Anyone travel with a cat???

DXSMac · 12-29-2007, 02:51 PM

I travel with a cat. I started RV'ing in 2004. First trip with cat was traumatic for the cat. Kitty, who normally HATES being held and petted (but he has other good qualities...) wanted to be in my lap while I was driving. He meowed and meowed! I kept pushing him away because I was driving on a winding road through mountains! I think kitty felt I was going to get rid of him! I finally explained to him that this was about having him WITH me. He was fine after that.

He does fine once we arrive at a destination. But he has troubles travelling. If we stay on freeway, he's fine. If we are on a twisty winding road, kitty has problems: The three P's: Poo, Piddle, Puke. I'm not sure how to deal with this, other than to just keep him in a crate and wash the "three P's" out of the crate out when we get there.

My cat LOVES the State Parks! If we are at a state park, he has to look out the window all freaking night at who knows what, even in the winter! (Which means I lose heat through the windows when I have the shades open.....) The back window is at the perfect height, I have a cat tree that I bought, the top perch fits right at the window. The "condo" at the bottom of the tree is perfect, the bed in my slide out just slides right over the "condo" and holds the cat tree in place while I'm driving.

Usually on the day we "roll" I don't feed kitty. But he still has problems if the road is winding. So, I stick to freeways most of the time.

Kitty also loves the furnace. When it's on, he goes right near a furnace outlet and gets his fur all warm.

Any other cats?

JJ

welshman599 · 12-29-2007, 10:43 PM

I'm sure that other cat owners will chime in, and I'm SURE not a cat owner. You choose the road to travel based on kitty's preferences? I thought that's what wives are for. heehee

Radio · 12-29-2007, 11:05 PM

Well, I'm kind of a dog guy myself, since my wifer has become allergic to cats. But my point is, the vet has something like Dramamine (sp?) for dogs to prevent motion sickness. There should be an equivilent for cats.

Also, can the cat see out of the crate to the world going by? I get car sick riding if I cant see outside the vehicle, maybe the cat is the same way??

Radio

MRimmer · 12-30-2007, 10:42 AM

BIL and SIL take there cat every trip. They keep "Diva" crated until they stop. She rides in the back seat crated and after the first trip she loves to go now. She cant see out when the vehicle is moving.

Mike

milzat · 12-30-2007, 01:38 PM

Please don't laugh. No pun intended.

You may want to have Kitty visit a Animal Psychologist.

True story. I swear.
I have a buddy, who had a problem with his Squirrel dog. When the dog would tree a Squirrel, he'd quietly whimper and whine. This was a big problem. As you may know, when a well trained dog trees a Squirrel, he's supposed to repeatedly bark. This repeated barking is a sign the dog has done his job. The owner follows the sound of the barking dog and when he arrives at the dog's location, precedes to (in a better word) take the Squirrel.
Well, since the dog wouldn't bark, the owner had problems locating the dog, and eventually the Squirrel.
This is a bigger problem for Squirrel dogs that don't bark, because they usually don't live long(if you know what I mean).

So, he had the dog visit a Animal Psychologist.

Well, after three months of in-house sessions(yes, the patient stayed at the Psychologist home because he said this was a very unusual case)

, the dog was cured and I am told by my buddy that this is the best Squirrel dog he's every owned.

I swear.

DXSMac · 12-30-2007, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by welshman599

I'm sure that other cat owners will chime in, and I'm SURE not a cat owner. You choose the road to travel based on kitty's preferences? I thought that's what wives are for. heehee

In my case, it would be.... "that's what HUSBANDS are for...." but I don't have one, thank god! If I had a husband, he would take over the RV and I wouldn't get to learn anything!

But travelling with kitty is pretty challenging!

JJ

DXSMac · 12-30-2007, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radio

Well, I'm kind of a dog guy myself, since my wifer has become allergic to cats. But my point is, the vet has something like Dramamine (sp?) for dogs to prevent motion sickness. There should be an equivilent for cats.

Also, can the cat see out of the crate to the world going by? I get car sick riding if I cant see outside the vehicle, maybe the cat is the same way??

Radio

I thought of that, and tried putting the crate up in the front seat with a window view, still problems. For awhile, I had kitty ride in the crate in the back bed, but he meowed and meowed. So now I have him ride in the crate in the seat of the dinette, he can look at me in the driver's seat while we are travelling. It has helped a little, but we still occasionally have the Three P problem.

JJ

DXSMac · 12-30-2007, 09:10 PM

Well, the first trip, he wasn't crated, I just wanted him to run around the RV and get used to it, yes, I know, that was irresponsible..... He now rides crated.

Vet thinks kitty just gets stressed. Well, could be kitty is feeling my stress. Before I start out on an RV trip, I have this "panic attack" (what if this, what if that..... PANIC!!!!), but once I am driving, I am fine! I think I panic because the RV, to me, is HUGE (ok, it's only 30 feet, but HUGE to me!!). I keep trying to remind myself that I drove grain trucks during wheat harvest (grew up on farm) when I was in high school, the RV is no different!

Perhaps kitty feels my stress.... but it usually goes away once I'm driving.

JJ

welshman599 · 12-31-2007, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DXSMac

In my case, it would be.... "that's what HUSBANDS are for...." but I don't have one, thank god! If I had a husband, he would take over the RV and I wouldn't get to learn anything!

But travelling with kitty is pretty challenging!

JJ

Well now, don't I feel like an idiot. Sorry about that DXS, I just assumed... oops my foot is heading for my mouth again!

NDJollyMon · 12-31-2007, 11:21 PM

Cats taste just like chicken when you stir fry them.

Just kidding. I have two cats, but never have taken them camping. They also freak out when they get in the car. Prolly cause the only time they go anywhere...is to the Vet. (and they hate that!)

My cats are too old to change their ways. One has just been diagnosed with cancer...the other is a loner. I take the dog camping. She is still getting used to travel as well. (big whiner) Oh well, guess it's my fault for not taking them driving much.

dmzkiller · 12-01-2008, 10:36 PM

We live in our motorhome fulltime. We have a 61 lb German Shepherd and two cats. The dog is just fine wondering about while we drive and we just toss the cats inthe bathroom along with their cat box. Whatever happens while they are in there, we don't worry about it as there is nothing we can do about it. Now that cat box is just a real pain. We saw a 'self washing' cat box on the tv one time. It swirls around like a washing machine. Its over 200 bucks and we are too cheap to get it.

granite · 12-02-2008, 12:05 AM

Our Butterscotch is similar, but just the puke "p". First day of trip is worst-aok after that. Tried the vet's pill, but it deeply sedated him for a whole day and worried us. Now we travel in a pickup and pull a fiver and he travels better. The MH he hated and hid most of the trip. We try to start out on straight highways first day and that helps too. In addition we have a plug in 12V blanket we lay on the back seat of the super cab for his highnesses comfort. That also seems to help.

rthrbelsewhere · 04-03-2009, 05:34 PM

One of our dogs had to visit the vet in Jan of 2008 and long story short, he's still alive, but one of the problems we were having was that we couldn't keep food in him. He was constantly throwing everything up. Well, the vet perscribed Famotidine 20mg that was good for keeping the food down and also for long trips in the truck. Famotidine is also known as pepsid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famotidine). Perhaps that might help your situation with the 3 p's.

1 pill 30 minutes prior to driving (for us it was prior to meals, but it works both ways.) which was great. Our dog's can now go to places like Granby and Grand Lake without leaving a mess in their pod or backseat.

WoodLark · 09-23-2009, 06:24 AM

My wife and I recently retired and are planning to travel. Where we go, our three cats and two dogs will go.

I am currently looking at travel trailers. I think I want one with rear bunks (preferably double lower, single upper). I plan to remove the lower bunk and put the cat box in the space below then build a ramp to the upper bunk. I think the cats would enjoy sitting on the upper bunk staring out the window.

I would put some kind of door across the opening to the bunks that the cats could get through, but not the dogs (dogs are disgusting creatures who seem to like litter boxes, uuugh!).

Our cats and dogs have traveled by car and seem to adapt to the motion quite well.

As for why I am on this forum, one of the trailers I am looking at is a Forest River Puma 27FQ.

Good Old Country Boy · 09-23-2009, 07:50 PM

We've been doing a lot of traveling back and forth and the cats have too. We put each of them in their own cages and put the carriers on back seat of the truck. They meow for a while but settle down within a hour and all is fine. I think being able to see us and yet feeling safe in their carriers helps them to be calm and not throw up. Of course, all animals are different but you might try this. This Friday I'm traveling with both dogs and the two cats in the truck for my son's wedding, should be intresting and I hope we don't end up with any of the P problems.

johnnypal · 08-21-2010, 05:47 PM

We adopted our two flame point Siamese cats from the pound as little kittens . Casey and his brother Corro were placed on the motorhome dash and became veteran RVers right away.The two adult kitties now love the motorhome and look foward to trips.Their favorite spot is the dash where they can watch the white lines go by.

kenandterry · 09-28-2010, 06:05 PM

We travel with our two persians .... they stay crated and they are up on the dinette seat to minimalize vibration.

When we take a break I let them out to stretch and use the litter.

When we set up for the night, much to the amusement of anyone around us, I set their tent up on the dash and they hang out in their tent watching the world.

Back to the original poster.... if you have your carrier on the floor while travelling the vibration is brutal and could be the cause of the 3 P's. If you don't have a diner try setting the carrier in the middle of the bed - or on a sofa or chair.

Terry

pondlady · 09-28-2010, 06:55 PM

Welshman599, husbands do get in the way. I can't vouch for that personally, but have friends who have had them for a short time. Now they have wasbands and it works out nicely.
And if women designed RVs, they would be uniformly engineered and easy to trouble shoot. Think about it......

granite · 09-28-2010, 07:25 PM

We had a similar problem. Went to vet and she prescribed a relaxation pill for the cat. We only use 1/4 of pill an hour before we leave. Cat is quiet the first day and doesn't throw up. After first day out he seems to get acclimated to traveling again and we don't have to use any further meds. Don't like to give pills to cat, but better than the alternative. Good luck.

janegraves · 02-03-2011, 09:01 PM

My cat has traveled up and down the east coast in my suv several times. It is a 15 hour drive and she sleeps most of the time. I intend to include her in the RV trips when I get it this spring. She does best outside of a crate, up high on top of luggage in the back seat on a pillow. She gets sick in the crate so I have abandoned putting her in it unless I am stopped and need to have the doors open for any reason. My guess is the cabover bed will be her favorite place in the RV for traveling. I'll let you know after I get it.

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