ride either. Ginger biscuits can work too. (Unless Momma eats them. At least she feels better :) )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my husband just got back from taking the old girl for her accupuncture appointment and he asked the holistic vet what could be done about Paul. She has recommended Rescue Remedy, a couple of drops about 1 hour before travel and then a couple of drops just before travel.

The next car ride will be on Saturday to the dog park so I'll let you know how we go.

Great suggestion as well as that post by Yonjuro ( of the honey).

Months ago Horrible Herbert went ages between card rides. We had lots of dramas including great poops. :eek:

Entirely our fault. We worked on letting Herbert get in the car & drive for just 5 mins, then go home. After a week or so of daily rides, the unhappiness stopped.

Another point is to check that the tyre pressure of your car is correct. If inaccurate, it can affect the ride of the car.

Dont feed your boy before his ride either. Ginger biscuits can work too. (Unless Momma eats them. At least she feels better :) )

And don't take him for a ride after you've given him his Comfortis tablet (up to 24 hours). we've had some spectacularly bad experiences with that! eek1.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've got a vet trip today for his first adult vaccines so I don't think I'll be able to get some RR or manuka honey today, but I will be getting some for future cat rides!

Poor guy loves getting in the car but there will be a huge puddle of drool when we get to our destination, and that's not counting the drool that ends up on us from him sticking his head behind our headrests in the front..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a sufferer of extreme bad car sickness myself my childhood was a nightmare. I puked out of every car window we ever had & had to get off the bus before my destination ( not making it sometimes ) often as a teenager. It got less in my 20's & went when I started driving in my 30's.

I can only advise that you always keep the car cool & have a window open. Hot car, no air could make me vomit before we got to the end of the road we lived on. Still makes me feel awful.

Take your dog for very short trips around your block every day that way whether its a stress thing or actual car sickness your dog will get used to it in really short bursts & it may decrease.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the same problem. Older dog loves car ride, younger dog looks peaky even when the back of the car gets opened. She was terrible as a puppy, was better for a while but has recently started getting car sick again at two and a half. We live in the NT so long distance car travel to dog shows etc is a fairly common event.

I find she is always better if she has eaten something before going in the car- seems counter intuitive but only once has she thrown up if she has had a meal. I also either feed her treats while driving (she sits on the front passenger seat) or get my son to give her some food while we drive. Sometimes putting her in a crate seems to help, but so does having the window down so she can sniff the breeze.

She is always more car sick when my other dog is in the car with her, I think his excitement makes her anxious. Makes family holidays challenging!

Good luck with your dog, sometimes its a bit of experimentation to see what works and what doesn't

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Poppy (10 months old) gets dreadfully car sick too, it's so miserable to see :(

She has marginally improved with lots of short trips to the beach, but long trips have her drooling and looking so sad. On the last two longer trips (45mins) I have used this product and have to say she seems to have coped a lot better, much less vomit and drool :)

I never feed anything if I know she's going to be travelling over the following few hours too.

http://www.naturalanimalsolutions.com.au/TravelEze.html

Good luck, as someone who also suffered badly from it as a child, I remember how miserable it is!

Edited by CrazyCresties
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depending on the dog and reason for the sickness a bully stick is quite a good thing to give as the dog needs to chew a lot and may take some of the anxiety out of the equation. A treat ball with a few small treats can also help assuming the dog is in a crate.

The honey I mentioned earlier doesn't have to be manuka as I believe it is the sweet sugar hit that calms nausea or as Vizlamomma mentioned half a ginger nut biscuit may help. Having said that Manuka or raw Jarrah honey has a number of wonderful other uses that I think it is a good option to get some anyway, but any raw unprocessed or cold filtered honey will be fine.

I also agree with the daily 2 - 5min drives to desensitise the trips. Even classical music played in the car is reported to be more soothing than doof doof music. Can't say I noticed a difference, but when I tried it, it was a the height of Ronins car anxiety when nothing seemed to work, but this came from our trainer at the point where we would try anything. I always say "'gooood boy" and "gooood quiet" when he is quiet during the trips.

Best of luck to those fellow sufferers, it is the only thing in all of the training and raising a puppy that I have found exasperating. But we are slowly getting there and it has taken a lot of trial and error and work, so I believe that if I can get the nightmare we faced under control with Ronin and the car, then anyone that has the problem should be able to reduce it to an acceptable level. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree about short, daily car trips. At worst it will stop the anxiety of getting into the car and the stress associated with the car. Most dogs grow out of it eventually, some take longer than others.

And don't forget about fresh air, makes sure you have a window open.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, I can't believe there are so many other poor car sick puppies out there, at least we're not alone...

My puppy is 12 weeks old and when we picked him up from the breeder the GPS took us home via a very windy, hilly road and the poor bugger vomitted 3 times.

Hubby said yesterday he put the back seat down so that he could sit up a bit higher and look out the window and that seemed to help a little, but he's now gotten to the point where he won't come down to the front lawn if he thinks we're going in the car. Last night I sat him in the back of the car and fed him some treats and as soon as he started to look a little less stressed I took him out of the car and played with him on the lawn. I figured I'd keep doing that for the next couple of nights and then on the weekend take him for a short drive down the road and back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, I can't believe there are so many other poor car sick puppies out there, at least we're not alone...

My puppy is 12 weeks old and when we picked him up from the breeder the GPS took us home via a very windy, hilly road and the poor bugger vomitted 3 times.

Hubby said yesterday he put the back seat down so that he could sit up a bit higher and look out the window and that seemed to help a little, but he's now gotten to the point where he won't come down to the front lawn if he thinks we're going in the car. Last night I sat him in the back of the car and fed him some treats and as soon as he started to look a little less stressed I took him out of the car and played with him on the lawn. I figured I'd keep doing that for the next couple of nights and then on the weekend take him for a short drive down the road and back.

Good plan. You can also do the same sitting in the car and giving treats with the car running as a step before the short drives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Ginger travel tablets from the health food shops. They are magic for car sickness in dogs. Give a bit larger dose than the scaled down (for dog's weight)human dosage on packet. Safe as it's just powdered ginger in a fine chalk carrier and no horrible side effects. Can be crushed and rolled on a little bit of cheese or butter for ease of administration.

Administer 30 minutes before travel and renew dosage every 2-2.5 hours while traveling. Don't forget to re-administer 30 minutes before the home trip. Once the dogs know they are not going to be sick, they don't anticipate it and make themselves sick - problem over. I think they think themselves into it after first getting ill as little pups.

Usually only need to use the ginger tablets half a dozen trips and the sickness problem will be gone. It's magic and harmless. I've used them for 15 years on many dogs of different sizes from large working Kelpies, Labs etc., to toy breeds and now all mine are great travelers. Have recommended it to many others and only one failure reported but suspect it was not re-administered before the first home trip so efficacy had worn off. Last packet I bought were "Nature's Own" brand but they all seem to be the same.

Edited by Alt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...