Any ideas on treating a Boston Terrier for car sickness. Everytime the dog is put into the car for a ride she vomits. It does not matter if we put her into a cage or not. She is 7 Months old and weighs 12 pounds. I have to admit that to go anywhere we have some twisty-turny gravel roads to cover.

Thanks,

-- Rich (pntbeldyk@wirefire.com), January 22, 2000

Answers

Rich, does she throw up right away? If she's frightened of the car just start spending some time with her in the car. Try picking her up and just sitting in the car for a bit. Slowly spend more time in the car with her and let her move around if she gets relaxed enough. If she really is motion sick, once she's calm and happy in the car, begin sitting in the car with the motor running. Then start moving the car just a little. Keep increasing the distance you drive. Still might not help.

Important thing is to stay calm and loving with her. As young as she is, she might grow out of it. But if she's been stressed ("Oh darn, that stupid dog just puked all over my good car again!")it won't matter if she's nervous or motion sick now. She'll learn to be stressed and therefore vomit when she's in the car. If she is already badly upset about getting in the car you might have to start even more slowly by walking her past the car without "noticing" it, then open the car door and sit on the door sill and talk/play/feed a treat to her before putting in the car. It takes a lot of time and patience.

Your vet will have motion sickness pills you can give her. A lot of the time they are tranquilizers. You might not want to give them to a dog of any age, especially a young one. Boston Terriers, since they have chasing parked cars noses, often have breathing problems. It might help her a lot to get some air moving past her. I suffer dreadfully from motion sickness myself and have to keep my car window open year round.

Good luck with your puppy. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 22, 2000.

A good product is "Happy Traveler" by Noah's Ark animal products. This is a combination of calming herbs, can be used for general anxiety, and fear also. If you can't find it, you can use, tinctures of valerian, passionflower, chamomile, also, the Bach Flower Essence, Rescue Remedy. Ginger is the all time remedy for nausea, give a capsule 1/2 hour before travel. Make sure the dog can see out the front window. If it contunues to be a problem, Give herbs 1/2 hour before car ride and start with very short rides, eg: down the block and back at first, gradually getting longer. Don't feed the dog before car rides also. Hope this helps, Chris

-- Christine Allen (cfallen@hotmail.com), January 23, 2000.

She is a happy little dog, not nervous at all about the car, even wanting to go for a ride. We walk past the cars every day on the way to the pigs without even taking notice of cars. I think it is pure motion sickness.

We don't feed her before trips and give her plenty of fresh air. She can look out the windows. We talk to her and pet her, etc. but still sickness.

-- Rich (pntbeldyk@wirefire.com), January 26, 2000.

Rich, sounds like Christine's given you some good ideas. Hopefully since she is so young she'll grow out of it. If not, you'll either have to leave her home, carry a lot of paper towels in the car, or put a basket on your bicycle and start pedaling. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 26, 2000.

I teach my dogs to ride on the floor of the passenger seat. I don't think seeing all that scenery whizzing by is necessarily going to help your puppy. Every puppy we've had has vomited during the first couple rides. I put carpeting or an old sheet down for the puppy to lay on (and vomit on if that happens). If the puppy does vomit, we just clean it up cheerfully, and don't even mention it to the puppy. Sheets are cool, because if you need to, you can just fold part of the sheet over the mess and deal with it when you get home. We bring treats and a good, meaty chew bone. If we go to a drive up window, the puppy gets treats. Sometimes a piece of a hamburger, or a little ice cream. The chew bone keeps the puppy distracted, and the occasional treats we give it during the ride make it completely unafraid and unstressed. Our dogs LOVE car rides. This has never failed to work for us, usually with as few as one or two vomiting episodes.

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), January 27, 2000.

Rich, have you tried covering her cage with a blanket, so she can't see the scenery fly by? We had an old Lab that had the same problem- so much for putting her in the back of a pickup!

She was too big to ride in the floor, too, so we ended up building a ramp to get her into the car on her own (she had arthritis, weighed 90 lbs., and at the time, my husband and I both had bad back problems) and a chicken wire "top" to go over her from the back of the front seat to the top of the back seat, with a blanket thrown over that.

Since yours is a small dog and probably a small cage, at least you'll be able to put the groceries on the seat with her. We didn't dare...

-- Sylvia (slydy@intrstar.net), January 28, 2000.

Hi Rich, I once had a LARGE dog with the same problem. He would panic and throw up every time a noisy vehicle went by but he loved to go. The vet gave me some tranquilizers which worked well but I didn't like the way they made the dog so groggy. After he was used to taking the pills and going to sleep I started substituting a couple M and M's instead. ( I know now that chocolate is terrible for a dog but I didn't at the time.) He accepted his "pills" and went to sleep. It worked for years. TRUE story. Maybe you could try the same thing but with a safer alternative.

-- Peg (jnjohnsn@pressenter.com), February 19, 2000.

This will sound strange, and I don't know if it works for dogs, but a friend of mind swears by this for children: Attatch a small chain to the bumper of your car, just long enough to drag a couple links/inches on the road behind you. Don't use something heavy like a tirechain that will fly up and chip your paint (if you care). I know this sounds like voodoo, but she swears it works. Says she doesn't know HOW it works, just that it does.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), August 28, 2000.

Cocculus indicus would be the homeopathic remedy to try. My 90lb Augie HATES to go into cars. He just hunkers down and drools like Niagra Falls and is as pitiful as all get out. I just can't do it to him. And besides, if he were to get to like rides, then I'd have to argue with a 90lb dog every time I went someplace. This way, he always is home to guard the homestead, and I know no one could ever entice him into their vehicle and make off with him.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), August 28, 2000.

Rich our dog had the same thing and the vet said put her in the front seat,as i gues the motion is different up ther ???Idunno why but it did work.

-- teri murphy (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.com), September 27, 2000.

I have noticed my dog only throws up when the carrier she rides in is sideways in the back seat, or if she has just eaten. When we have a trip planned, I hold back her food several hours before leaving, and also put carrier pointed to front of car. Not sure which one helps. The vet says to give her 1/2 of a 50mg Dramamine pill when she has to ride on a spur of the moment trip. So far I haven't tried that approach. She also loves to ride so that is not the problem. People with stygmatisms (sp) get car sick, maybe many dogs have that affliction also.

-- Carole Hall (carle@earthlink.net), March 01, 2001.

RICH....I HAD A DOG THAT WAS TERRIFIED OF MY VEHICLE AND GOT SICK. I TRIED TO MAKE IT A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE FOR HIM.I WOULD DRIVE HIM TO A CORNER STORE AND BUY HIM AN ICE CREAM.THEN I WOULD GO FURTHER AND STILL BUY HIM THE ICE CREAM. THE DOG WOULD ACTUALLY WAIT BY THE CAR AND WANT TO GO.HE WOULD WATCH OUT THE CAR WINDOW AND ENJOYED IT.ONE TIME HE RAN AWAY AND WENT TO THE STORE I BOUGHT HIS ICE CREAM.ONCE THERE HE ACTUALLY SLIPPED INTO SOMEONE ELSES CAR TO GO FOR A RIDE.I HAD TO POST AN ADD TO FIND HIM.THE PEOPLE THAT FOUND HIM LOVED HIM AND SAID THEY ALMOST DIDN`T CALL ME.I SPOILED HIM BUT HE BECAME MY TRAVEL COMPANION.

CORDially YOURS CORDWOODGUY

-- CORDWOODGUY (cordwoodguy@n2teaching.com), September 09, 2001.