Thursday, July 30, 2009

what can you do to prevent car sickness with my little dog?

have him for an year now everytime i take him for a ride he gets sick vomitting,drools and sometimes have an bowel movement even when i don't feed him before we leave we stop for breaks so he can use the bathroom but still gets sick what can i do to help him
Answers:
Our beagle is the same way. After talking to our vet here's what has worked so far. There's a product called Pet Calm or different variations of it. We give it to her about 45 min before we leave. Also, have found that the lower to the ground in the car, the better she is. Like if it's a quick trip if she lays down by the passenger's feet in the front or the back (the front you can turn the fan on to keep her cool). It's the motion that was making her sick, if she can't see out the windows she seems to be better. If the ride is going to be longer we give her a Dramamine for dogs. Depending on the size of the dog I would talk to you vet about how much to give. This hasn't stopped the drooling, but the more we take her for rides the less nervous she's been getting. Then just in case we've got paper towels in the trunk. :) Good Luck!
Try what you do with people, Dramamine. It'll work. Ask your vet what the dosage should be. My dog is a large one, a Newfoundland, so he took one pill, but a smaller dog would take less.

Also, try giving the dog something in the stomach (a couple of dog cookies) before you go. It'll help keep the stomach calm.
I have a blue healer dog that is just like that. She is almost a year and she hasn't got any better since the first time I took her somewhere. The vet told me to take her on small rides at a time, but it still didn't work. Then they told me to give her childrens benadryl or dramamine, and neither of those worked either. I think some dogs, like humans, will always just get car sick.
Depending on the size of the dog, the dose varies. But over the counter medicine for motion sickness in people works pretty good and will make the poor animal more comfortable and you too. The dose varies actually according weight, but ask your vet over the phone how much dramamine to give the dog. You can buy it at any pharmacy. And he shouldn't charge you for just giving you the correct dose over the phone. Good Luck!!
If you don't want to use drugs on your dog, you can try giving him Bach's Flower Essences, Rescue Remedy. It's an all natural product with no side effects (I use it for my greyhound who's afraid of thunder because I don't like using the tranquilizers). My greyhound gets 4 drops, so your small dog would get only 1 or 2. It takes about 20 minutes to take effect so you do need to give it to him a bit ahead of time. It won't leave him dopy, but will relax him. You'll be able to get it at some drugstores, health food stores or from a holistic vet.

What I also did when I had a dog who got car sick, was make sure the dog can see where he's going - it often helps if they can look out the window. Also, take him for VERY short trips, get out and give him a short walk, get back in for a short drive, etc. It may help him to go for short trips only with something fun at the end. Try giving him something to relax him before you go the first several times, and hopefully he'll get over it.

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