Advice on moving across the country with multiple pets?

[Catlady5530]

Hey everyone,

I will be moving from california to missouri for vet school soon. I have moved across the country alone in the past as I am a non trad student and almost 28 but I have acquired 5 cats during my time in undergrad🐱 does anyone have advice on long travel with cats. Ideally flying would be easier but it is only easier if you have 2 cats lol. I have thought through the idea of family members each flying with 1-2 cats but this would be sooo expensive and I refuse to put them in cargo. Also leaving them in california is not an option. So I plan to utilize a lot of gabapentin and stay in pet friendly hotels as we drive there. But I’m wondering if anyone has tips/tricks for a multiple day drive with multiple cats! Should I use big crates for each cat?are there any products you recommend? Mostly I’m just worried about their stress and keeping them as comfortable as possible. Any advice helps!!

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[eacsy]

Following! I also will be moving across the country (driving) with two cats, one of which gets very carsick. I use gabapentin but it barely touches him... it makes me feel so badly but leaving them at home is not an option. Any advice?

 

[fdvet]

doing the same but with multiple dogs! unsure of how to transport them yet but this is probably my biggest worry right now.

 

[BlackCatsRuleTheWorld]

I went from MA to MN with a dog, cat, and chinchilla (and my fiance!). I drove my car and had my dog and chinchilla in the car. My fiance drove a uhaul with the cat and she rode in a carrier. We took 3 days for the drive and stayed over at pet friendly hotels. Gabapentin was given to all animals and everything went pretty smoothly!

5 cats in one vehicle may be tough. I would encourage you to enlist a friend or family member to do the drive with you, even if the only thing they help with is loading and unloading the cats in the vehicle, that will be extremely helpful! Definitely found 2x/day dosing for the gaba helpful since the hotel was a bit stressful as well. Put familiar blankets in their carriers and have the carriers around your current home out so they can explore them/get used to them. You can also cover the carrier with a towel and use feliway spray if that works for your kitties (or catnip!).

Random small note but if you feed them wet food, worth using plastic/paper bowls or plates for feeding. I also didn't let my cat out of the carrier until her litterbox and water were set up since I knew she'd likely have to go to the bathroom. If your kitties drink a lot (or if it's really hot) you may want to offer a bowl of water during stops (with all of the car doors closed for safety ofc).

Exciting and stressful stuff, also if you're a podcast person start saving up podcasts to listen to lol!

 

[Border Goat Bananas]

I’ll be moving with 5 dogs and 4 cats at least 10 hours away…. Congrats on your acceptance!

 

[genny]

Hey everyone,

I will be moving from california to missouri for vet school soon. I have moved across the country alone in the past as I am a non trad student and almost 28 but I have acquired 5 cats during my time in undergrad🐱 does anyone have advice on long travel with cats. Ideally flying would be easier but it is only easier if you have 2 cats lol. I have thought through the idea of family members each flying with 1-2 cats but this would be sooo expensive and I refuse to put them in cargo. Also leaving them in california is not an option. So I plan to utilize a lot of gabapentin and stay in pet friendly hotels as we drive there. But I’m wondering if anyone has tips/tricks for a multiple day drive with multiple cats! Should I use big crates for each cat?are there any products you recommend? Mostly I’m just worried about their stress and keeping them as comfortable as possible. Any advice helps!!

Depends on your cats. Mine hate travel and refuse to use a litterbox or eat or drink while they're in a car. So I made sure not to drive more than 12 hours in a day, and I kept them in the hotel bathroom for an hour or two when we first arrived to give them time to calm down. The first time, they did have a litterbox in a larger kennel, and I had secured food and water bowls in there, but no interest in using any of that during the drive, even when we stopped for meals or gas. Maybe if yours travel better than mine, they'd appreciate the amenities. My kitties just held everything in until we stopped for the night. So on subsequent trips, I just kept them in their small carriers because they were calmer that way. I do strongly recommend the use of a carrier or crate, since cats are naturally curious, and under the dashboard really just looks like such a fun place to go for a cat. Don't let your cat play under your brake pedal, no matter how much they beg.

 

[puppydogtor]

doing the same but with multiple dogs! unsure of how to transport them yet but this is probably my biggest worry right now.

I moved across the country with 2 medium sized dogs. They love car rides and join me on almost every vacation, so travelling with them was easy. They did get antsy from long driving days, so I tried to balance it by including some hikes on our road trip. The hardest part was probably the expenses - gas, pet friendly airbnbs, and renting a uhaul box. I wanted to make sure my pups had plenty of room in the car so I left my backseat pretty empty for them.

A Uhaul box is super convenient - they drop it off at your driveway, you fill it with as much stuff as you want, and then they pick it up and ship it to whichever Uhaul location you want. It stays as a storage unit until you clear it out. It was pricey, so I made sure to put furniture and things in it worth more than I paid to rent it. It held a ton of stuff, I couldn't fill it completely and I barely had to buy new furniture for my new place.

As for airbnbs, I would advise not using them on a roadtrip if you can. Cleaning fees are the same price regardless of if you stay 1 night or 5, so staying 1 night at a few different places will get very expensive. These fees have increased a ton since covid. I chose to use airbnbs anyways for a few reasons. My one dog has separation anxiety and barks a good bit when I leave, so I didn't want to disturb anyone or get noise complaints. Not only was my car stuffed with valuable items, but I also had kayaks on the roof and mountain bikes on the back that could get stolen. I felt much safer leaving my vehicle in a private driveway than a hotel parking lot. Worth it to me to spend a couple hundred extra dollars on airbnb cleaning fees than risk a couple thousand on new bikes.

 

[Doctor-S]

Hey everyone,

I will be moving from california to missouri for vet school soon. I have moved across the country alone in the past as I am a non trad student and almost 28 but I have acquired 5 cats during my time in undergrad🐱 does anyone have advice on long travel with cats. Ideally flying would be easier but it is only easier if you have 2 cats lol. I have thought through the idea of family members each flying with 1-2 cats but this would be sooo expensive and I refuse to put them in cargo. Also leaving them in california is not an option. So I plan to utilize a lot of gabapentin and stay in pet friendly hotels as we drive there. But I’m wondering if anyone has tips/tricks for a multiple day drive with multiple cats! Should I use big crates for each cat?are there any products you recommend? Mostly I’m just worried about their stress and keeping them as comfortable as possible. Any advice helps!!

Make sure your cats are properly microchipped plus your contact information for their microchips should be accurate and up-to-date.

If possible, spray some Feliway in the corners of their cat crate to help relieve potential anxiety and stress.

Paging @twelvetigers for more tips about cat traveling in cars.

 

[Bonfuturedvm]

Just chiming in to say you should take them on a test drive first to see how they do before the long haul if thats what you choose. We had a lot of kittos get nauseous in the car on the way in to my last clinic so it would be better to know ahead of time if they need cerenia on board in addition to any anti-anxiety meds!

 

[lis1127]

doing the same but with multiple dogs! unsure of how to transport them yet but this is probably my biggest worry right now.

I have two dogs who I'll be moving with to CO soon (from CA, so not too bad of a drive), but these two usually go on vacation with me since I'm very attached to them and since it's pretty expensive to find a Rover for them (all of my friends are young professionals pretty much fresh out of undergrad so none of them really have pets nor a pet-friendly place yet). One of my dogs is usually great in car rides but does get anxiety with the longer ones. One of my other dogs absolutely hates the car (though I plan to desensitize her to the car before moving). For both, I actually haven't had to use gaba or trazadone for the car ride (though gaba/trazadone never hurts when it comes to situations like these) but do use a Thundershirt for the two of them when the ride is long. I also make sure that they have plenty of space in the backseats, each with their own seatbelts for their safety, and make frequent stops at rest stops and food/gas places. They also get a lot of water since it can get hot in the car. For the longer move, I am also thinking of buying some Adaptil calming spray for my more anxious dog. Their crates and all other supplies go into the trunk of my car for easy access to anything they might need. As for places to stay overnight, I agree with puppydogtor that it's a lot easier to just use a motel/hotel instead of an airbnb. You most likely will have to pay a pet fee for that night, but it's a lot easier than trying to find a pet-friendly airbnb that won't charge you far more extra for having a pet in their house. If you are able to obtain a new credit card right now, I would get one that will accumulate points with purchases and also has at least one bonus that will allow you to accumulate points faster, and then use those points to try and get some free nights (my partner does this, and it's saved us a LOT of money). Not sure if this helps, but this is my general plan for whenever we all go on vacation!

 

[lis1127]

I also had a question about moving with pets. My trip would take 1 night and 2 days (assuming that we just drive the entire time) and I was wondering if anyone has ever moved with a snake before and how that process usually goes considering the specific heat and lighting that they require, as well as trying not to stress them out too much. TIA!

 

[alleycat03]

I also had a question about moving with pets. My trip would take 1 night and 2 days (assuming that we just drive the entire time) and I was wondering if anyone has ever moved with a snake before and how that process usually goes considering the specific heat and lighting that they require, as well as trying not to stress them out too much. TIA!

@Aprilthearab I don't think you've traveled with Secret, but maybe you can help?

 

[EngrSC]

I also had a question about moving with pets. My trip would take 1 night and 2 days (assuming that we just drive the entire time) and I was wondering if anyone has ever moved with a snake before and how that process usually goes considering the specific heat and lighting that they require, as well as trying not to stress them out too much. TIA!

I'm not super familiar with snakes, but I moved with my tortoise. I put her in a box with soil and she just hunkered down. It was summer time so I didn't worry about her being without heat for 2 days, but once we got to the new place I set up her habitat right away. I didn't feed her on the road and she was super happy to chow down after a warm soak on the flip side

 

[Aprilthearab]

I also had a question about moving with pets. My trip would take 1 night and 2 days (assuming that we just drive the entire time) and I was wondering if anyone has ever moved with a snake before and how that process usually goes considering the specific heat and lighting that they require, as well as trying not to stress them out too much. TIA!

Honestly, snakes are shipped from breeders to hobbyists all the time with very few issues. Issues only really arise when they get stuck in transit and their heat pack runs out in the middle of winter. What species do you have? I'm assuming you're moving in your own car and during the summer?

What I'd do is put the snake in a snake travel bag then put the bag inside a secure, dark plastic or cardboard box. If the snake is always going to be with you (aka: always at or above room temperature in the car and/or hotel room), then you can likely go without supplemental heat. I'm saying this from the perspective of a ball python... if you have a more sensitive/heat-seeking species, then you might want to consider a heat pack, just making sure there is an insulating buffer between the heat pack and the snake to prevent burns. That's really it. They're fine without water for two days. Definitely don't need to eat. You can just take down the enclosure and set it back up as normal once you get there. I've moved with a horse, cats, fish, gerbils, and hamsters before, so snakes are by comparison very easy travelers

 

[lis1127]

Honestly, snakes are shipped from breeders to hobbyists all the time with very few issues. Issues only really arise when they get stuck in transit and their heat pack runs out in the middle of winter. What species do you have? I'm assuming you're moving in your own car and during the summer?

What I'd do is put the snake in a snake travel bag then put the bag inside a secure, dark plastic or cardboard box. If the snake is always going to be with you (aka: always at or above room temperature in the car and/or hotel room), then you can likely go without supplemental heat. I'm saying this from the perspective of a ball python... if you have a more sensitive/heat-seeking species, then you might want to consider a heat pack, just making sure there is an insulating buffer between the heat pack and the snake to prevent burns. That's really it. They're fine without water for two days. Definitely don't need to eat. You can just take down the enclosure and set it back up as normal once you get there. I've moved with a horse, cats, fish, gerbils, and hamsters before, so snakes are by comparison very easy travelers

Awesome, that’s definitely great to hear! And he’s actually a ball python so you pretty much nipped that one right in the butt! But yes, we would be traveling by car and it’s definitely not a super long distance, especially compared to the trio that a lot of others will have to take. Thank you so much for your advice!!

 

[twelvetigers]

Make sure your cats are properly microchipped plus your contact information for their microchips should be accurate and up-to-date.

If possible, spray some Feliway in the corners of their cat crate to help relieve potential anxiety and stress.

Paging @twelvetigers for more tips about cat traveling in cars.

Errrrr not sure that I'm who your brain was searching for here. I haven't done any long trips with cattos. I appreciate the tag, though!

 

[Doctor-S]

Errrrr not sure that I'm who your brain was searching for here. I haven't done any long trips with cattos. I appreciate the tag, though!

Oops - sorry @twelvetigers !

Okay, I'll try again ... paging @WhtsThFrequency and @vetmedhead ... who MAY have driven long trips with cats in the past?

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I did multi day cross country trips with my dog and cat a bunch in residency- Virginia to New Orleans, Nola to Texas, Texas to Utah, Texas back to Virginia, etc. but I’m afraid I will be of minimal help because both my girls were the absolute ideal travel companions and just slept the whole way. Never had to medicate anybody. If I had to do something like a 10 hour stretch and was worried cat had to pee, I would stop at a rest stop and keep the air on, put a disposable litter box on the back (I had a hatchback) let cat out of carrier and let her walk around the car and go to the bathroom if she needed to while I also let the dog go.

Snake (ball python) was totally fine being in a pillowcase in a cardboard box with air holes. He only has about one brain cell anyways. I had to go from TX to VA with him and the mammals over two days and he did fine. Put him in a smallish plastic travel cage for the hotel and kept the room warm.

 

[Abnerrs]

For cats I do 1 of 2 things. Large dog crate with all of their accouterments in there with them. Or a harness with a leash attached to something inside the car with the litter box etc on the floor.

I've done mostly the latter as my cats tend to be fairly chill. Plus, gabapentin from your vet in your friend