Flying with a dog on Saturday - advice?

[crys20]

I'm not a vet student so I'd love to know your advice on my situation. I'm flying with a small (6.43 lb) 6 mo old dog on Saturday. She'll be flying in the cabin with me, in her small pet carrier. She is a perfect, very quiet lap dog, but I'm still nervous that with 2 hours in the airport plus a 3.5 hour flight, at some point (likely on the plane) she may start to whine and cry to get out of her space, and I really do not want to annoy other passengers. She's accustomed to the carrier and everything but I'm still worried. My major concerns are her going to the bathroom...We are getting to the airport at 3:30 for a 5:20 flight...So ideally she wouldn't eliminate between 3:30 pm EST and 9 pm EST...When should I stop offering food/water to make that happen? Everywhere I've read says not to sedate dogs while flying but would a small dose of benadryl, or something along those lines, really be that bad? Any thoughts? Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Iain]

I would not sedate your dog - especially without speaking to your vet. If anything happened it is unlikely in the air that anyone will be able to help you, and the bill for an emergency landing would be quite substantial.

I do not think 5 and a half hours is really that long for a dog to hold it and you can certainly make it easier by going through security as late as possible, and taking her water away an hour before you leave the house!!! I think the most important thing for you is not to make a huge deal about it, the dog will pick up on it. Do not fuss over the dog, just put it under the seat in front of you, face it away from you and keep quiet - your dog will go to sleep like nothing is going on.

I also have to mention in the event of an emergency landing where you have to evacuate it is not worth risking your life, or other passengers trying to save your dog.

 

[HorseyVet]

I would not sedate your dog - especially without speaking to your vet. If anything happened it is unlikely in the air that anyone will be able to help you, and the bill for an emergency landing would be quite substantial.

Would an airline even do that for an animal?

I do not think 5 and a half hours is really that long for a dog to hold it

I don't have a lot of personal experience with the very small dogs but my understanding from others is that they have to go a lot. Do you think it would be possible to just sort of go to the airplane bathroom and either express the bladder and/or clean up any accidents....Or even kind of let the dog try to go somewhere like a piddle pad (if he's kinda trained to those...) My guess is if your dog has an accident the other passengers would be very happy if you did something to clear the air.

 

[Iain]

Would an airline even do that for an animal?

Yeah - my friend who is an airline pilot actually had to make an unscheduled landing as ground crew had put a dog in the wrong hold. Not sure the whole story, but they landed and found one very cold dog!

 

[HorseyVet]

Yeah - my friend who is an airline pilot actually had to make an unscheduled landing as ground crew had put a dog in the wrong hold. Not sure the whole story, but they landed and found one very cold dog!

I've heard horror stories about animals being put in unpressurized areas...A breeder/show dog couple I knew refused to ship anything on a plane b/c of it...they'd drive to CA from Penn they were so worried....that was some years ago though...

BTW...Iain..I'm not trying to pry, but I haven't been able to figure out if you're in vet school, out, applying, etc...? Just curious.

 

[Iain]

BTW...Iain..I'm not trying to pry, but I haven't been able to figure out if you're in vet school, out, applying, etc...? Just curious.

I am going back to school to meet the pre-reqs to get into vet school. My background - I got my degree abroad and have none of the sciences!!

 

[VelcroSky]

Speaking of flying with a dog...

http://media.putfile.com/flyingdog

 

[crys20]

Thanks for the advice guys. The flight ended up going pretty well. She went 2 hours in the airport, plus the first 3 of 4 hours in air fine, quiet and perfect! But by the final hour she began crying on and off for about 30 minutes, she had to urinate which she did in her carrier which was ok. Several passengers and the flight attendants were like, appalled that I didn't sedate her - but NO ONE i talked to recommended it at all. Is there a safe way to sedate a 6.7 lb 6 mo old dog? I'm flying back in a couple weeks. One thing I would do this time is face her away from me, she was under the seat but she could see me somewhat, when I faced her away toward the end of the flight she quieted down.

 

[pathognomonic]

Sedating your pet is not recommended if it is not absolutely necessary. The most commonly used veterinary sedatives tend to cause hypotension and may impair the ability to thermoregulate. Neither of these are things you want to happen to your pet in transit. This is especially true if your pet is very young, old, small or infirmed.

 

[Iain]

If it went 'pretty well', why would you want to sedate it?

 

[Miranda]

It's funny how the general public thinks it is necessary to sedate animals for plane trips, whereas that very much isn't the case!

Working for a zoo for several years, I was "involved in" air shipment of many animals, ranging from small birds, to primates, to big cats. My understanding was that it is againt airline regulations to sedate these animals because of the risk of them vomiting and aspirating. In fact, once when shipping a jaguar, we got him into his crate hours before necessary in case he had forgotten his crate training and would need to be tranquilized in order to get into the crate. The vet in charge wanted that extra time so that he would be fully awake before we left for the airport (as it turned out, he walked straight in on his own....).

One time, my supervisor flew on the jump seat of a cargo plain to accompany a black bear accross country. When the pilot arrived and saw that the bear was fully awake, although very securely crated, he outright refused to fly and went straight back home!

-Miranda

 

[HorseyVet]

I think there is a far greater need to sedate some of these human-species pets...I think they are called children....for flights, movie theaters, resturants...etc

 

[crys20]

I agree, I know nothing about veterinary medicine and I didn't think sedation would be a good idea at all. What bothered me was how rude some passengers and the flight attendants were when for the first 75% of the flight no one had even been aware there was a dog on board. I mean, I completely understand being annoyed with a crying dog but still.

 

[Iain]

With horses it is bizzare people think that is a knacker onboard ready to shoot the horse if they become unruly! Considering how cold the cabin is, how busy the horses are eating their hay, and purposely not drinking to make up worry, they fly rather well -

 

[dvm'08]

With horses it is bizzare people think that is a knacker onboard ready to shoot the horse if they become unruly! Considering how cold the cabin is, how busy the horses are eating their hay, and purposely not drinking to make up worry, they fly rather well -

I've been on 2 flights where we've had serious problems with horses acting up during the flight. Both times we were ready to put the horse down if things didn't resolve quickly - fortunately we were able to contain the situations both times - but it definitely go our adrenaline pumping.

Flying with horses is risky business.

 

[PAThbrd]

I think there is a far greater need to sedate some of these human-species pets...I think they are called children....for flights, movie theaters, resturants...etc

Better yet, leave them at home! Definately not a small child fan...