Long road trip in near future. Advice?

Mom and I might be making the trek from southern VA to MI in the next month. We will likely be taking both Rufus and Winnie (our elderly dog). I wasn't aware of the date we were doing this, otherwise I would have started planning and preparing months ago. :YMSIGH:

Now, without pets we usually make this journey in a single day. With pets... maybe not.

- We'll have to know where we're stopping and what hotels/motels allow pets in advance, I know.
- And have a travel fridge of some sort for Rufus' insulin. (I want something to plug in.)
- Make sure we have appropriate travel carriers. (We only have one currently, and I hate it - it's the plastic carrier we use when we transport to the vet). Or other solution. Any recommendations would be awesome, but it's got to be fairly sizeable - Rufus is too large for some of those things.
- Disposable litter boxes for the trip/stay.
- Travel hypo kit (In all likelihood if he were going to go out-of-whack during a trip it would be elevated levels, but being on the road without immediate access to veterinary care isn't a great place to start "guessing" what might happen).
- My brain goes fuzzy here. Anything I've forgotten (no matter how "duh" it is!) or simply am not thinking of would be a big help.

Right now: nailbite_smile Not happy about this!

 

This may sound a bit crazy. And I'm not sure how long you will be away from home.

Maybe have your kitties medical records on hand from your vet as well as your own notes. God forbid, if something came up and you absolutely needed to go the vet along the way, you would have the records for them. Also, you could make a list of the various Vet clinics along the way/location/directions/telephone numbers....just in case.

Just one more obsessive/compulsive thought for ya.....In case the insulin you have didn't stay cold...got hot for some reason or was dropped accidently.....Wondering if your vet would write a prescription w/out a date to be used in an emergency to get more insulin. If you needed it...just fill in the date and use it. If not, save it and use it for a later time down the road. However, I'm not really sure about how your vet would react to that request.


This may give you peace of mind or it may be overkill. Every bean is different.

 

You might want to consider a foldable wire dog crate. They come in different sizes.

 

I agree with Larry's suggestion. I bought a foldable dog crate for my small station wagon - intending to travel with Tiggy. We haven't taken Tiggy on a trip yet, but it has come in handy for rescue transports.

Not sure if this is the exact one, but we got one big enough for a large cat WITH a covered litterbox or two large cats with no litterbox
http://www.petcratesdirect.com/dog-crat ... ltima.html

I used it to transport an adult german shorthair pointer to give you another idea of the size.

 

Look on-line for a 12-volt refrigerator. You can get them about six-pack size.

Truckers use them, so you can also find them at truck stops like Love's, Flying J, Travel America.

The one I have can be plugged into a cigarette lighter, and also has an adapter so you can plug
it into a regular 110v outlet in the motel room.

Also, get some kind of thermometer to put inside the little fridge with the insulin, so
you can monitor the temp.

Don't leave it plugged into your cigarette lighter when the car is not running...it might
run down your car battery.

Or you could just get a small ice chest and keep putting ice into it...keep your cold pop
or water in there, too...for the trip !!!

 

you'll also want to make sure they have up to date ID tags -- and one on Rufus' collar stating he is a diabetic kitty.
You can buy them through the board here:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/buyfr.htm
or have one made up at a tag place. ( any profit on the ones purchased on the board go to running this board)

Emmy and Dude traveled w/ both Dude and Mittsi cross country. she bought a crate per what others have already suggested. and put it in the living room with treats/ toys/ blankets / stuff quite a bit in advance to get them used to the crate . -- they could go in and out on their own. After they were comfortable with it she started taking them for short rides in it to get them acclimated. They soon became quite comfy and traveled very well.

I think it's great that you are thinking and planning ahead for them.

 

I feel a little silly now. I jumped the gun a little when I started planning. After Mom and I began weighing our options we realized that traveling with pets on such short notice was just not wise. The likelihood of something happening (especially with Rufus) was just too high to be wise.

The trip is to see my grandfather, and it probably wasn't going to be a fun one, either. Mom will likely fly up alone while I stay at home with the animals, instead of taking them with both of us.

Thank you for all of your suggestions, though. I know we'll probably have to travel with them at some point - I'm going to see about starting to collect the things we'd need for a trip anyway. It's never a bad idea to have them - I live in a Hurricane Zone, after all. I can just imagine an emergency evacuation on a two week notice. :shock: Yikes.

 

You know...Your question wasn't silly. And your last statement regarding living in a Hurricane Zone and having to evacuate brought something to my attention. I too live in a Hurricane Zone...Houston,TX.....we had a hurricane 2 years ago and lost power for only a day...I was lucky...my sister lost it for a week and others for 3-4 weeks or longer. In all the craziness since Curry was dx 2 weeks ago, I hadn't really thought about what I would do now that she is diabetic. I remember 5 years ago attempting to evacuate to San Antonio when Rita (initially a CAT 4 hurricane) was headed toward Houston. What a nightmare.....I never really made it out of Houston and was stuck in traffic for 7 hours...going 1-3 miles per hour if we were lucky. Luckily, the Hurricane turned away from Houston. So your question has now allowed me an opportunity to do some research before I need it.

 

I'm glad to bring it up, then. I'm something of a worrier, so I usually disaster "troubleshoot" for fun, lol. I think one of those itty-bitty refrigerators is ideal for being in the car, but at home with no power - just refreshing the ice supply every couple of days or so and keeping the insulin in a cooler, wrapped up in a towel to prevent freezing would probably do.

I remember that power-less thing. We were without it all for about ten days quite a few years back, before Rufus was diagnosed. These days it would be another thing entirely. (I vow never to be an EMERGENCY evacuator ever again. If a big storm is coming I'm heading west and north even if I have to go by foot, lol.)