Travel (by car) with diabetic cat...?

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Waldo

Waldo

Member Since 2018
Hi!
Soon we will have to make a long trip by car (+2000 km in 3 days / 2 nights at hotels in the middle). We will be 2 to 3 hrs driving and then stopping, for a total of 6-8 hs every day.
We are taking our diabetic cat. He is in treatment with Caninsulin every 12 hrs.
Any advice on how to travel? Continue with insulin, stop for the travel, check glucose and then decide...?
Thanks!
 
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I would not stop insulin. If anything, the BG levels will probably run higher than normal due to the stress of the travel. You do not have a spreadsheet link, so I have no idea how his numbers run, but I am assuming they are high enough that he gets normal insulin shots when at home. Since you are stopping every 2 to 3 hours, you could monitor as needed.

I have no advice on the 'how to travel' part. My girls hate a short drive to the vet, so I would not dare attempt a major road trip with them. Although... I have not been able to travel since Mia's diagnosis, so I have been entertaining thoughts of getting a nice, smallish RV and seeing if I can get the girls comfortable in it at home (maybe they would come to see it like just another room in the house) then trying out a trip. :D
 
I would not stop insulin odds are he would be at least a little bit stressed (most cats stress in cars) even when they are used to travel in cars and like it ( I have one civie that is used to go out with a leash so she can move around the car loves to lay on the back of the car close to the back window and just look at everything but still I can tell she gets stressed because when we return she is just eats and goes to sleep for a long period), so his glucose levels will probably raise a little, I wouldn't adjust the dose based on his results during the trip though
 
Member Lisa & Leo did this great writeup and saved it over in Google docs. All about traveling with a diabetic kitty. Hope some of this helps you in your coming travels. Traveling with Diabetic Kitties

There is also a doc by member Merlin's Mom about Camping/Traveling with A Special Needs Kitty.

(There is a topic over in the Lantus forum called, Where Can I Find _______ that has links to lots of documents. Knew it was somwhere and this helped me to locate this document for you.)
 
Just like human with diabetes, you continue your treatment. Just pack all your testing material, insulin in an ice chest or cold pack, and test/inject on schedule. Should be easy!
 
Thank you all for your advice. I wanted to shared some updates. Firulete finally spent 1600 of the 1800 km mostly calm (the other 200 kms were a nightmare as it seems he needed to pee). We put him a leash and let him free in the back of the car. This made the difference, otherwise he would be hiperventilating and meowing all the time. This way he would entertain himself watching the landscape and the road. We have relocated, started a new routine and now we can share a great news. Firulete is officially OFF THE JUICE!! We have finished the trial 10 days ago and he has spent the last 24 days with numbers below 120, and most of the times below 100, so we are super happy. Thank you all for your advice on dosing, bouncing and travelling! :otj::cat:
 
I'm assuming your avatar is Firulete. We have his brother over here and he loves being in the car with daddy.
Firu, meet Marco...
marco002.JPG
 
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