Hi everyone welcome to a video that's been requested as a follow-up for my latest uh movie
with your cats video which you should really check out before or after watching this one i'll throw
the link down in the description below so and before we get going please remember to switch that
subscribe button that head the bell notification icon so you get more of these helpful videos
uh also you can check out my patreon support me on there if you think i'm doing good work but
uh what i'm gonna do today is me and sir lineslot are gonna answer a question that came up quite a
number of times when i made a video about moving with your cats and that question was what do we
do if we have to fly lots of people are flying transatlantic with their cats or even further
and this is actually a question that follows up with something i get asked by my clients
quite often which is hey doc can you give me some sedation for my cat or my dog as we're traveling
somewhere or we're going vacation or moving house so let me answer all those questions and i
yes you know i have extensive personal experience smoothing with cats mr pirate came with me from
australia to canada and from canada to the united states to new york and then so he's flown across
north america at least twice from new york back to vancouver uh so that little guy is probably one of
the most traveled cats in the world uh lancelot here is a homebody he's vancouverite born and
bred however he's also regal and he will help me with this video in his magnanimity and maybe we'll
give you guys a little bit of mr pirate footage as a bonus just because he is probably one of
the best traveled cats in the world when preparing to travel with your cat uh and a flight's involved
what you really have to ask yourself is is the cat coming the cabin with me or are they going
in the pressurized luggage compartment because this really really really determines everything
most airlines will allow you to fly with your pets and if they're small enough to fit under
the seat they can come in the cabin with you and if they're not they go into pressurized luggage
uh and if the airline doesn't allow you to do this uh complain a lot and fly with someone else
because they're bastards and you should only support airlines that allow travel with pets
so the pressurized luggage compartment is you have to understand it's it's under the plane
it's probably about four degrees celsius so it's above zero but it's cold
and the air pressure there is going to be probably a little bit lower than the cabin so it's a pretty
stressful environment uh probably louder than the cabin as well as i'm just guessing because i've
never been there but but probably not as well insulated that's where they put the humans so
going to luggage compartment is is going to be a little bit more stressful and here's where i
can answer that question about can i give you any sedation for your trip so if your pet is going in
the pressurized luggage compartment the answer is absolutely not there are studies showing that any
kind of attempted sedation for airplane travel actually increases travel mortality meaning that
increases your chances that your pet dies and on the trip nobody wants that and also there's
no sedative that's going to work long enough to cover a trip you know most most of the anxiety
set of medications we have work for like two to four hours which isn't really long enough to
cover a door-to-door trip if you're flying across the atlantic or flying from australia to japan
so not only is there no benefit to doing sedation for animals going under the plane but it's also
increasing their travel risks so absolutely not never ever sedate your pet if they're going under
the plane what you can do to make their trip a little bit more comfortable is first of all make
sure they have lots of towels and blankets in their carrier uh the airline will specify that
you have an airline certified carrier so you're gonna get the carrier based on what the airline
tells you uh make sure there's lots of towels and blankets in there because water can spill they can
pee on root they can poop on root you don't want them in there with one little square towel because
it's going to get disgusting you want them there with lots of towels lots of blankets so if they do
pee or poo or vomit or anything else in there it'll just get absorbed and they can kind of
tuck it away instead of a comfortable clean ride and they can also burrow in them for heat so it's
gonna be if it gets cold in the compartment they can they can sell down for some warmth and i also
always recommend putting in some personal clothing items like a t-shirt you slept in some socks
um just make it smell like home smell like their favorite human and again they can also sit on it
hide on it whatever i think it makes their life better so lots of blankets lots of towels never
any sedation and some personal clothing items and your pet will be set up for a trip on the plane
now if your pet's going in a cabin with you where you can monitor them
and where you don't want them making noise to disturb other passengers or conversely if you're
driving for 12 hours and you have one of those cats that won't shut up and we'll meow every three
seconds for 12 hours straight because they exist in those cases travel sedation is your friend
and there's a number of medications available to provide different levels of very effective
short-term meaning like a couple hours of sedation out there you should really be having a
conversation with your pet with your veterinarian don't have that conversation with your pet have
that conversation with your vet uh you should really be having a conversation with your
veterinarian because there's a number of choices and there's all sorts of concerns uh vis-a-vis
where you live where your pet's health status blah blah blah blah blah which medications we
choose but i'm just going to throw some names out of you gabapentin alprazolam trazodone
and a number of others are all used for anti-anxiety basically short-term sedation
and pets for travel and um they should probably be something you have particularly if you fly
they're probably good at ifs and means of helping your pet relax and get sleepy and knock me out for
like 12 hours or worse bark um now when i do prescribe travel station to my to my clients
and my patients uh what i always do is i give people a couple doses of the medication and i say
try this at home couple like when everything's normal give this to your
pet at home and see how they react to it because every individual reacts to sedatives differently
you can get something called idiopath or idiosyncratic excitement which is where some
patients if you do them with those of sedatives they'll actually get really really high and really
hyperactive and just go they look like they just did three lines of cocaine and usually that's
a dosing issue you just give them a bit more and they'll go to sleep um but you really want to find
out if your pet's going to react this way to the prescribed dosage at home not on the plane uh so
what you want to do and conversely you might give your pet a dose and then they'll pass out for like
six hours which is okay and then you know that you're zeroed in but definitely try this at home
under a controlled calm environment before you travel so that on the day you know what dose is
going to work for your pet or conversely if you can't forget a dose and you have time to phone
your veterinarian in the morning and say hey doc this is what happened this is what i observe how
can i modify my treatment regimen to get effective sedation and again that way on the day of travel
when it matters you'll be able to provide your you know you'll be able to control your pet's
anxiety basically and also provide yourself and your fellow passengers with a comfortable trip
so that's probably all you need to know about traveling on planes with animals no sedation
if they go in the compartment and plant sedation if they go in the passenger compartment with you
now please do go check out my video on tips on moving with cats for the bigger picture
of how to help your cat relocate from point a to point b and thank you very much for watching