How Can I Prevent Carsickness?
What is the best way to treat car sickness for dogs? We’re planning a cross country trip with our newly adopted Border Collie. He is not car saavy, and we’re trying to get him used to riding.
He’s getting better, but I don’t want him to be sick on our trip. Any ideas?
Karla
Los Angeles, CA
Carsickness is quite common in puppies, cats, and kittens. Some adult dogs also suffer from the syndrome.
In my experience, carsickness has two root causes. One is anxiety. Puppies who are not yet habituated to car travel often throw up or have diarrhea (or, best of all worlds, both) when they travel in vehicles. Cats and kittens are naturally agoraphobic and often become nervous whenever they are away from home.
True motion sickness also contributes to carsickness in pets.
It sounds like you are already working on my number one recommendation: get your pet used to the car. One patient of mine would throw up as soon as the car was started. His owners beat the problem by keeping him in the car for thirty minutes each day (naturally, they used common sense–the car was not parked in the sun!) without starting the engine. They gradually worked through starting (and immediately stopping) the engine, to backing out of the driveway and stopping, to going around the block, to going to the park, to driving across the country.
Pets that suffer from refractory carsickness may benefit from medications to prevent the syndrome. Cerenia is an anti-nausea medicine that is labeled for preventing carsickness in dogs. Diazepam (Valium) and dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) also may be effective in some individuals. Medicines should be used only under the direction of a veterinarian. They also should be used only as a last resort, after habituation has failed.
For more information on carsickness, go to my website:
http://drbarchas.com/carsickness
Photo: Buster’s only complaint is that he never gets to drive.
You have questions. 
Princess has had motion sickness from the day I rescued her. At first I thought it was all from anxiety, I am sure that anxiety still does play a part in it, since she gets so excited because she knows we are going to the doggie park.
I too sat in the car and went very slow with trying to get her use to it. I even withheld her feeding until we would come home.
Finally, after going through the constant cleaning up the car routine for months on end…I called her vet. At first he told me to give her 50mg of Dramamine. He said he was reading it right out of his medical book for her weight of 18 pounds.
It was then, when I told him that I also have an equilibration problem and I only take 25mg of Dramamine. It does not stop the dizziness but it does stop the nausea. He said since that’s the case, he is going to research the dosage more and doesn’t understand why his medical book would give such a large dosage to a small dog.
So with that, i did my own experiment and bought the non-drowsy formula and only give her HALF of a 25mg tablet, an hour before we go in the car.
It works every time. I still hold off on the feeding until we come home. She still acts normal, and the non-drowsy formula does not make her feel like she is drugged.
My mom gives me a scoop of vanilla ice cream before I get in the car…since she has been doing this…I no longer get sick!!!