Anxiety or Motion Sickness?

[Andrea, Belle and Honey]

Belle has been fine in the car since she came home last month - until 2 days ago.  She has been in the car numerous times since the trouble-free hour-long trip home from the breeder.  We have gone to visit friends and to do errands and to the vet, and even just for rides along the Delaware - no problem.  Initially I had her in a small traveling crate, then in a harness belted into the back seat.  Some trips were very short and others up to about 40 minutes.  Friday we drove about 25 minutes to a puppy social (which she enjoyed very much) and she threw up in the car on the way there, and again on the way home. Yesterday we went to visit friends and I put her in the crate again.  By the time we arrived, she and the crate were covered in vomit.  Ugh.  The baby wipes were  useless. " Hello, we're here, how kind of you to invite us - may we use your bathtub and borrow a towel please?" Tomorrow we have to drive about 90 minutes to my sister's house.  I have read the old threads on this issue, but I'm not sure how to tell if this is anxiety vomiting or motion sickness, and which technique to try to alleviate the problem. Which is more likely, sudden onset anxiety or unprecedented motion sickness?  Should I buy a thundershirt or call the vet about a motion sickness med? 

[linda giorgi]

Morgan does drool sometimes in the car. I heard that if they are having a problem with their ears they can become carsick. Best of luck. I hope mine outgrows this.

Lynn and Morgan

[Laura and Angus]

I would make sure you don't feed her anything within an hour of getting in the car, but it has all been recent, so you might wanna head to the vet just to make sure she doesn't have some kind of ear issue like Linda said above...

[Missy]

Oh, I hate this for you!! But I know the feeling of arriving with sickies everywhere!

As the others have stated, have her checked by the vet.  And they can give you meds to help with motion sickness.  The one we used is Cerinia, but as the pup grows you have to use more meds as it's based on body weight. We are at 2 years of age and 32 pounds which requires two pills which comes to $22.00 a trip! Needless to say, we don't use these for every trip as we travel all the time.

Things that I do to try to avoid sickies:  no food 4 hours before trips. and that includes no eating grass!  Trips defined as greater than 1 hour.  Make sure dog can get access to air condition vent in car. We have dual venting so we make the back seat cold.  It seems if he is not panting, there is less incidences of sickies.  We make sure he lays down instead of looking out side window. (I plan trips around his nap time)  If he gets restless, won't stay in a lay command and he sits up and starts panting, I look for a place to stop to let him walk a bit and give him time to settle and then continue trip.

a 3 hour trip will include one rest stop.  a 5 hour trip includes 2 or 3 reststops.

We travel with a  'sickies' kit.  gloves, bags, papertowels, and dog body spray and extra bath towels. We have a car tarp that fits the back seat, to help contain the 'sickies'.  and of course we carry wipes, but use those to wipe as the final wipe.

Our pup has two normal nap times.  morning and afternoon.  I plan all trips around those time frames.  If he did not eat dinner the night before then I have to travel first thing the next day as his stomach is empty. If I wait too long up in the day to travel at his afternoon nap time, that is too long and he will get sick from an empty stomach.

for your short trips, try to avoid food intake several hours before hand.  and get her settled in the back seat with lots of cold air.  we used a harness buckled into car seat belt and had a cushion dog bed with towels on that for dog to lay.

I hope yours can grow out of this....as it is always something we have to keep in mind everytime we travel! lol

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Others have given great advice. I just wanted to add that more than duration of a car trip, the chance of a puppy becoming ill may have more to do with the winding roads vs. straight ones. Like your Belle, Lucy never got sick in the car the first month or 2 of her coming home, but when we went for our first beach trip with her (winding roads) the vomiting started about 3/4 of the way there and continued every 5 minutes until we arrived. I did a bit if research while at the beach, and gave her fresh ginger to nibble on the trip home. No problems with vomiting that time. That trip was the first and last time she ever vomited in the car, btw.

[Andrea, Belle and Honey]

Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my car sickness post.  Yesterday morning before we left on our trip, the vet confirmed that Belle's ears are fine, and she probably was suffering from motion sickness.  He suggested that I give her bonine (a non-drowsy form of dramamine), but said that it has to be given the night before to be effective for a drive early on the next day, so that was not useful advice for the drive to my sister's house yesterday.  Belle vomited on the drive there (the NJ Turnpike always makes me want to throw up too).  She met a lot of new relatives and won hearts all around.  I tried to keep her isolated in a crate in a closed room for part of the day, with her favorite toys, so she wouldn't be overwhelmed by the multitude of people, but every time I went to give her a potty break I found more cousins had sneaked in to play.  I guess that was a good thing though, because she slept in the car all the way home and didn't throw up at all. The really good news is that she didn't bite anyone all day.