travel sick puppy HELP !!

[Angela Clarke]

Hi folks,

Elsa now nearly 4 months ( tomorrow ) she has been car sick from the day we collected her, when I say sick I mean SICK. We live 12 minutes from the vets every time I have taken her we both arrive very smelly. I dont feed her before we travel ( as she is on 4 meals a day it is hard to find a time when she is empty }. Last Sunday I wanted to go to the Suffork show, only about 40 minutes away, took her meal with us to give her when we arrived, 5 minutes down the road we were all covered, that is 1 crate, 3 dogs, back windows, seats, my head and a little on the roof. We turned around and came home, spent the day cleaning dogs and car, relaxing Sunday <:0) any ideas ?
 

[Christine Pullen]

Hi Angela,

i have great sympathy, I also have a four month old...we live two mins drive from the park and he throws up just as your puppy does...i had a look on the internet and found something called sturgeron and then talked to my breeder and she uses it too as she kept a couple from the litter and is having similar problems........it works!!!! half a tablet about 1 1/4-2hrs before travelling..we still get the drooling but so much better!!! Use it for every journey. I know there are other more natural things you can try, and i know they will probably grow out of it but for now and everyone's sanity I am sticking to this...good luck!!!

[Torie Lancaster]

Sealegs which can be bought from Boots is good for car sickness. It is obviously meant for humans but works well at a low dose for pups too. Half a tablet about I hour before travelling.

I always let puppies travel in the footwell of the car, supervised of course, (I put old towels down on the floor) failing that, cover the crate so she can't see out of the windows.

[Sharyn Latchford]

Do you have gingernut biscuits over your way.......give puppy some about 15 minutes before you leave.....I think its the ginger and its suppose to help settle the tummy.....also have heard a little honey in water can also help...try both and hopefully one will work on Elsa.

Good luck ..most usually grow out of this...;-))

Sharyn

[Fran Griffin]

That's a shame about Sealegs  I wonder why they are not doing them anymore :-(  I found Stugeron worked if you gave them hours before a journey,.  DaisyMae was a real upchucker. If I gave her Stugeron, she would upchuck on the way out, but was fine on the return journey hours later.  The patten became consistent so I started giving her the tablet about 3 hours in advance, that's the only way I could get it to work :-./

[Christine Pullen]

mmm...we have to give the sturgeron 1 1/2 - 2 hrs before a journey so that it works too, after a walk of 20 mins and back in the car it was still ok but no more than that

[Angela Clarke]

Thank you all for your advice, I didnt know this was so common, this is the first dog I have had with travel sickness. I have read about the ginger biscuit before in one of my books I will give that a try. Niether of the two chemists have sealegs in stock, and chemist net say the manufactures cannt supply. I`ll have to try sturgeron or we will never go to the beach and this is where my other dogs love to be. thanks again <:0)

[sue morgan]

If you know any one travelling via Holland ask them to get you some Prima Tour,  half a tablet  1 hour before travelling, this is very similar to Stugeron ,but is longer lasting, this may be the one Sue Humphreys   is thinking of ,I have used it for many years and  YES it works

[Garrech and Canagan]

Yes it doesn't look like Sealegs is being sold anymore. We use Traveleeze, a pastile that has the same constituent Meclozine Hydrochoride and is available from Boots. It works for Clyde (now 2yrs old) who has suffered Travel Sickness from day 1. It reduces the drooling and provided he isn't fed any form of biscuit before travelling stops all the sickness. His problem starts because he is afraid of the car making him sick. Once he has got used to the idea of not being sick his stress levels reduce and car journeys become more tolerable for him and us! No way about it, it's the stress from the fear of the car and resulting sickness that causes the problems!

I'm not keen on using any form of medication for the problem routinely and are presently trying some herbal remedies but it is too early to say whether they are effective. So we only use the Traveleeze on a must do journey but it does work well.

[Barbara]

Hi Angela! For my Girl helped the DAP Spray http://www.adaptil.co.uk/ Because she has to travel every day with my to the office, I don´t want to give her drugs. So may be its worth a try for Elsa. Good Luck!

[Eunice Marott]

Our last setter was the same nothing worked
Try shorts trips and increase over time also position in the car good luck

[Finding_Beau]

Hi Angela

2 of my English Setters have suffered car sickness. The 1st was Beau. He was  4 months old when I purchased him from inter-state. He coped with the air flight but he used to vomit on car rides. Initially I sat in the back of the car with Beau to show him that he was safe. I left the back door open (I have a 5 door 4WD wagon) so that Beau could jump out of the car if he chose. I praised him for staying beside me in the car. When I felt he could cope with this, I then drove the car for several minutes on my acreage property, not long enough for Beau to be sick. When I stopped the car and opened the back door, if Beau jumped out, I crawled into the car and called him back in. Because of the previous training, Beau would immediately jump back inside the car and sit beside me. I praised him. Then I progressed to longer rides on the property and then outside the property (without climbing in the back of the car). I gave Rescue Remedy to Beau sometimes. I did not give him drugs. 

My 2nd English Setter to suffer car sickness was Annie but this was a completely different scenario. Annie had been sent away from the litter too early, grossly malnourished only weighing 3.5kg, by her breeder. Annie had not been socialised in any way. Annie suffered major trauma from the travel. Initially even placing Annie inside a car caused her to cry and empty her bowels and bladder. Because it was necessary for me to take Annie to my vet on a weekly basis, and his practice is approx. 50 minutes drive away, Annie also vomited on these rides. Initially I placed Annie on my lap inside the car so that she knew this could be a safe place. Then .. this might not be possible with all puppies because Annie was abnormally small e.g. at 12 weeks of age she could fit inside a plastic container 12 inches L x 9 inches W. Annie was much smaller when she was 8 weeks old ..  I made a bed for Annie in the front of the car on the passenger’s side. I placed a blanket, flannette sheets, and towels on the floor which reached almost to the top of the front seat so that Annie would not feel the movement of the car as much, and so that Annie was with Hobson and I in the front of the car. (Hobson sits on the passenger seat beside me). Then I did the same as I did with Beau. Annie was making great progress until she died at only 13 weeks of age.

Angela, you will be able to fix this problem with Elsa.

[Peter Hiscock]

Hmm, I can't help you really but I will keep an eye on this thread. We picked up Charlie yesterday and almost as soon as we started moving he started to dribble, and within 10 minutes he was sick. He was sick twice more in the 80-90 mins it took us to get home. We did have a number of towels with us so not too much mess but there cannot have been anything left inside Charlie. He did enjoy his dinner though within 30 minutes of arriving in his new home. Our old boy used to get a bit dribbly in the car while a youngster but he seemed to grow out of it pretty quickly. We did start to take him to some nice places (local park etc.) as soon as we could. After all first two trips were 1. away from everything he ever knew 2. vet where he was prodded and poked so trip 3 was a nice place and only 5 mins down the road. Good luck with Elsa xXx