Tips For A Carsick Puppy

[Simply Grand]

Yesterday I brought home an 8 week old puppy to foster for a few weeks while she has some medical treatment. I took her back into work today to play with her siblings then home again this evening. One each car trip (25-30mins) the poor little thing was carsick She drooled up a storm and lay there looking pretty miserable, and when she had food in her belly she threw it up.

Any tips to help her not feel so yucky?

And is it something puppies tend to grow out of? She hadn't been in a car before yesterday.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Simply Grand

[LisaCC]

Yesterday I brought home an 8 week old puppy to foster for a few weeks while she has some medical treatment. I took her back into work today to play with her siblings then home again this evening. One each car trip (25-30mins) the poor little thing was carsick She drooled up a storm and lay there looking pretty miserable, and when she had food in her belly she threw it up.

Any tips to help her not feel so yucky?

And is it something puppies tend to grow out of? She hadn't been in a car before yesterday.

I've heard getting one of those elevated car seats so that they can see out the window helps.

[VizslaMomma]

Yesterday I brought home an 8 week old puppy to foster for a few weeks while she has some medical treatment.

Any tips to help her not feel so yucky?

And is it something puppies tend to grow out of? She hadn't been in a car before yesterday.

Puppies can grow out of car sickness.

Is the wee girl on medication? Could that be having an influence on her being car sick?

Might sound strange. I have to check the tyre pressure of the Ford. If the pressures are down, one Vizsla can be sick.

[Staffyluv]

Poor baby..

I have no advice at all because I have tried so many things for Zig but once we hit that half hour mark, he starts drooling and you can see that he is really sick.

However, if I stop and let him out of the car for a few minutes and then go again, he seems fine - until half an hour again..

[Pretty Miss Emma]

I have heard that giving them ginger can help, just as it does for humans with the same issue. Gingernut biscuits or gingerbread (obviously an appropriate biscuit size for a puppy!). But I do know of some puppies that had to be medicated to travel in the car while young as they were so violently sick, not sure if they grew out of it as I didn't see them as adults.

[Simply Grand]

Thanks everyone! I do have one of those booster baskets from when Saxon was little, she'll fit in it for about 5 minutes so ill give it a try.

She's only on antibiotics so I wouldn't have thought they'd contribute but maybe? I got 4 new tyres not long ago but I'll check the pressure (probably worth doing anyway!)

It seems to start about 10 mins in, first she whinges at me from the back seat then goes quiet, at first I thought she'd just settled then looked back and realised no, poor bub was sick.

I'd heard of ginger too and I'm sure she wouldn't say no to a ginger bicky, I'll try it!

[wuffles]

Epic used to get car sick. A few things that helped us... having another calm dog in the car with him. Driving like a granny (as sharp turns/roundabouts seemed to set him off). ALWAYS having fresh air even if it's super hot or cold, I always had the back windows down...

Edit: He still hates the car, and looks quite ill at the end of a trip, but we managed to get up to Brisbane and back in the car with only one spew.

Edited February 8, 2014 by wuffles

[JRG]

I agree with Wuffles re having another dog in the car - that is the only thing that stops one of my girls from throwing up. She still looks miserable and drools but doesn't vomit.

She has been like it all her life and she is now 6 years old!

[Yonjuro]

I wonder if a thundershirt would help?

[Simply Grand]

Hmm, I wondered about the windows being open, I have had them open at the start of each drive because it's been so hot, then closed them once the air on has cooled down the car. I'll try leaving windows open and taking her for a drive with one or another of my dogs.

I don't know about a Thundershirt, she's shown herself to be pretty confident in general so I don't think it's an anxiety/nervous response, other than maybe the fact that the car is brand new. I'll see how she goes :)

[luvsdogs]

I have 2 Japanese Spitz that suffered the same fate. Panda was fine in the car until he reached 6 mths then started to drool. I tried dap spray in the car & a thundershirt but nothing worked. Being a long coated dog the only thing I could do was put a bib on him. I made them out of heavy duty paper towel. He still drooled but at least he was reasonably dry. I then became ill & oh used to take him & my BC to the station to drop my son off. After a few weeks of that the drooling stopped.

Then I got Laci. We had one trip to the Central Coast about a 1hr & a quarter drive there & back & she was ok. But from then on she started vomiting & drooling in the car. Didn't matter if it was 5 minutes or 45 minutes. She would drool. She only vomited if she was fed the day of the trip, so it was starve her before going on a trip. Then a fortnight ago she went with her breeder to Brisbane for a show. Vomited & drooled at first but was ok after a while. She may have been given ginger tablets.

This weekend we've taken her to shows in Armidale. She drooled to the 1st stop about an hour from home but was ok for the rest of the trip. I had been told to give them a junket tablet by a friend before travelling but that did no good.

[JessicaM]

When I first got my pap she was TERRIBLE for car sickness, I didn't feed her in the mornings for early dog shows. Over a period of 3 months I drove her on short trips to the beach and up to my mums and she eventually grew out of it. I had the window down for her and kept her in a dog crate and sometimes on the seat next to me

[tdierikx]

Don't feed the pup before any car trip... unless you like cleaning up solids... ewww!

A collar with a small drop of peppermint oil on it has worked pretty well for me in the past. Make sure that the oil has dried before putting the collar on.

Windows open for air flow - if only for dissipating any smells if they do end up being sick - does seem to make the symptoms less.

T.

[Starkehre]

The first thing to do is to ascertain if the pup is sick through anxiety and fear or purely and simply motion, because treatments are totally different.

Your description of the 10 minutes etc is copy book.

And if it is purely motion generated nausea, if it can't be stopped fairly quickly pup will end up with both causes because the anxiety with follow.

I had one that was car sick til 8 months old, the just stopped. I believe it started with plain old motion sickness and then anxiety based nausea developed as explained above through pup associating the motion sickness with the car travel.

Not fun for poor babies.

For me I think super exciting destinations ended up helping a lot, but being a foster I understand limitations.

I found no treatment worked for us, except maybe to some degree the hood we bought, but it takes a lot of training to get them to wear them happily. I tried anti nausea drugs, ginger, homeopathic remedies, not feeding. covering in crate, front seat, window open, air cond on... didn't matter what we did. She just had to grow out of it and consider car trips fun. she rarely vomited in the float and drugs did help with this one.

another funny thing was that many of the pups in this litter was the same, so I also believe there may have been a genetic component. They were not weak nerved, timid puppies.

Oh, one tip that is a sure fire way to make them vomit, driving in reverse, even for small distances like for parking, particularly if you have already been driving. try and avoid revers or get puppy our first. We could get to the point where we would make an entire trip (say 20 mins) without vomiting, then as soon as we reversed for 2 metres into a car park she would vomit.

Good luck.

[Wundahoo]

Have had LOTS of experience with this !!

I have one dog who is now nearly 8 years old and still gets terribly travel sick no matter what we have tried for him.

I now reluctantly take him by car only if it's absolutely necessary, or if the journey is less that 10 minutes.

He is a rescue who came to me almost 3 years ago and the poor dog had rarely ever been in a car..... just left, neglected, in a back yard for 5 years.

Things that I've found can help with some dogs......

Empty stomach.

Travel-calm ginger tablet half hour before leaving.

Front seat.

Aircon or fan running.

Air vents closed so no road fumes into car.

Loud music.

Smooth road.

Short trips.

If a passenger is in the vehicle, wrap the puppy tightly in a large towel (a bit like the thundershirt principle) and sit it on the lap of the front seat passenger. Allow the pup to snuggle its head under the arm of the passenger. DO NOT DISTURB once it has assumed this position.

I have also tried to desensitise puppies to travel stress by simply putting them in the car and driving a short distance. I have a long driveway and at first it was just to the end of the drive and back again. I would do this three or four times a day and then after a week, increase the distance. It seemed to help some dogs.

Someimes its just a matter of a tincture of time and they seem to grow out of the problem........ sometimes they never do.

Good luck !!

[Simply Grand]

Thanks for the great advice everyone! I'll try all the options and hopefully find one/some that work for her. I certainly don't want to set her up for anxious car travel for her eventual owners.

Dyz, like yours she and her siblings are not nervy at all and she's been very confident in the other aspects of coming to my house and dealing with my dogs etc. I can find out how her siblings have gone on car rides.

I'm glad you mentioned the reversing thing, I normally reverse out of the driveway so she would have started very trip backwards! I'll turn the car around before I put her in now.

I'll keep everyone posted on how we go :)

[Starkehre]

Thanks for the great advice everyone! I'll try all the options and hopefully find one/some that work for her. I certainly don't want to set her up for anxious car travel for her eventual owners.

Dyz, like yours she and her siblings are not nervy at all and she's been very confident in the other aspects of coming to my house and dealing with my dogs etc. I can find out how her siblings have gone on car rides.

I'm glad you mentioned the reversing thing, I normally reverse out of the driveway so she would have started very trip backwards! I'll turn the car around before I put her in now.

I'll keep everyone posted on how we go :)

Welcome SG. :) Might just take some time then. Good luck

And I think with the reversing thing, it is just the motion of going from one direction, to the other, you know that gut in mouth moment.

[wuffles]

I believe Epic's siblings also got carsick but have grown out of it like him. Apparently it seems to affect some litters. His litter is definitely NOT weak nerved at all, so I'm not sure what's behind it.

[16Paws]

Not a cure but a tip - we keep a roll of paper towel and a couple of rubbish bags in the car as well as using vet pads (like puppy pee pads) on long trips to help keep him and the car clean.

[Scottsmum]

Have had LOTS of experience with this !!

I have one dog who is now nearly 8 years old and still gets terribly travel sick no matter what we have tried for him.

I now reluctantly take him by car only if it's absolutely necessary, or if the journey is less that 10 minutes.

He is a rescue who came to me almost 3 years ago and the poor dog had rarely ever been in a car..... just left, neglected, in a back yard for 5 years.

Things that I've found can help with some dogs......

Empty stomach.

Travel-calm ginger tablet half hour before leaving.

...

Is this safe? Does it work? What dose would you give a 10 kilo dog?

Someone else mentioned peppermint oil on the collar - same thing? How does that work? Is it worth a shot?

Scottie has terrible car sickness. I'm 100% certain it's motion sickness. He's usually sick within 5 minutes however, on the weekend he made it all the way from Woy Woy to home (Marrickville area before he chucked as we turned into our street (3 round a bouts, 2 chiccanes and 2 or 3 corners in 5km).

I've tried a few things (fed, not fed at all - that was truly worse then when he's fed, fed hours before) but he's a pretty reliable chucker. Poor boy gets in the car, drops and looks like he's praying for it to be over. I try to not drive him too far but its the only way I can get him to obedience so ... its a split between basically his only unnecessary car trip and no obedience.