May travel with my cat, any traveling advice / tips?

M

Maya_

Member
Hello,

Happy New Years!

Will most likely go on a road trip and plan on taking my cat with me. Any advice / tips on traveling with a diabetic cat? The road trip will be about 3-4 hours so I was planning on putting the insulin bottle in a mini cooler. Any advice / tips are much appreciated, thanks! :)
 
The document Lisa wrote is the best. She had to travel to a city away from home on Mondays and back on Fridays with her kitty Leo. She also got a lot of input from those of us who had travelled with our cats. I did a trip to Colorado and back, 3 times 9 hours drive each day and later a airplane trip followed by road trip. Later on, Neko used to travel with us to a couple local islands. Not so much lots of travel, but ferry time. I even tested and gave insulin in the ferry line up and on the ferry on the way back. The biggest take away, plan places where you can pull over and test your cat if needed. And hope nothing messes that up (like the fire blocking the highway I had:rolleyes:). My insulin was wrapped by bubble wrap, inside a Tupperware equivalent then inside the cooler. That way it didn't move around much. Include some high carb and low carb food in the cooler.

Make sure kitty is microchipped and/or tattooed and a harness with a name tag/your phone # on it is a good idea.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
The document Lisa wrote is the best. She had to travel to a city away from home on Mondays and back on Fridays with her kitty Leo. She also got a lot of input from those of us who had travelled with our cats. I did a trip to Colorado and back, 3 times 9 hours drive each day and later a airplane trip followed by road trip. Later on, Neko used to travel with us to a couple local islands. Not so much lots of travel, but ferry time. I even tested and gave insulin in the ferry line up and on the ferry on the way back. The biggest take away, plan places where you can pull over and test your cat if needed. And hope nothing messes that up (like the fire blocking the highway I had:rolleyes:). My insulin was wrapped by bubble wrap, inside a Tupperware equivalent then inside the cooler. That way it didn't move around much. Include some high carb and low carb food in the cooler.

Make sure kitty is microchipped and/or tattooed and a harness with a name tag/your phone # on it is a good idea.
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Thanks for the advice! Wow 9 hour drive each day for your trip to Colorado! I’ve packed all her things, hopefully it’ll be an easy trip for the both of us :)
 
Yes, we travel all the time.... the worst was 20 hours in my truck with 14 hours of it completely stranded on a highway during an ice storm at like 20 degrees. That night, she was in the 50s and I was testing every 30 minutes and giving snacks, it was a struggle to keep her up. Fun times, you learn a lot!

My truck has an outlet so I plug in a Feliway Optimum Diffuser to help with anxiety.

I put a whole little box that she has already used a few times on the floorboard of the backseat. When I pull over for running into a store or bathroom break at rest area, that's when she uses the litterbox as well... not when the vehicle is in motion. I keep old produce bags and bring a scooper to keep the litter clean.

I use a powered E-cooler that plugs into a solar generator battery. The insulin is kept in the E-cooler and I use a temperature laser gun to ensure the temperature is always in range. I keep the Lantus pen in a small cardboard box, but is open at the top so air can go around the pen, but the pen is never directly touching the walls of the cooler.

I bring ALL her medicines... all the various pain meds, appetite simulators, everything she has. I bring at least 7 different types of foods at all varying carb levels. I bring extra clean small plates and bowls to feed her while we are traveling. I bring two meters with extra strips and lancets. I learned early on when on vacation and running out of strips and lancets, so never again, I bring three times I could possibly need.

I bring a blanket she has been sleeping on and also two other freshly washed blankets that she likes so she can put new scent on.

I bring catnip hydrosol spray and spray down the blankets.

I make sure to keep music playing, typically classical at low volumes.

This is totally unsafe and controversial, but I let her out of her carrier sometimes and let her walk around inside the truck when I'm driving so she can look at the windows instead of being couped up in the small carrier stressed out.

My vet has said it's perfectly fine to give her gabapentin when needing to travel, but I've never needed to do it.
 
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