Does your dog drool, vomit, or become unusually anxious during car rides? Just like humans, pets can experience motion sickness. Understanding why it happens is the first step toward making travel more comfortable for both you and your furry companion.
What Causes Motion Sickness?
Motion sickness, contrary to what the name suggests, is not an actual illness. Motion sickness occurs when the brain receives conflicting information from the eyes and the vestibular system of the inner ear, which is responsible for balance and spatial orientation. The disjunction here happens when in a vehicle, your eyes perceive that you are stationary, but the liquid in your ears detect you are in motion. These two conflicting signals sent to your brain are responsible for your motion sickness.
But do our pets suffer from the same condition like we do?
Motion Sickness in Pets
The short answer is yes, our pets most certainly can display symptoms of motion sickness. Motion sickness tends to be more prevalent amongst younger pets, inexperienced travellers, or anxious pets. While motion sickness and travel anxiety are separate conditions, they often occur together. A pet that previously experienced nausea during travel may become anxious before future trips, which can worsen symptoms. Understanding why will lead us to figure out how to manage this condition, making future travels for you and your pets more enjoyable.
The reasons why pets may suffer from motion sickness is due to:
- Immature Balance Systems in Young Pets
Many puppies and kittens outgrow motion sickness as their balance system matures, although some pets continue to experience symptoms into adulthood. Puppies and kittens are usually more vulnerable to motion sickness as their inner ear balance systems are still being developed.
- Stress and Anxiety Can Worsen Symptoms
Your pets actually have a good memory. Pets may remember how traumatic their first trip was (mainly veterinarian trips), which leads them to associate travelling with that stressful first time, causing anxiety. Anxiety tends to worsen motion sickness symptoms and needs to be addressed.
- Lack of Travel Familiarity
Your pet may simply not be used to traveling. As we have mentioned many times in our articles, dogs and cats are creatures that thrive on routines. Pet owners who take trips with their pets perhaps once or twice a year, do not give time for your pets to get accustomed.
- Additional Triggers
We need to remember that the senses of our pets are much sharper than ours. There could be other additional triggers that contribute to motion sickness, like the smell of gasoline, or the smells inside your car, poor ventilation, excessive heat, or loud noises.
So now knowing that motion sickness is possible amongst pets, what does it actually look like?
Symptoms of Motion Sickness in Pets
There are two types of symptoms of motion sickness in pets, physical and behavioral:
- Physical
Pets when carsick may find themselves:
- Vomiting: Due to the conflicting signals sent to your pet’s brain, your pet may feel nauseous which leads to vomiting.
- Drooling: Your pet may drool in the car. This is because nausea causes an increased production of saliva.
- Stress related behaviours: Your pet may exude stress-related behaviours as a coping mechanism when they feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable. This includes, lip licking, yawning or panting (in dogs).
- Trembling: Trembling or shaking may occur because motion sickness often overlaps with anxiety and physical discomfort.
These are typical physical symptoms of motion sickness within your pets. These symptoms generally can make taking trips with your pet less fun.
- Behavioral
Symptoms are not only physical, your pets may display behavioral symptoms during your trips. While they may share some symptoms, dogs and cats react differently to motion sickness:
- Common symptoms:
Some behavioral signs shared across both species of animals include:
- Restlessness: Your pets may pace back and forth in the car, struggling to settle. This is usually a sign your pet is uncomfortable in the situation it is in.
- Anxiety around travel: Your pet may associate traveling with a previous traumatic trip, and so will display symptoms of stress/irritability.
- Reduced interaction or engagement: Your pet is less willing to interact or play with you. This could be because nausea and stress are physically draining, meaning your pets have less energy to play.
However each animal tends to have their own ways of showing that they are uncomfortable. It is important that pet owners keep an eye out for these symptoms.
- Dogs:
The most common behavioral signs amongst dogs when motion sick is to:
- Whine: Your dog may whine at random intervals during the trip. Dogs tend to vocalize how uncomfortable they are through whining.
- Become clingy: Your dog might cling to you during the entire trip as it wants to be comforted.
- Refuse to enter the car: Dogs that associate vehicles with nausea or stressful experiences may begin avoiding the car entirely. This behavior often develops after repeated unpleasant trips.
- Cats:
The most common behavioral signs amongst cats when motion sick is to:
- Vocalize excessively: Your cat during the trip might make loud vocalizations through meowing. These sounds are usually more sudden, repetitive, and distressed sounding.
- Freeze: Your pet may sit completely still in their carrier. A common stress response in cats is to become motionless.
- Become withdrawn: Your cat might seem calm during the trip, but that it could be that it is withdrawn. Some cats, to cope with stress, may become unusually quiet, avoid interaction, or retreat to the back of the carrier.
So now knowing what being carsick in pets looks like, how can we make these trips more comfortable for them?
Making the Trip Enjoyable
Aside from routine veterinary check ups, trips with your pets are supposed to be enjoyable. Yet pet owners who bring their dogs or cats with them, often feel guilty, when their furry companions are suffering from motion sickness. This however does not mean you need to leave them behind. While not guaranteed fixes for motion sickness, you can help your pets feel more comfortable with travel by:
- Modifying the Environment:
You can modify your car’s environment to become more relaxing for your pets. This can be achieved through:
- Creating a stable environment: You can secure your pet’s carrier. This helps reduce nausea and creates a safer environment for your pets.
- Improve ventilation: Airflow is important for your pets. It helps regulate heat making a comfortable cool environment for your pets. You can also open your window. This equalizes air pressure, preventing stagnant air, which can reduce nausea. Fresh airflow can also improve comfort and reduce heat buildup, which may help some pets feel less nauseous.
- Friendlier, more fun environment: You can help make positive associations within your pets that the car is a friendly and fun place. Pet parents can leave their clothing in your pet’s carrier to give them a smell of home. You can also have toys only used when traveling to create a more fun environment.
Modifying the environment of your car when travelling with your pets can create a more relaxing experience and greatly reduce nausea.
- Desensitization Training:
It also helps if you can make your pet get used to your car. This is the best long term solution for pets who are anxious when traveling. Pet parents can desensitize your animals by:
- Starting small: If your pet's motion sickness is tied to anxiety, slowly get them used to the car. Spend time sitting in the parked car with the engine off, rewarding them with treats.
- Building up Duration: Gradually work up to short drives around the block, slowly increasing the distance over weeks before attempting long road trips.
- Positive associations: Ensure the car ride doesn't only end at the vet, but also at fun locations like the park.
This creates a positive association with the car. It is no longer an unfamiliar trap leading to traumatic experiences (a.k.a. The Vet), but a place that leads to spending time with their owner.
- Feeding and Hydration Habits:
Despite nutrition being valuable in every other aspect of your pet’s life, a full stomach might not be recommended for pets when traveling. The right nutrition at the right time can greatly improve your pet’s comfortability:
- Reducing food intake: Pet owners can reduce the amount of food given to your pets a few hours before traveling to reduce nausea. An emptier stomach may be more comfortable when your pets feel nauseous.
- Access to fresh water: Water, while not helping with the inner cause of motion sickness, helps manage some of the symptoms. Water prevents severe dehydration from vomiting or drooling, soothes a queasy stomach, and helps lower the body temperature to reduce overall discomfort during travel.
If meals need to be adjusted before travel, providing complete and balanced nutrition throughout the rest of the day becomes even more important.
- Traveling Habits:
There are some habits while traveling that pet owners can do to make your pet’s trip a breeze. These habits can help regulate symptoms of motion sickness in your pets. These fundamental habits are:
- Changing the seating of your pet: Positioning your pet in a stable, secured carrier on the back seat can help reduce excessive movement and improve comfort during travel.
- Taking breaks: If your pet is displaying signs of motion sickness, it is advised that pet parents take a break. It might do you both good to stop and take a walk. This will soothe your pets nausea and anxiety making the next steps of the trip easier.
- When Home Strategies Aren't Enough: For pets with severe motion sickness, a veterinarian may recommend, anti-nausea medications, anti-anxiety medications and travel-specific treatment plans to increase the comfort of your pets.
Implementing these habits when traveling can create a comfy trip and experience that both you and your pets are sure to enjoy.
Motion sickness, unfortunately, is a very real and very common experience for dogs and cats alike. While some pets naturally adjust to travel over time, others may struggle with the unfamiliar movement, stress, and nausea associated with car rides. Luckily, motion sickness is manageable, through gradual training, and slight changes in environment and feeding and traveling habits.
Motion sickness doesn't have to prevent your pet from enjoying travel. With gradual training, thoughtful preparation, and attention to your pet's comfort, many dogs and cats can learn to travel with significantly less stress and discomfort.
