Flying with Miss Kitty

[amy_awesome]

Hi all -
I did search for info about flying with pets, but most of it was experience with flying with your dogs, so I thought I'd start a cat-specific thread.

My husband and I recently moved, and our cat stayed behind with Grandma while we got settled. Now, we're heading back to visit, and planning on bringing Miss Kitty home with us.

I'm EXTREMELY nervous about flying her home. I don't want her in the cargo hold, that much I know. I can't imagine my baby stuck down there in the dark and cold and scared for a four-hour flight. No way, no how.

We have a soft-sided carrier that I believe will fit under the seat and still leave her plenty of room to stand and turn, etc.

My big question is whether or not to sedate her. She doesn't much love her carrier (she's ridden in it for short car trips, maybe 20 minutes). She meows and cries the entire time, and usually has a little accident (although sometimes I'm not sure if it's entirely accidental...sometimes she may just be mad enough at us to poop in her carrier, that little stinker!). Petflight.com recommends against sedation, but most of the folks that have posted about travelling with their fur-babies said they sedated with no problem.

We've never had to give her any medication, so I'm nervous about how it might affect her, but frankly, I'm a little more nervous about how she'll handle close to 7 hours in her carrier (by the time all is said and done, I think that's how long the poor thing will have to be in there).

Any advice? Sorry to ramble for so long - I'm just so stressed about my furbaby.
Amy

[tlew12778]

Hi Amy! Don't see you round here much!

I haven't flown with mine but I have sedated them for long car rides. We used valium drops. The vet said to give around 10, wait 5 minutes and see what happened. I think he said we could go up to 20 drops every 5 hours or something (it was years ago so I don't recall precisely). Anyway you can see it taking effect (sort of scarey but in the end, they just looked like they were sleeping). The woke up about 5 hours later.

I know others on here have used benadryl as well. I have never tried that.

[amy_awesome]

Hiya Tiffany -
I'm not around much - too much work to do, and in my new job, it doesn't pay to get caught on CC, I'm guessing :)

Thanks for the advice. What's scary about the valium? Do they froth at the mouth or something?

The last time kitty had any drugs in her, it was when she was spayed. She was super-loopy and out of it for a couple of days, but we have no idea what it was like as the drugs kicked in, only as they were wearing off.

[fuzzy]

Talk to your vet before you do this (if you are so inclined).

When I drove my three cats up the east coast for a move, I gave them each a 1/2 a tablet of bendryll every six hours. They slept most of the way and it wasn't a full out sedation.

[amy_awesome]

Thanks, Fuzzy.

I am unnaturally scared of Benadry, because I react so adversely to it (stupid, I know, to project that on to the cat).

I'll definitely ask my vet when I take her in to get her travel-ready certificate.

[al'sgirl]

You might want to check with your airline about their regulations for taking your cat as a "carry on". They might ask you to have a hardsided carrier for the cats protection under the seat.
My DH flew with his cat on a 5 hour flight and Cat was just fine (with no sedation). He slept the whole way and didn't even meow once. He was quite happy to get out of the carrier at the end of the trip.

[amy_awesome]

Thanks for the tip, al'sgirl :) I did check at petflight.com and United doesn't specify that an on-board carrier has to be hard-sided, but I'll be double checking when I call to book our flight.

I'm betting that no matter what, Gia will bolt out of her carrier when we get home, even if it is totally unfamiliar to her. She hates her carrier that much.

[jesvet]

Definitely check with the airline, it varies from airline to airline in terms of hard vs soft side.
Sedation: talk to your vet. I will not prescribe sedation other than benadryl for a pet going in cargo because it can be very dangerous, but as a carry on pet there is less concern. I still prefer Benadryl. Either way you will want to test it out before you actually take the trip, and your vet can tell you what the proper dosage is and if prescription sedation is appropriate.

[amy_awesome]

Thanks for posting, jesvet - I was hoping you'd reply.

[jnettie]

I flew with Jade when she was about 4 months old. She did very well as my carry-on kitty! Slept the whole way.

I have a hard sided carrier for her. It's 19"x12"x12" and fit just right under the seat in front of me.

Definately talk to your vet. Sedation might be most humane. Also to get all her shots updated otherwise she can't fly.

Oh, and here's something that I've found works wonders: we keep the cat carriers out at all times. This way, the girls always see them and they have the same scent as the rest of the house. I also used to play games with Jade using the carrier, toss a ball in, let her get it and come out, stuff like that. That way, she's not afraid of the carrier. It helped a lot!

[maxandmolly]

I had leave Molly with mom when I loved to California, and came back for her a few months later. The vet gave me sedation pills for her (no idea what they were, he never suggested Benadryl, didn't know about it til years later), three whole pills. Said to give her a half a pill half an hour before we left, then see how it went, and possibly give her another half. She went apeshit panic-y in the car, so I gave her a second half ten minutes into the drive and let her out of the carrier for the 2 hour drive to the airport. Before I got to the car rental return, I gave her another half, and still there were nails shreds flying everywhere, and she was yowling pitifully.
THEN-
They made me take her out of the carrier and carry her through the metal detector so the carrier could go through the x-ray machine.
And we went through it all over again. It was HORRIBLE. WE switched planes halfway there (Tampa to Houston, then Houston to San Francisco) where I gave her yet another half, because she spent the whole flight meowing pitifully while I rubbed her where I could reach through the carrier.
Finally during takeoff in Houston, she settled down, and got quiet. After making sure she was still breathing ok and I hadn't sedated her to death (overly worried momma that I was) I figured she felt safer down where it was darker, and just left her there for the flight. She started howling as soon as we landed and I took her out from under the seat.
Then she spent a month hiding under the comforter anytime mommy wasn't home.
I felt like such a hottible mother.
Since then she's survived a baby brother, four days in a carrier in a car with no a/c driving cross country in the summer, and about a dozen different homes with me.
Your baby will be fine. She just may not like you very much at the time!

[amy_awesome]

Thanks to all for posting. I'm feeling better (still a nervous Nellie, but better). I just hope Gia doesn't hate us forever after this :)

[TracieB]

I don't have any personal experiences actually flying a cat, but when I flew from Japan to Detroit, the man next to me brought his cat (probably 15 lbs. in size) on board and kept her under the seat. I'm not sure if he sedated her or not, but if I hadn't seen him walk on with her, I never would have known he had a cat with him. She was wonderful.

He would put the case on his lap every once in awhile and give her some water and I believe he took her to the lavatory for her to go to the bathroom... it is my understanding the he let her "go" on a newspaper. He also had a little bit of littler in a plastic baggie that he probably put on the newspaper so she knew that was where she was to do her business.

Anyway... I know how you're feeling. We left our little kitty at my parent's house rather than fly her the 20+ hours to Guam. It's a tough decision...

Good luck!

[keska]

My 2 cats have flown across the country 3 times but they've always done it in the pet section of cargo. I wouldn't take mine in the cabin because they cry very, very loudly the whole time. I know because they've done ferry rides and a 15 hour car ride and they never stopped crying the whole time. My Siamese actually lost his voice on that car trip from crying so much. If I had quieter kitties, though, it wouldn't worry me to take them in the cabin. It's stressful but it's faster than driving if you're going a really long distance.

[vwinkel]

When MIL watched DH's cats for a couple months, she had to drive them 6 hours and they are horrible in their carriers. Our vet gave us a valium like pill and we gave them each a half. They still yowled at times, but were much better than she expected. Nightmare was out of it though for much longer than Kenny (maybe it's relative to size).

Just wanted to say good luck and talk to your vet to prescribe something.

[newsjunkie]

I brought my cat Simba along with me when he was just a kitten. I flew with Delta and had to make a reservation for him. ($75 EACH WAY) I used a soft sided carrier that kind of looked like an oversize purse (made for cats, of course). Very cute and most people didn't even realize there was a cat in there. On the advice of my vet I gave him a sedative when we left for the airport. He was sleepy but just fine. It was really fun traveling with him but now that he is bigger and bolder it might not be as fun! ;)

[tlew12778]

What's scary about the valium? Do they froth at the mouth or something? Sort of. They try to spit it out so they salivate. We're not used to seeing that so it's scary. They also stumble when they start to go to sleep bc they are disoriented and don't understand what is happening.

The pill that a PP is referring to is acepromazine I think. I asked our vet about it but he says he only gives it to his patients before starting an operation. It makes it easier to IV them or something. He said for long rides he doesn't recommend it bc the animal is still sort of conscious and it still scared but it just can't move or make sounds bc it's sedated. That's why he gave us the valium.

ETA: I also asked about flying with them and he flat out said he wouldn't sedate them bc of the risks. I think I read that altitude can increase the effect of the sedative.

[fuzzy]

Sort of. They try to spit it out so they salivate. We're not used to seeing that so it's scary.

And that's why they invented pill shooters! :) Mine salivated at the benadryl too. BUt the pill shooters pops it down their throat so they won't get all slimy and stuff.

[amy_awesome]

Thanks again, everyone! I'm starting to feel a tiny bit better about it. The thing that worries me the most is that she'll cry the whole time she's in her carrier. That's a lot of crying, and I start to feel awful for her pretty quickly. We do have a kitty harness and leash (from my ill-fated attempt to make her a limited-outdoor cat...talk about disastrous!), so I hope that I'll be able to take her out of her carrier when we're in the airport waiting to board. That'll at least keep her from crying so much for so long.

Poor kitty, she is going to be mad at us for weeks, I'm just sure of it.

[maxandmolly]

I will say, as horrible-sounding as my trip on the plane with Molly was, the four days in the un a/c'ed car with both cats in carriers was MUCH MUCH MUCH worse. The vet wouldn't give me anything to sedate them-said they wouldn't care for themselves properly-so Molly literally howled the whole freaking way from San Francisco to south FL. She rubbed her nose against the cage bars so desperately and so much that she rubbed all the fur off it.
And the not careing themselves-she said they wouldn't eat, drink, use their litter boxes, etc. Well, I never got them to do that anyway. I tried to force water down their throats with a straw the first day because they were both panting, but after that they fought me much too much, and I was far too exhausted from driving, so I would bring them into the room, set the stuff out, and sleep, hoping they would eat or drink at least a little.

[MLA]

When my DH and I moved from LA to NC, we flew both of our cats out as carry-on luggage (no cargo-hold for our boys!). We sedated them, and I'm really glad we did. The flight was so long, and it's really cramped under the seats in planes. I think it was good for them to be a bit "out of it."

I say you should take your cat to the vet to get a prescription. You have to get a health certificate from the vet, anyway, to fly with your cat, so you can just include talking about sedation on that visit. Also, I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet, but you need to let the airline know that you're planning to bring your kitty on board with you. Some airlines don't allow for pets at all (Southwest, for instance), and all the others limit how many pets are allowed in the cabin. Additionally, there's a fee you have to pay to bring your pet on board the plane.

OT, LOVE your avatar! ;)