traveling with your cat?

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Theresa6

Member Since 2011
We are one of those very busy chaotic families... and we have been planning a trip to disney world since before Stella got diagnosed with Diabetes. Unfortunately right now I have no idea whats going on with her since she is not stabalized and her numbers are all over the place, but I hope to have that taken care of sooner rather than later.

With everything going on, I don't particularly trust anyone I know with her care so I was thinking of finding a pet friendly hotel and bringing her along for the vacation. It is 2 days drive each way and we will be gone for a total of 11 days. Is this a good idea? Will she be excessively stressed by the trip? Or is it safest for her to have her with us so I can give her her meds/shots daily?
 
There are lots of folks here that travel with their kitties. However with 13 and a 95lbs drooler I'm not one of them. But back when dinosaurs still walked the earth I did have a cat that travelled with me. But you might want to start training her before you actually need to go. Start by making her carrier comfy and let her sleep in it with the door open, once she will relax in it just sitting in the house try closing the door for a few minutes, then proceed to closing her in and picking it up, then taking her to the car in it, then short trips around the block etc.

Just keep each step short and gradually lenghten them until she likes riding and doesn't think she is going to the vet everytime she sees the carrier.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
We just took Smokey with us for Christmas because of similar issues. It is the first time she's had to travel other than a trip to the vets at the U which is 4 hours away.

She was a bit agitated on the first part of the trip, but she did pretty good. She really liked it at the other house and did quite well. My brother who had just seen her the weekend before commented on how better she seemed. At my house she seemed like an old cat he thought, but there she was checking out the place, talking, and letting the kids pet her (and she doesn't like kids) and just acted perkier. I said my house bored her. Her BGs were ever better than they have been in a long time. The one thing she didn't do alot of was sleep ~O)

Smokey HATES short trips. She's only done good on the longer ones. Its like after 10 minutes in the car she figures out we aren't going to her vet. When we took Peanut to the U, she was the same way, OK on the long trip, but didn't ever do good on the short trips.

Unfortunately, every cat is different and you probably won't know how your cat will handle longer trips until you do one. The one kitty I helped with transport was a howler and she howled the whole time I had her in the car no matter what I did and it sounded like it was that way for everyone else.
 
I take my diabetic with me on vacation once a year (we fly) from NJ to CA to visit my dad.
Also, two years in a row, I have done a 6 hour road trip with both my cats to the Pittsburgh Reunion where we stay a few days. I prefer to take my diabetic with me, when I go on trips.
 
Julia was referring to me (and hence my screen name - "doom buggys" are what you ride in at the Haunted Mansion, my favorite attraction). I have worked for TWDC (the walt disney company) for 15 years and have been at WDW (walt disney world) for 7 1/2.

Our resorts are NOT pet freindly unless you have a service dog. There is a pet resort on property however. It is Beft Friends Pet Resort and Spa:
http://www.bestfriendspetcare.com/waltd ... rldresort/

If you are staying on property or near by (such as Bonnet Creek, Grand Cypress or any of the hotels at Hotel Plaza Blvd) BF is pretty close. Even if you are staying off property, say on Rt 535, you are still pretty close to BF, which is reight accross from the Port Orleans resort.

I recommend this pet resort. But they will NOT administer insulin to your pet. You can do this however. Cedric was DXd in April 2011, just a couple of weeks prior to my scheduled trip to Univ of Co for my sister's graduation followed up by 4 days at Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas with a couple of friends. Cedric was scheduled to stay at BF for the entire time, but had to stay at my vet's office for the majority of the trip to receive his insulin (he ended up getting a dental while he was there anyway). I checked Cedric in to BF on Monday May 9th (?) and would check out around lunchtime that Wednesday. I had to go twice a day to give him his insulin, which was kept refrigerated in the cat room. You can visit with your cat, and they took a photo of him while he was out with the workers there and emailed it to me! I thought that was neat. Their cubbies are great - 2 story plus a seperate "room" for the litter box. The cat room (kitty city is what they call it) has it's own vent system so the cats don't smell the dogs. It also has double doors to prevent excape. The new facility, opened about 1 1/2 years ago, is beautiful. A year ago we had our photosession in the doggie day care room (which cedric was very curious about). I would not hesitate to have him stay there again - in fact he has stayed there several times, but only the one time when he needed insulin.

Traveling, well Cedric hasn't done much of that. If he sees me with his green bag 9for food and stuff) he knows he's NOT going to the vet; doesn't give me a hard time getting into the carrier. But WDW is about as far as he has gone and that's about 45 minutes away.

When I moved down here from Philly in 2004, I had Midora. She was never a problem cat when it came to traveling. She always stayed at my dad's when I went on vacation, which was about an hour car ride. I had seditives for the day & 1/2 ride (we stopped at a pet friendly hotel off of 95 in SC) but we didn't need them. I did have to toss some poop in the woods alongside the road once.... :lol:
My dad gave me his medium pet carrier for the trip which I still use for Cedric. Dallas' carrier which I got for christmas looks small in comparison. We used piddle pads to cover the bottom of the carrier insead of putting litter or my usual towel. I would recomend those.

i hope I covered what you need to know at the resort, but send me a message if you have any other questions.
 
Hobbs was diagnosed less than 10 days before Christmas and we always travel back home for that. So I was flipping out wondering who would take care of him while we were gone and very nearly took him with us despite the fact that when we moved out here he cried half the way. In the end, we found someone to watch after him. However bringing him with is always going to be an option just because of his condition.

Something to look in to is renting a house instead of staying at a hotel. I'm not sure if they would be more or less pet friendly, but it's worth a look. Up side is you get a whole house (and maybe even a private pool, we did!), you might even all have your own bathrooms, laundry, and a kitchen which is a benefit if you have kids, you can cook instead of paying to eat out all the time. We rented a house in Orlando a few years ago and it was nice, esp for the pool! LOL Oh and the hot tub! :) Downside is no room service (we don't have kids so sometimes we splurge on this, but there's always pizza delivery) and no maid service. If you're interested check out vrbo.com for rentals, we've used that site 3 times.
 
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