# Puppy Car Sickness :puke:



## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

So I have a 13 week old standard poodle - Polo. When we picked him from the breeder he puked on me 4 times within the first hour and a half of the drive (drive was 4 hours).... I did expect that to happen... Partially because well puppies get car sick and we were also high in the mountains - traveling down there - I figured altitude may have also played a role in it all... 

In any event - Polo has been with us for 5 weeks. We have a beach place that is an hour and a half away... He barfs every.single.time we drive there.... Took him to the vet for a booster vaccine & was told to use Dramamine or Bonine - tried it at the max strength the vet recommended... He did OK on the way down there - but on the way home puked again. I have worked with the desensitizing of the car with him - but as soon as he is in the car - the globs of drool start literally within 2 minutes... and I am just talking about trying to sit in the car in park with him to get him used to it... 

As soon as he is out of the car he is fine - tail up, eats, drinks etc... It's like a light switch. The vet said if the Dramamine doesnt work - we can try some Rx stuff... Being he is still young I do not want to really go down that road (although cleaning puke is growing old) I am hoping he grows out of it - but soo far I do not see a glimmer of hope.

Any suggestions / experiences etc with this???:nurse:


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

Gosh, we had a Rottweiler (27 years ago) that would get car sick within 100 yards from home. Dramamine never worked. Eventually she went to live with a relative, in the car he kept her in a crate tied down in the back of a truck bed and she never got sick again. She only got sick being inside the car. Not that that helps!

Misha gets car sick if we put her in any kind of crate or bag. She also gets sick in our Prius, but if I put her in my lifted 4X4 (very stiff suspension) or in our Jeep Wrangler, she is absolutely fine. Maybe try a different car??


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## Angl (Nov 9, 2012)

Max got better as soon as he could sit up and see out of the windshield. We laugh because he always parks his butt right in the center of the backseat. 

When we went on vacation he did fine until he got tired and laid down. 20 minutes later, projectile puke. On the way home, I gave him Dramamine. Worked like a charm. 

Good luck and I think it also helps if you go somewhere fun in the car like the dog park instead of always the vet. 


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Sophy had the same problem. I worked for a couple of weeks or more on desensitisation - sitting in the car with music and a book for me and chicken for her, for hours at a time. Once she was Ok with sitting in the car, I moved it just a few yards. Then drove a hundred yards. It took several weeks, but she did improve, and by the time she was a year old only really jolty driving made her ill (and still does!).

I found a number of things helped:
Not feeding her for an hour or two before driving.
Ginger tablets/biscuits 10 - 15 minutes before leaving.
A walk before a journey of any distance.
Driving very carefully and very smoothly, avoiding twisty routes.
Putting her in a crate on the back seat - especially when the crate was suspended from the rear head rest but very securely fastened. This seemed to reduce the vibration and movement.


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## Rusty (Jun 13, 2012)

Some good suggestions so far! Our puppy was quite carsick when we got him, too. I think after a few times in the car feeling sick, a puppy starts to feel anxious just by being in the car due to the negative associations. After a bit, the anxiety can cause the sickness just as much as the actual motion sickness. It's probably not the same for everyone, but this is how it seemed to me with our puppy.

We followed a lot of suggestions from this board, and at 9 months old we're definitely seeing improvement, and Begley will even get into the car by himself sometimes. What we did:
- sit with the dog in the car when it's not running. Give delicious high value treats and lots of cuddles to make it a positive experience.
- as much as possible, only do short trips to "fun" places (classes, doggy daycare, parks, etc.)
- don't feed him for a few hours before getting in the car, if possible (less to clean up if there your puppy does get sick).
- drive smoothly, and shift carefully if you drive a standard. 
- if there's someone available to ride along with you and the puppy, try having the other person sit with the puppy on car rides. My husband sat in the back seat of the car with Begley for a month or two when we drove anywhere and it seemed to help keep him calm (I can't sit in the back because I get car sick, too).
- it may be worth trying to go for a car ride with your puppy and a friend's dog who is calm and happy in the car. We did this with Begley and a neighbour's dog, and it seemed to help him to have an older dog set a good example about the car being a happy thing.

Once Begley was big enough to sit up and look out the front or side windows, that also helped. 

Good luck and be patient! Hopefully your puppy will outgrow this with time and positive experiences. In the meantime, I always made sure to keep an old towel on the backseat and a spare in the hatch.


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

Thank you all!!! Yes it certainly can be tough - thankfully his puke doesnt smell or I'd be with my head out the window puking too!

In my household we have 2 SUV's & 1 sedan. All vehicles are 2010 and newer so they arent terrible rough on the road...and he has made his mark in each one! The trip to the shore is all highway so we are good with keeping it smooth and for the roads to get to the highway - I drive slowly, avoid as many bumps/potholes as possible & brake smoothly... I even have tried the cracking of the windows due to cabin pressure... I have played chauffer with my mom sitting in the back and on other occassions - me sitting in the back. One helpful thing is that if one of us is in the back - we can "catch" him getting sick into a bag...delightful isn't it...

I agree with you Rusty - I am not sure how much it is motion sickness versus anxiety sickness. I do pull his food about 2 hours before we drive....and my SUV has a personal stock pile of towels and paper towels in it LOL!

Tonight he starts Puppy Kindergarten - I do hope he see's a car isn't always so bad and starts to enjoy it with a more favorable memory!

What are ginger cookies? I need to give that a try!!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

In the UK they are called ginger nuts, I think they may be ginger snaps in the US - small, hard cookies.


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## frankgrimes (Nov 28, 2011)

Ralph was a car sick puppy too, and didnt outgrow it until he was somewhere between 9 months to a year if I recall! Having the window open , way open, even in winter really helped. For Ralph Im pretty sure it was the car ride itself and not the anxiety about cars though. Something about the heat/stuffiness in there surely added to the puke-index!:afraid:

(Oh boy can I sympathize with you! We used to have to drive car sick ralphie to dog daycare every single morning during the week, then go to work!)


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## momtymztu (Mar 27, 2012)

There is a company called Homeopet (Homeopet - Natural homeopathic remedies for pets that makes drops for travel anxiety among other things. They work like a charm! I have had dogs that puked, drooled, or those that just panted and shook the whole ride and these work on all of them with out any side effects...no drowsyness, etc. The best thing is that once they get used to traveling without anxiety then you can stop using the drops.


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## sarahmurphy (Mar 22, 2012)

The dogs have not been barfers, but the kids were - keeping the car from rocking, when possible, but mostly keeping them from gawping and swinging their heads around till their inner ears develop to the point they have some balance control. 

You can help them practice with balance exercises - balance beam, stand up straight, etc - but mostly you have to wait for the inner ear to catch up...


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

Picked up the homeopet travel anxiety drops today! Leaving in an hour to drive 2 hours away! Fingers crossed that it works!!!!!


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

I had the same exact issue with Lou, poor baby. When I picked her up she vomited so much I was covered and sitting on it in the back seat with her. It took me 2 hours to clean it all up with the best products. Thank goodness my truck looks and smells 100% clean again, but yes!!!! It gets old!! Lou has gotten better from just going on often car rides and I sit in the back seat with her and hold her firmly so she doesn't move much with turns and curves on the road.
It also helps if she is facing the front windshield instead of side windows. (Blurry motion view on sides) Now she gets a bit sick "on the way there" and "on the way home" she sleeps. That leads me to believe that now it's more anxiety than upset stomach alone. I also try and give her tiny training treats to distract her when she seems like she is relaxing...
I don't know if in your case it's mostly motion sickness or anxiety as well, but maybe sitting in the back seat with your puppy and holding him/her so he/she feels firmly stable may be something you could try just for a while so he/she can get used to the car. i hold the sides of chest with my arms (a little bit of pressure like the thunder coat kind of ) But u might be vomited on if it doesn't work LOL


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## momtymztu (Mar 27, 2012)

NYNIC715 said:


> Picked up the homeopet travel anxiety drops today! Leaving in an hour to drive 2 hours away! Fingers crossed that it works!!!!!
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I really hope it helped...I lived with a carsicky dog for 10 years before finding that stuff...my poor aussie boy never grew out of it.  He LOVED to go, just got sick every single time until about the last 2 years of his life. It was not fun!


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

My tpoo Ash gets carsick every time too. And always within 5 mins!!! Even while in the crate in the car. My other tpoo Missy never gets sick. 


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## Sweetp (Mar 23, 2013)

I had an mpoo who suffered with motion sickness and I found when I put him in the front and elevated his car seat so he could see out the windows he did much better. If I was in the passenger seat I would have him on my lap on a pillow and he travelled okay but if I put him in the back he would get sick.


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

Well here is the update...Polo's drool was immensely lessened with the aid of homeopet travel drops!! No more waterfall of drool coming from his mouth! For the first time his chest was dry and maybe a few specs of drool on his legs - but MUCH MUCH better! 

The downside - he still puked... Gave him 25mg of Dramamine less drowsy (same ingredient as Bonine) 1 hour prior to travel along with a heavy dose of homeopet. Another dose of homeopet just as he got into the car as well... All in all the best trip yet with him...even though yes he did barf, he wasn't drooling anywhere near as much & seemed content in the car - more relaxed... Still on the fence about calling the vet for Rx stuff....I'll give it until he is 16 weeks old & see how it goes... Tomorrow he will be 14 weeks old - hopefully with time his inner ear will catch up ?


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## momtymztu (Mar 27, 2012)

NYNIC715 said:


> Well here is the update...Polo's drool was immensely lessened with the aid of homeopet travel drops!! No more waterfall of drool coming from his mouth! For the first time his chest was dry and maybe a few specs of drool on his legs - but MUCH MUCH better!
> 
> The downside - he still puked... Gave him 25mg of Dramamine less drowsy (same ingredient as Bonine) 1 hour prior to travel along with a heavy dose of homeopet. Another dose of homeopet just as he got into the car as well... All in all the best trip yet with him...even though yes he did barf, he wasn't drooling anywhere near as much & seemed content in the car - more relaxed... Still on the fence about calling the vet for Rx stuff....I'll give it until he is 16 weeks old & see how it goes... Tomorrow he will be 14 weeks old - hopefully with time his inner ear will catch up &#55357;&#56835;


Thanks for the update...I was wondering how the trip went. I'm glad it seemed the Homeopet helped a little at least. I do think it works more on the anxiety side of carsickness, probably less on the physical inner ear part of it. 

There is another product that my husband uses for seasickness that helps tremendously with the inner ear stuff but I can't remember the name of it. It is in the form of drops that you actually rub behind your ears. If I remember correctly it was safe for pets as well. I'll ask him the name of it. Might be worth a try. 

Hopefully your boy will grow out of it and you won't have to worry about it much longer.


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## OneillR (May 18, 2013)

I have the same problem with Lager but to a lesser degree. He is five months now and when i first got him, i took him on a 7 hour trip and he made it 4 hours before the projectile puke happened all over my other dog pan! Poor girl, since then i have not fed him hours before a long car ride and if it is a long trip i slowly feed him and stop frequently during the drive. However he still has massive amounts of drool every time he gets into the car. Sometimes he starts before the car is even moving! But i take him on very short trips everyday and he seems to be getting better with the drooling but it is still very noticeable. 

I have a backseat cover similar to this: 



 so it makes it easy to clean vomit/drool off the cover. I also always keep a spare towel in the backseat to wipe mid drives when the drool on his face gets very "globby". Best of luck weaning him off of it, im sure it will pass by the time of a year old.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

I've had carsick dogs in the past, and it's no fun. Fortunately Jazz has never been carsick. I mentioned that to her breeder, who said it's because she uses the BioSensor method on all her puppies. When I ran a search on that, there was disagreement about whether it's useful or just hocus-pocus, but maybe there is something to it.


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

I like the idea of just sitting in the care, maybe turning the radio on, but not going anywhere until he can "participate" without getting sick. Sunny got sick a couple times when I first got him, but he was not used to a car other than riding in the crate in back, so I can understand it. That's along ride to the beach though.....good luck.

Rescue Remedy is a great homeopathic tincture. Just a few drops on the tongue or in the water and it relaxes them (and people, too). You can google it.


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## jessnicole10 (Mar 8, 2012)

Bo is a year and a half and he just outgrew his carsickness at about a year. He did the same thing with the drooling and would throw up every time. We started putting him in the back of the SUV in his crate where it was flat and he was closed in and he seemed to do better. I think his issue was that if he rode in the backseat, it wasn't sturdy enough and he couldn't get his body stable because of his long lanky legs. We don't have to crate him in the car anymore, we just put him in the back still. But if we know we're going somewhere, we don't feed him until that evening when we come back home


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## crestiespoo (Dec 19, 2012)

Our three little dogs LOVE traveling in the car and have NEVER been sick. Portia, however gets sick... When we got her we had a 5.5 hour drive home and she was sick several times... She gets that slimey slobber after about 15 minutes now. Tomorrow, we are heading out on a 13 hour drive (one way) to Pennsylvania!!! I will not feed her before we leave, and the vet has said I can give her a 50mg gravol tablet about 1/2 an hour before leaving to settle her stomach... I'll let you know how it goes!


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

I do have an actual car seat cover so that comes off for easy clean up & thankfully is machine washable. I do keep towels down so if he does get sick & it's on the towel I can quickly scoop that up to avoid a total mess on the seat cover itself?

Tomorrow we have training. He doesn't get sick on the 15 minutes there - & i am hoping homeopet lightens the drool again so it doesn't look like I brought a half wet spoo puppy with me?. Overall I am pleased with homeopet since less drool means he is definitely calmer & also makes for one less messy looking pup?

Butlerchick - please let me know how the stuff you used for today works. I am in PA myself - safe travels!!!




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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

14 weeks old... Being silly!!!!









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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

NYNIC715 said:


> 14 weeks old... Being silly!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Sooooooooo cute!!!



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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

Thank you Lou!!! Meant to post this in his 52 weeks of Polo album! Clicked the wrong album?


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

I need to try the crate back of SUV thing... 

Got a script from the vet for cerenia... Polo barfed 2 times with that!!!!!

I pray he gets over car sickness - makes me feel terrible seeing him soo sickly... As soon as he is out of the car he is fine - which is probably the only reason why we still travel.....

Question about the crate in the back... Polo is only 22 pounds currently - I do have this soft crate which I think will fit in my truck... Do you think it's too big though for him to use at this point in time?? 

Size: Large 38 inches long x 26 inches wide x 29 inches high









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## jcampbell0665 (Jun 2, 2013)

Alice had a terrible time with carsickness but I think she may be outgrowing it. We started obedience classes today 25 miles from our house and she never even acted like she was not feeling well...woohoo! This is the furthest she's been without getting sick! 


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## not-so-prince-harry (Jun 2, 2013)

Harry doesn't throw up or have the heavy drool but his car anxiety is heart breaking. As soon as we are even walking toward the car he is crying and he screams the whole journey no matter 5 minutes or 50. Actually breaks my heart, I sing hakunamatata to him and it calms the crying a little haha. Going to see if I can get the anti anxiety drops he is just so distressed by it all :-( 


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## sarahmurphy (Mar 22, 2012)

Spike's crate is big enough for both him and Fritz to ride pretty comfortably in... so it is way too big for one dog. If he was a barfer, I'd put a big fat blanket to cuddle and cushion him and close the covers on the side of the car - leaving him only an option to see forward or back, but not side to side. With the human children, I put travel pillows behind their heads like the infant head stabilizer pillows to keep them from slinging their heads around and barfing - it helped some. Both human children had tubes in their ears,a nd once the inner ear developed enough, they stopped barfing.


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

jcampbell0665 said:


> Alice had a terrible time with carsickness but I think she may be outgrowing it. We started obedience classes today 25 miles from our house and she never even acted like she was not feeling well...woohoo! This is the furthest she's been without getting sick!
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


You must certainly be extremely happy to see she is getting over it!!! I just keep hoping it'll start to get easier as time goes on and he gets older!!!


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

sarahmurphy said:


> Spike's crate is big enough for both him and Fritz to ride pretty comfortably in... so it is way too big for one dog. If he was a barfer, I'd put a big fat blanket to cuddle and cushion him and close the covers on the side of the car - leaving him only an option to see forward or back, but not side to side. With the human children, I put travel pillows behind their heads like the infant head stabilizer pillows to keep them from slinging their heads around and barfing - it helped some. Both human children had tubes in their ears,a nd once the inner ear developed enough, they stopped barfing.


Sounds like me as a kid too! Tubes and all - although I still get car sick now as an adult if I am in the back seat - so I usually go to sleep myself!! I was worried too that the crate may be a tad too big - enabling him to still get sick in it. I'll need to play around with it this week before we leave for the holiday week/end and see what I can do to stuff it to close off the space. 

This AM we have pulled food an hour ago & have him a dose of Cerenia - will wait the 2 hours and pray that this works this time! Will keep you all posted!


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

not-so-prince-harry said:


> Harry doesn't throw up or have the heavy drool but his car anxiety is heart breaking. As soon as we are even walking toward the car he is crying and he screams the whole journey no matter 5 minutes or 50. Actually breaks my heart, I sing hakunamatata to him and it calms the crying a little haha. Going to see if I can get the anti anxiety drops he is just so distressed by it all :-(
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Try the travel drops - I do a heavy squirt of it down the hatch. Forget measuring the # of drops as Polo won't stand still for it! Definitely did help - but not 100% but he did seem calmer... I would give it a try. I used Homeopet travel anxiety. There is also rescue remedy which I heard good things about but did not yet try.


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## NYNIC715 (Oct 15, 2012)

Well I traveled home yesterday with him on a dose of Cerenia. HE DID NOT PUKE! He drooled a lot which is a catch 22 with the Cerenia - drool happens to be a side effect... But drool is better than vomit... In the meantime - I am going to try putting a childs waterproof bib on him (please do not laugh at me - I know it sounds totally crazy to do):crazy: But if I can keep him dry of drool & barf free - I will be much happier. I do have my fingers crossed that he does outgrow it (even if it take a full year):fingers-crossed:


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