Re: [A/S] Pet question

["Tuna" <rctowns@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom - Hunter has an RV Pets group over at RVPets@yahoogroups.com - you might
get more responses over there.

But as long as you're here -

 i've traveled with cats - off and on - for about 30 years... and, i've run
ocean/open water scuba charters on boats from 10' to 110' with thousands of
humans for some 20 years, and am fairly well-acquainted with
motion-sickness and remedies of all sorts.

First: the cause of 'motion-sickness' in cats/dogs/humans/etc. is virtually
the same for all  - it is precipitated by a kind of inability to reconcile
'input' from two sources: kinaesthetic, ('balance' - inner ear) and visual.
If your inner ear is telling you that you're moving, but your eyes tell you
you're not, it triggers a response-chain that's pretty hard to interrupt, so
it's important to prevent it from starting... having a (non-greasy) bite to
eat before setting out is a good idea, too... an 'empty stomach' seems to
make one more susceptible to motion-sickness.

On a boat, we usually tell people who've mentioned that they tend to get
'sea-sick' to eat a handful of saltines or goldfish crackers, and sit up
somewhere where they can keep an eye on the horizon.

When traveling with cats, i almost always have them ride up front -
un-crated - with me; and since they can look out the windows,
motion-sickness has never been a problem. BUT - whenever i've 'crated' an
animal for travel, they've almost ALWAYS gotten 'motion-sickness' - UNLESS i
position the crate so the cat/dog/whatever can see outside the vehicle. It's
one of those simple solutions that depends on one's understanding of the
problem.

One thing to note: because your cat has experienced motion-sickness already,
it might take one or two attempts before s/he can travel, crated, with an
outside view... s/he might have 'learned' to get sick when traveling - but
it will only take one or two 'trials' to get past it. You might want to do a
couple of 'test runs' to get through the 'un-learning' process.

Interestingly, this doesn't always work with humans, but will always work
with animals... it has to do with our (human) ability to think or 'language'
to ourselves about prior instances of sea-sickness, and (essentially) 'talk
ourselves into' getting sea-sick.

tuna
reno, nv