© kalcutta – Fotolia.com

Generally I would not recommend traveling with your cat, but sometimes it’s necessary and also some cats may cope very well with it if getting use to it from an early age or not getting motion sickness/having any diseases. They are individs just like us. Check by doing some minor roadtrips before you leave on your longer one.

The biggest problem you probably will face is to get the cat to drink water, so you can try to help your cat putting water drops around the mouth – or tongue if it’s hanging out – if possible. Be sure to bring your own tap water with you, because the cat might not drink from bottled water – you know how picky they can be.

Put a wet towel over (or in a part of) the cat carrier to keep it shady and cool. Try to find a small fan driven by batteries and place it in front of the carrier to use if needed, but not not directly to the eyes of the cat to avoid drying the cat’s eyes out.

Except for the belly and the paws which is the same as for the dogs, also keep their outside of the ears and the armpits cool. Since it might be more difficult to cool down a cat with water, try using a misting spray instead. If the cat want to play, try throwing a couple of icekubes.

Cats generally are better at finding cool places to lay down at by themselves than some of the dogs do. Place some cool bottles and see if the cat want to lay around them. You could also freeze them before you go travel to keep them cool during the trip, but don’t let the cat lay beside them when they are frozen without anything in between.

If you need to make a stop and park the car, use extra windshields for the windows to keep the car cool or don’t put the cat back in the car again until the AC has been on for a while and the air in the car is cool again. (What ever you do: don’t let the cat out of the carrier, it will escape!)

To keep a cat cool at the hotel room, test if the bathroom is cooler than the rest of the room which it use to be. Also make sure your hotel room have airconditioning when you book it and check that it is working the first thing you do when you arrive. If not you have bigger luck when asking for a room with a working AC if you do it at once.

Cats have a habit of finding all bags, boxes or suitcases to hide in, so look out that you won’t lock in your cat in your suitcase

© pterwort – Fotolia.com

When it comes to travel with other transport like buses, train or air, always ASK about all the conditions for the cat before booking anything and make sure you book with a responsible carrier.

How do you know if your cat is dehydrated and overheated? Look out for the signs: unusual panting and drooling, lethargic, fever, vomiting, Diarrhea and muscle tremors among other signs. Wrap the cat in a wet towel, place the cat in cool place, put on a fan and try to get the cat to drink water but don’t force it.

If you suspect your cat have had a heat stroke, even if you got it out of the primary danger, always let a Vet check it up, since there can be damages to inner organs if unlucky!

©Lifecruiser Love Cats
 

© javier brosch, Fotolia.com

The most obvious sign that your dog think it’s too hot is that the tongue hangs out of it’s mouth. Why does a dog hangs his tongue out of the mouth? He tries to regulate his body heat. The moisture on the tongue will make the blood flow to be cooler.

I can’t say this enough strongly: never ever leave your dog in the car alone during a hot day, not even for a few minutes! It’s very painful for them. Dogs do not cope with heat very well, in fact much worse than we do ourselves!

If traveling by car: try to travel when it’s not too hot and keep the AC running all the time. Do stops regularly along the way and if you can find any places where the dog can take a bath along the way, make the stops there. Have enough towels in the car to last for the whole trip. A bath will cool down the dog for a long time.

If leaving your dog at your holiday rental while you’re going out: make sure that it’s not too hot and that there is enough air. Do leave the airconditioner on for the dog and if it use to be power outage in the area: leave some windows open to be sure the dog get some air.

Always exercise your dog when it’s least hot, which means in the early mornings and late evenings. Try to let them use their heads instead of their bodies. The brain needs the most exercise for them to get calm and satisfied. Try to avoid asphalt roads since they absorb heat trough their feet.

That’s also why the best way to cool down an already too hot dog is to place the dogs feet in cool water and sprinkling the chest with cold water or cover him in wet cold towels – plus letting him drink cool water of course. Also remember that a dark coated dog will be faster dehydrated than a light coated dog.

© capsicina, Flickr.com

From my own dog experiences I will also learn you my own trick to avoid getting the dog too hot in advance:

Have a piece of an old bed sheet with you that you can wrap around yuor dog, wet it with cool water and place it on his body. Sometimes it’s also enough when the dog lays upon it. Keep it wet. It’s a great cheap way to keep your dog cool, the bed sheet don’t take up much space/weight and you will need to have water with you anyway.

Also give your dog some dog treat that have been in the freezer or if not possible when out: give the dog an icecream, which will cool him down a lot – at least so that he stop panting for a while, but that will only help temporarily. The sugar in the icecream will make him thirsty eventually – and maybe add up his weight if you have a overweight dog.

Use your fantasy: set up a childrens pool, put on the sprinklers. Don’t be mad of the dog if it has been digging itself a hole in your garden and laid down there – it’s a way to find a cooling place.

How do you know if your dog is dehydrated? Look out for the signs: unusual panting and drooling, lethargic, fever, vomiting, bloodshoot eyes and paleness among others. If you lift the skin: will it fall back fast again or not? If not, the dog is probably dehydrated.

Don’t put ice on the dog – visit the Vet to be sure that your dog will be OK!

©Lifecruiser Love Dogs

Some other dog related posts at Lifecruiser:

Dog on vacation – kayaking
The Dog Bar: Water, snacks and hopefully no Bar fights
Dangerous Dark Bark Passion
Memories of bath maniacs
The Memorable Boxer
 

It’s definitely all about the moment, to catch so called “Kodak photo moments”. I love those kind of photos. Do you have any to share with us? Please do!

©Lifecruiser Love Cat Photos

Other farm cats photo posts by Lifecruiser:

Travel Photo: Holiday Fat Cat
Farm Photo: Morning Cat
Cat in Box, Gotland
The Farms Wild Cats
Visiting Farm Friends In Norway
 

Of course, I couldn’t resist it… I just LOVE crazy holiday postcards and especially unusual postcards like this one – and I don’t mind at all if they are in black and white like this one either!

©Lifecruiser Love Unusual Postcards

Other Travel Postcards posts by Lifecruiser:

French Food Postcard: La Ratatouille
French Food Postcard: La Soupe Au Pistou
French Food Postcard: La Tapenade
 

Portuguese Water Dogs origins from the Algarve region in Portugal, where they have a very interesting history of herding fish into the fishermen’s nets, retrieve broken nets – even to act as couriers from ship or shores. It’s an excellent swimmer and distances as long as 80 km (in tempered water) is documented.

A Portuguese Water Dog is first described in 1297 in a monk’s account of a drowning sailor who was pulled from the sea by a dog with a “black coat, the hair long and rough, cut to the first rib and with a tail tuft”. Source: Wikipedia

It’s a fairly rare breed in Sweden, they occurred here for the first time around 1980, but has since then become very popular.

©Lifecruiser Love Dog Photos

Earlier related World Dogs posts by Lifecruiser:

World Dogs: Italian Bergamasco
 

The water is the big lake Mälaren that is surrounding Stockholm and a bit beyond. To be around water always is soothing, don’t you think…?

©Lifecruiser Love Sea activities
 

They origin from the Italian Alps, near Bergamo – so no wonder they got an effective warming coat. The Bergamasco’s were used to move the sheep herds and was mentioned first in literature from the 18th century.

Though this Bergamasco in my photos I actually found in Stockholm. There is not a big number of them in Sweden, but they do exist even over here!

Always handsome Italians – even the dogs…

©Lifecruiser Love Dog Photos
 

Have I told you before that Mr Lifecruiser is the very best at winning those kind of funfair toys for me? He always win something. I have to stop him, otherwise we would have our whole home filled with cuddly toys!

He has such an accurate firing when it comes to aiming in the funfair stalls and winning toys… We ended up with some unusual pets that way…

©Lifecruiser Love Cuddly Toys
 

Whatever the reason are, he really knows how to relax and be the perfect holiday cat!

Lifecruiser ♥ Farm Cats
 

She is very friendly and social and runs after or at the side of the farmer all the time. almost like a dog. Very cute!

Lifecruiser ♥ Farm Cats