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cat's 1st flight... what happens if he needs to pee? any advice appreciated!

cat's 1st flight... what happens if he needs to pee? any advice appreciated!

Old Feb 17, 2018, 6:42 pm
  #16  
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Join Date: Jan 2018
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Originally Posted by beachmouse
If you're thinking of kitty valium, do a test of it several days beforehand. Some cats have enough self-awareness that sedation freaks them out because things don't feel right rather than calming them down.
my friend lives in a state where marijuana was recently legalized. she has never smoked pot in her entire life, so she thought it was cool to try it, being legal and all..

well... her cat had an extremely weird reaction to the 2nd hand marijuana smoke. The cat started chasing its own tail(like a dog), which it had never done before... then jump on the bookshelves and ended up on top of the ceiling fan motor... sat there with funny-looking eyes and refused to get off for almost 3 hours, according to my friend.
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Old Feb 17, 2018, 7:13 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by geometry
my friend lives in a state where marijuana was recently legalized. she has never smoked pot in her entire life, so she thought it was cool to try it, being legal and all..

well... her cat had an extremely weird reaction to the 2nd hand marijuana smoke. The cat started chasing its own tail(like a dog), which it had never done before... then jump on the bookshelves and ended up on top of the ceiling fan motor... sat there with funny-looking eyes and refused to get off for almost 3 hours, according to my friend.

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Old Feb 17, 2018, 7:24 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by geometry
Guess I should have trained him for air travel when he was just a kitten.

A few months ago, I was on a SFO-EWR flight. I was in the aisle seat and an elderly lady was in the window. Middle seat was empty and her cat was in the carrier under the seat under the middle seat in front. The cat made absolute no noise during the 5+ hour flight. Every couple of hours, the lady opened up the carrier and the cat would jump on the middle seat. She put a paper towel on the tray table and opened a can of food for the cat.(on a paper plate) The cat sat there and ate the food very neatly. Then... well.. I was shocked... after finishing his food, the cat jump down and went back into the carrier all by himself.... then the lady closed the door. That happened a couple of times. I was really amused. She told me that the cat was 15-years-old and had flown cross country at least twice a month since he was just 1.
Our cats have done a lot of travel by car. One's content to wait for his meals until we get to the destination, the other one insists on being fed at her usual time, no matter what, so we pull over, she has her meal then goes back to sleep.
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Old Feb 28, 2018, 6:39 am
  #19  
 
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geometry, i don't know if you've already taken your flight. i went through something similar last year, moving two cats across the country. the first step should be to talk to your vet - they may know if your cat has any special risk factors for such a long trip. if your cat is in good health, he may handle the stress of the trip well enough, but ask to be sure. i would also make a point of the fact that your trip is particularly long and punctuated by a long layover. you're looking at 10+ hours in a carrier, so sedation may be a realistic option.

my kitties endured 5.5 hours on the plane, plus an hour getting to the airport, roughly an hour waiting for the flight, plus an hour getting to their new home. my vet assumed - wrongly - that they would just sleep after awhile, but no, we listened to over 8 hours of uninterrupted miaowing. we did not have any accidents, but we did make sure to follow our vet's advice about withholding food and water before the trip.

typed with one of the kitties in my lap!
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Old Feb 28, 2018, 7:05 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by crabbing
geometry, i don't know if you've already taken your flight. i went through something similar last year, moving two cats across the country. the first step should be to talk to your vet - they may know if your cat has any special risk factors for such a long trip. if your cat is in good health, he may handle the stress of the trip well enough, but ask to be sure. i would also make a point of the fact that your trip is particularly long and punctuated by a long layover. you're looking at 10+ hours in a carrier, so sedation may be a realistic option.

my kitties endured 5.5 hours on the plane, plus an hour getting to the airport, roughly an hour waiting for the flight, plus an hour getting to their new home. my vet assumed - wrongly - that they would just sleep after awhile, but no, we listened to over 8 hours of uninterrupted miaowing. we did not have any accidents, but we did make sure to follow our vet's advice about withholding food and water before the trip.

typed with one of the kitties in my lap!

Yes, I've already taken the flight. The kitty slept like a baby most of the way. My evil strategy worked. I played with him all night long and he was exhausted from the laser pointer, mice, cardboard boxes, and all his favourite toys.

He looked amused as we walked past security... meowed a couple of times when the plane was taking off, then fell asleep right after that. He would have slept during the entire flight if not for the flight attendant who decided to poke at the carrier and tried to pet him with her finger.

I gave him water and treats during the connection, but then he went back to sleep again.

On the connecting flight...we had another one of those cat-loving flight attendants. Two, actually... one hot and one cute. they came over to check on him at least three times and he had this "why you gotta keep waking me up, human?" look on his face. If I was 25 years younger, I would be carrying my cats on the plane all the time. They appear to be hot flight attendant magnets! I suppose babies have the same effect, but I'm pretty sure that flight attendants don't give phone numbers to guys who bring babies onboard. In my case, one of the flight attendants gave me her email address.. (supposedly so that I could email her the picture I took of her with my cat)
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