Hi,
I'm going to be relocating some time in the next couple of months and my cat will be going on her longest journey ever - around 3 hours if the M25 is behaving itself, who know how much longer if it isn't!
Her longest trips so far have been to the vets or the cattery and she doesn't half make a din...the last journey was about 20 minutes and by the end of it I finally understood what caterwauling was!
Does anyone have any hints and tips on how I can make the journey as easy and stress free as possible for the both of us? I've read that sedation isn't advisable as you need to be able to tell whether the cat becomes ill through distress. I've also seen some suggestions for using Feliway spray on a towel in the carrier and I wondered if anyone had any experience of that. I've also read that you should give your cat a catnip toy in the carrier to calm them but since catnip usually sends her soporific for a little while and then hurtling around the house like a whirling dervish, I don't think that's really advisable!
The one thing I can do is fill the car and her basket with Reiki and hope that helps calm her.
Has anyone got any experience in this that they can share?
Thanks muchly!
I've moved around the country lots of times with various moggy friends - once by train after the car broke down on the M6 (on my way from Portsmouth to Edinburgh!) 😮 2 cats in one basket. Lots of interest from elderly lady travellers in the same carriage - until they attempted to chat through the bars and ended up with frayed and bleeding fingers - I did warn them!!!
I have always had good vet care, and each time we had to do a long move, we were given a low dose sedative to give them a couple of hours before setting off. It generally keeps them calm for about 5 hours, then starts to wear off. After 6 hours I generally turn the radio up so I can't hear them wailing!!!
Chat to your vet - if this is going to be a one-off long distance trip, then he/she may recommend a low dose sedative to help. I don't think I would ever try catnip - it drives mine demented. Feliway might work - have you tried it in the house at all? Neither of my two have benefitted from it, but my daughters cat seemed to react to it when she plugged it in over New Year and Nov 5th - it is petrified of fireworks.
In the old days, oOn the morning of a long journey I gave them a small amount of food with the pill minced in it, then shut them in a room with the litter tray so that they would do what they needed to do (well - you just have to hope!!!). No water - I didn't even attempt to put water in the carrier except on one journey during July, and even then, they weren't interested - I put water on my hand and soaked their front legs so they had to lick it off - which seemed to work. I did put a dish of water in the carrier if we stopped at a services for a break, but was never sure that they drank it.
On one of our long journeys (probably Edinburgh to Portsmouth - we moved up and down like yoyos!) (14 moves over 25 years!) I also had two small kids in the back of the car and 6 goldfish in a bucket on the passenger seat - the two cats were in baskets right at the back. I had to make a couple of stops due to one cat deciding to empty its bowels just north of Tebay services (longest 10 miles of my life!!) and then it threw up near the M5 interchange! Oh the joys! However, the singing being generated by the kids drowned out the yowling. I wonder to this day how my husband got away with taking the other car so that he could get to our new married quarter (Navy wife) ahead of us to do the march-in....... he took the suitcases and plantlife!
I've made a 4and a half hour journey with 3 cats (all shouters) and a car sick whippet pup. Madness I tell you.
I used the feliway spray on their bedding and tried to convince them the carriers were safe beds for them before. I like the feliway spray.
They yelled for an hour and then I got intermittent meow's for the rest of the journey. I stopped twice to give them some quiet for 10-15 mins.
One of my cats had been on a long journey once before and I found stopping a couple of times, letting her out of her carrier to stretch her legs and give her some water seemed to help convince her the carrier was only temporary. I locked myself in the car while she was free and put her back in the carrier before any doors were opened to ensure she couldn't escape.
I think ignoring the yelling is probably the best thing, put some music on that you play around the house and sing along and keep the car cool so they don't get overly hot.
Good luck!