10 hour road trip next to a cat?
I am going away to a relative's house in a few weeks, and would like to know whether my cat will be OK if he comes.
It is a 10 hour drive, and we will be taking it at night.
He is a mellow, laid back cat (and said relatives don't hold any pets).
How should I handle his eating/drinking/litterboxing needs?
Thanks in finance. =)
gross your cat feel comfortable with a favorite toy in the shut within.
don't put food in the carrier it could spill or your cat could poop or pee on it (not good). and check with your vet just about medicine. my cat has behavior problems and he takes something resembling a liquid form of Prozac for cats. its just something you rub on his ear and it will relax and relieve some of the anxiety of entering a new environment and traveling for that long. its single about 20 dollars. its easy and well worth the money. correct luck!
If I did that beside my one cat, it would be a living nightmare! 10 hours is such a long time. He'll probably pee in your car. I took my cat on a two hour drive somewhere and it peed in the haulier. I think he was just so anxious. My sports car reeked for a long time because of it. I strongly recommend leaving your cat behind, any board him or have someone occasionally stop by to feed, change litter and pet the cat. How long will you be gone. If it's a week or smaller number, he'll be perfectly fine without you. If it were a dog, you'd markedly have to take him with you or board him. The ultimate time I was gone, I found a place to board him and he was perfectly fine. Good luck.
Go to the vet and get a tranquilizer for him. The vet will give you advice whether you don't want him knocked out.
get tape,tape the food bowl to floor so wont move indistinguishable for water and dont go to fast it will freak the cat out
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Answers: Hmmmm, I would be wary of taking him. Firstly there's the journey - my suggestion would be to put him in a cat mover, and cover the carrier with a towel so that he can't see out - it's more calming to them. Obviously whether it's at night this will help too, but it will calm him more vigorously if a towel is used from the outset. You may think about getting some Feliway spray too - 10 hours is a VERY long time for a cat to be stuck contained by something it's scared of (very few cats enjoy being contained by a car for longer than 5 minutes).
But you should also be very wary of have him in a location that's foreign to him. It's likely to be very thorny for him - a place he doesn't know, people he doesn't know (or know well), etc. Cats have been set to leave places they don't know, to try to get home. So he could okay wander off and you could lose him. I hate to terror monger unnecessarily, but this would be a common cat behaviour. Is there no bearing that you could leave him behind for a few days, in his everyday environment? I have a timed feeder that has an ice-box clipped on underneath. I recently disappeared my two alone for the weekend using this, and they were totally fine. They had their food, plenty of water and biscuits and be happy at home until i got rear legs. Can a neighbour not look after him?
If you do decide to go, you'll need to steal everything with you, obviously. But cats get stressed within cars so he probably won't eat or drink anything, or use the toilet for the whole 10 hours :-( Honestly, I would find alternative arrangements for him if you can.
