Moving with a cat

Ormuss

I'm curious if anyone has some tips for me in this situation.

I will be moving to a new city in the next couple weeks, which will be a roughly 9-10 hour drive. I'll be taking my cat with me on this drive. I'm wondering if anyone would like to share any recommendations on how to make this trip as easy as possible for the cat (and me too, I suppose).

So far, a combination of common sense, internet perusing, and speaking with a vet has me thinking it's a reasonably simple matter of stopping periodically and letting her out of her carrier to stretch her legs in the car, use the litterbox, and have some water. So is there anything else I should be doing or planning?

Thanks in advance!

Esh

Ormuss wrote:

I'm curious if anyone has some tips for me in this situation.

I will be moving to a new city in the next couple weeks, which will be a roughly 9-10 hour drive. I'll be taking my cat with me on this drive. I'm wondering if anyone would like to share any recommendations on how to make this trip as easy as possible for the cat (and me too, I suppose).

So far, a combination of common sense, internet perusing, and speaking with a vet has me thinking it's a reasonably simple matter of stopping periodically and letting her out of her carrier to stretch her legs in the car, use the litterbox, and have some water. So is there anything else I should be doing or planning?

Thanks in advance!

I moved cross-country via plane and my cat was in his carrier (a small under-the-seat one) without being able to get out for about 12 hours. He was totally fine. 9-10 hours is not a long stretch without food or water for a cat. I wouldn't worry about it. How does it normally get on in its carrier and in a car? If you really feel the need to let it out for a stretch, once would be more than enough. I absolutely do not recommend dosing that cat with anything though. That's only for extreme circumstances. Also, be prepared for the fun time trying to get the cat back into the carrier once you've unleashed it in the car and under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you let it out of the car to stretch its legs.

Void Slayer

Depending on where you will be having her do those things, you may want to invest in a cat leash.

Also cats are good about food and water generally, but if they are unused to an area for a litter box they may not use it. Don't expect her be comfortable going in a strange place even if she is moved around a lot.

Water and food are most important, unless your cat is incontinent it should be able to hold it in for 10 hours.

Also as general travel tips try to plot several places to stop on the way, get a map of national parks and rest stops highlighted on the roads you are planning to use so you don't have to rely on hoping one is around the next corner while your cat is going crazy for some reason.

Straygatsby

We used a large cage (small dog kennel sort) in the back seat for our cross country drive. It fit a very small litter box and a bowl of food with enough room for a small cat bed. Our guy slept or looked out the window 12 hours a day with zero issues.

zepherin

Relevant advice, my brother uses kitty drugs for his cat, the link here is probably better for the cat.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6241172_sedate-cat-travel.html


as always you know your cat better than we do, so you'll know better than us if something will work or won't.

Gilbert0

Again a small carrier is fine. Drove 16 hours over 2 days (12 the first, 4-5 the second) with the cat in a carrier in the front cab of a uHaul. Complains for the first half hour (of both days) and then sleeps, cleans, chills out.

Only advice is to have food/water dish and a litter box near the "top" of whatever your traveling in. First thing you do is let the cat out, let it eat, drink and pee/poop and it'll be fine.

Esh

zepherin wrote:

Relevant advice, my brother uses kitty drugs for his cat, the link here is probably better for the cat.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6241172_sedate-cat-travel.html


as always you know your cat better than we do, so you'll know better than us if something will work or won't.

You should only use cat drugs if your cat can absolutely not handle travel in a carrier. They're completely unnecessary in most cases and can cause some weird reactions. If you have cats like mine, you won't have to worry. PICTURE TIME!

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3637/3520580911_94809881b6_z.jpg?zz=1

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5015/5548883695_6a87415752_b.jpg

Spurs

Try letting him chill on the passengr seat, I use to have a cat who would chill on the passenger seat when we would take him places in the car.

Dark Raven X

This is all down to your cat, but; when my family was travelling up and down the country over Xmas, they took the cat with em. 8 hour car rides, no breaks, she was fine with it.

She did not want to get in the carrier, but once she was in and the door closed, she chilled out, sphinxed up and slept the whole way.

I gotta second the "no cat drugs" - unless they're really agitated and hate being in a carrier, there's no good reason to.

Esh

Spurs wrote:

Try letting him chill on the passengr seat, I use to have a cat who would chill on the passenger seat when we would take him places in the car.

Until something spooks him and he dashes under the pedals or starts rebounding around the car like a super bouncy ball. Carrier. Don't take chances.

dispatch.o

Pick up the food and water a few hours before you leave, our vet said as early as the night before wouldn't cause any harm. Let the cat eat, drink, piss, and pick up food/water around midnight. Leave the litter out and they'll be all nice and empty for the drive, will probably howl like a banshee, but you should keep it in a cage. A cat diving under your brake pedal is not good times, and it diving out during a gas refill never to be seen again lost hundreds of miles from home is even worse.

Put it in a carrier or cage with 3 sides covered and a pillow, leave a towel or blanket draped over it with a little window and make sure it's getting some air flow but no direct sun and it'll just lay around the entire trip.

Do not be confused, it will hate you for a few days afterwards, it's the way cats function. It will store up all of the rage and anger over being imprisoned and after establishing the safety of the new environment your revenge will be slowly and patiently plotted.

mts

we drove across the country with our two cats and dog. we had a dog crate in the back with a litter box and any of the cat bowls. the cats were free roaming but mostly they slept on top of the crate and watched things happen. we had drugs, but only used them on one since he would keep trying to crawl under our feet while driving. the other we tried drugs, and he had a bad trip with it and ended up pooping in the car. he didn't get anymore drugs and was fine

The Crowing One

dispatch.o wrote:

Pick up the food and water a few hours before you leave, our vet said as early as the night before wouldn't cause any harm. Let the cat eat, drink, piss, and pick up food/water around midnight. Leave the litter out and they'll be all nice and empty for the drive, will probably howl like a banshee, but you should keep it in a cage. A cat diving under your brake pedal is not good times, and it diving out during a gas refill never to be seen again lost hundreds of miles from home is even worse.

Put it in a carrier or cage with 3 sides covered and a pillow, leave a towel or blanket draped over it with a little window and make sure it's getting some air flow but no direct sun and it'll just lay around the entire trip.

This is pretty much the concise way of putting it. Especially the advice of covering the cage if there's anxiety or worry. I'm actually moving with my kitteh on Wednesday and even though my new place is all of about five minutes away, because of logistics and my own, overdeveloped, sense of anxiety I know she'll spend at least a few+ hours in her carrier howling away and being upset that she doesn't have her freedom to nap anywhere she wants until I can ensure that the house is secure.

She'll be fine for the 12 or so hours it should take. To be safe, put down a puppy-pad or similar in case the cat decides to take a call of nature (rare) and make sure to cover the cage to provide a feeling of safety. Most cats should see it as a wonderful opportunity to be a cat and sleep excessively. A little dried food and water in the sealed, parked car could help 2-3 hours away from your final destination, but shouldn't be necessary.

ThreeCubed

I'm going to go ahead and recommended a soft carrier with mesh panels instead of bars. I moved my cat two hours, and by the end of the trip, he had rubbed his nose raw on the bars of the door.

Then again, he's brain damaged and is insensitive to all but the strongest pain, so he's been known to hurt himself because he doesn't receive pain signals correctly. But if you suspect that your guy might do similar because of anxiety, I recommend a soft sided carrier.

Other than that, like everyone is saying, I would think that a 10 hour drive with one or two stops wouldn't be too bad. I suggest to keep the cabin a little cooler than you might otherwise because the cat might get a bit heated from anxiety, and a cool temperature might alleviate some of the car sickness.

minirhyder

Will you be traveling alone or with someone?
My family and I took our cat for a 5+ hour ride and he just sat in people's laps the whole time and either chilled or slept.
Can't have him chilling out in the car without someone supervising him though.

ThreeCubed

minirhyder wrote: »

Will you be traveling alone or with someone?
My family and I took our cat for a 5+ hour ride and he just sat in people's laps the whole time and either chilled or slept.
Can't have him chilling out in the car without someone supervising him though.

If you go this route, stuff pillows under the seats. You can stop him from easily climbing over the seats towards the driver, nearly impossible to stop him from going under the seats towards the driver's feet.

I mean, I can't say that I haven't ridden around with my cat in my lap in the backseat, but I also can't say that it's the safest option.

Ormuss

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I feel more confident about this now.

She'll definitely be travelling in her carrier (a soft, mesh-y one). Truth be told, getting her back INTO said carrier after letting her out to jump around the car was a concern for me, but based on the recommendations I may forgo that entirely and let her nap the whole way through. As others recounted, I expect some mournful noises at first, but she's generally not too unhappy in cars. If I DO let her out, she'll be staying within the car, haha.

The idea of kitty drugs was something I came across initially, but quickly discounted it as unnecessary in her case at the very least.

Once again, thank you all!

The Crowing One

Ormuss wrote:

If I DO let her out, she'll be staying within the car, haha.

Just... just don't. The shock of being in a new home is enough, alone, for a cat to make the whole "you kept me in a confined, safe space for so long!" go by the wayside.

Keep her in her carrier and let her sleep. Letting her out will just make it more difficult. The cat will be fine, and you'll be better for not worrying. Let her out once or twice in the car, that's it. And that's if you have to.