help for older cat traveling?

[brandy]

hiya guys,
we are moving on tues. and its a 500 mile drive over two days.
peach is now 12 years old and she is going in a carrier in the car.
I dont want to give her a sedative as im afraid it could do more harm than good.
does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on ways to keep her calm and happy?
im not going to be letting her out of her crate before we get to stirling, as im not risking loosing her or worse!
so any helpful ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[Sinclair72]

The vets can give u a spray which will help prevent her getting stressed and you can also pills to do the same and neither are sedatives. The pills needs to start being used 5 days before traveling as thy build up in the system to get the full effect. Hope this helps.

[therealducati]

Hi
Both Pet Remedy (based on valerian, which affects sensors in the brain and has a pleasant herbal smell) and Feliway (which mimics the scent marking cats use to feel safe-smells very faintly of yeast to me) can help. Feliway is available as a spray which is ideal for travelling, and although Pet Remedy is only available as a plug in (might be useful once you arrive) it comes with a wee card that you can dot the scent onto for travelling. You can also use Zylkene, which is a capsule derived from casein (milk protein) and is supposed to work by recreating the safe sensations of suckling. It is a food supplement not a sedative, but you may need to feed it daily for a while before you see any difference. If you have time buy them all from the internet as it is much cheaper than the vet.
Hope this helps. I moved 10 cats (and 2 dogs) up to Caithness five years ago, when none of these things were available, but find them all very useful now even for the short trip to the vets.
I find that my cats are happier in a small puppy crate, where they can have a litter tray, than in a cat carrier. Some prefer to see the world go by and others prefer to be covered up- I’m sure you know your cat well enough to decide which is better for her.
Good luck with the flit, Stirlingshire is a lovely part of the world.

[brandy]

thanks guys, will look into the plug in for when we are in our new house! we are over night in stirling before driving to just outside warrington! poor cat! but just went and got a litter tray for her, and bowls for the crate for when we do our two hour stops for me and the kids! so she will be given food and water then.. and i think we are going to cover her, as she stresses just going to the vet in her carrier! have just bought some calming tablets for her food over the next few days.. and fingers crossed that will help!