Travell Sickness

Does anyone else have a dog that suffers from getting sick in the car?

Everytime we try to take Keena out in the car she gets sickly very quick. Within seconds she starts to drewl (sp!?) very heavily and continues to do so for the whole journey...She lasts about 20 mins max in the car which is the furthest we have gone with her and then after a nice walk she gets back in and starts over then by the time we have made it back home she is always sick

There is no reason why she should find the car to be a bad experiance as we have always made sure that each trip is calm and that we make no fuss if she does get sick. We just clean it up like it never happened and she has never been reprimanded. We always try to make sure we try to keep her 'positive' when in the car, we continuily try to talk to her and try to take her mind off of it. Although at the same time we don't act like we are 'praising her' when she is getting sick so as not to reinforce her fear. Once she has been sick we just keep everything very matter of fact and start again.

She has only ever had 'good' experiances when going someplace in the car and it isn't like we only take her in the car to the vets or something...anytime we have been out with her in the car it has always been to go on a good walk.

The only thing I can associate her 'fear' with was when we picked her up at 8 weeks it was a 4 hour drive from the breeders. She may relate the car to the separation of her previous family? She slept most of the way home didn't druel or anything didn't look even slightly sickly until we had almost gotten home and she couldn't hold out any longer and she was sick. Since then a couple car journeys (short ones) after Keena was fine but then she started to get sick everytime. Then she would only last not even 5 minuets before being ill. After much work and patience she is starting to last longer but no matter how long she lasts she salivates heavily the whole journey and sometimes she does this even before we start the car in anticipation of getting sick I think.

We have tried everything like just sitting in the car for no reason without the engine on for a few minuets at a time then with the engine on. We have tried just making very short trips around the block etc and then building the time up but nothing works.

Her being sick isn't the problem, although it would be nice to go out just once without having the clear up...it's just upsetting how distressed she seems to get even on the shortest journey and it is such a shame cuz we wanna take her on different walks and show her there is nothing to worry about and that it really is all fun.

We tried some travell sickness pills from the pet store the other day but they didn't seem to work.

I am thinking it must be the motion and then just the anticipation of being sick because she must just associate the two by now.

I have heard other people say that they had problems with their dog etc at first and then it just grew out of it all and has been fine ever since and so I hope it is something Keena will just grow out of. But do any of you have a dog that gets car sick?...and what have you done to help combat the problem and were you succesful?

Thanks guys for any help

i have one that never grew out of it..we just give her a sea legs tablet before a trip ...it does work ... you can get them from most chemists...

Star used to get car sick up until she was around 6 months. I found it better if Star was not fed for a few hours before a trip and to keep her confined to the same spot so she could not jump around while the car was moving.

Storm gets car sick. Hers is fear based too. She hates having to go in the car, and will pull in any direction other than the one the car is in

She's ok with short trips, vets etc, but anything longer than that and she's sick.

As Carole has said, avoid feeding before a trip and try and keep things as calm as possible. Rescue Remedy also helps too.

If you have tried all the things recommended for lessening stress in the car, e.g. just sitting in the car with engine off; sitting with engine on; giving dinner in car with engine off; tiny drives; short drives with rewarding conclusions; etc. etc., then it sounds like true motion sickness. Try giving a ginger biscuit prior to travelling and put newspaper on the floor of the area where she sits, and/or have her in a covered cage so that she cannot see out of the windows. If this has no effect consult your vet rather than purchsing an over-the counter remedy from the pet shop.

my vet recomemded sea legs travel pills ...we have never looked back they work great ...if you have an early morning trip give one the night before and of course don't feed your dog before you travel .........good luck...

I asked for sealegs at the chemist but they said they dont make them anymore, so they gave me stugeron 15 and they stop my dog from being sick.

Traci

indie used to be sick in the car alot, until we realised it was associated with her eating before going out.
After stopping feeding her anytime before we were due to go out she;d be fine.

Indie drools in the car too.. but i think thats just the heat??

I think mine just get over excited rather then the motion of the car..........

Thanks everyone...We are still persisting with trying to get Keena used to the car...My other half has time off from work and so we have been able to spend even more time trying to get over the car thing with her. She is actually getting slightly better.

When we started with taking her out in the car we really couldn't get further than five minuets down the road before she was sick, we always made sure we took her out two hours or more after she had eaten but like clockwork she hurled everytime.

We are finding that she is much better now the weather is colder. In the hot weather we did make sure we were constantly on the move with our windows open and the car was well ventilated but with no ac things still get a little warm which seemed to bring the sickness on even faster, probably due to more rapid breathing while she was panting.

She then built up to being able to travell about 5-10 minuets then getting out and having a good walk with the same amount of journey back home but wouldn't quite make it on the return, to where she would be sick just as we pulled up outside of the house!

We are now making it a good 20 minuets out and having a walk and then all the way home too! so bit by bit she is getting better.

The thing is now though that although she isn't being sick quite so fast she still has the terrible drooling problem and it's not just a little bit that you would get with normal panting with some dogs I mean it is constant to where she completly soaks the towels right through that we put down for her and soaks the front of her self. Of course we make sure she gets plenty to drink afterwards but this is the part that really bothers me because I just feel sorry for her. Her ears go down and she just looks real poorly and sad and I really can't believe just how much saliva she can loose.

She sounds alot like Storm wolfie, as soon as she knows that you want her to get in the car she puts on her brakes and tries to pull away so one of us just gets in the car first on the opposite side and then she does get in of her own accord just to be with us. When we get to where we are going, always for a good walk, as soon as she is out of the car she bounces back in minuets but when we are ready to get back in she sometimes starts her drooling before we even get in the car at the mear sight of it.

I do think she will get over it sometime in the future as she is lasting longer and making some progress and I guess the drooling may stop when she has made enough journeys without being sick and maybe she will forget to make the association and the drooling may be part of the anticipation of being sick so that might stop too.

I just hope she does get over it soon because there is a whole world out there that we want to show her and she really does have so much fun on the walks we take her to, I don't want her to be limited with just the same old local walks because she loves to explore new places.

Weren't 'sea legs' for people?...lol