Cerenia

[LakeFlyPie]

DDog is very car sick, can't manage more than 5 min journey.
Vet has recommended Cerenia medication.
We are hoping to do a 3 hour drive later in the month and plan to try it then.
Bit concerned if it doesn't work we'd have to abandon trip.
Does anyone have experience of Cerenia for motion sickness, good or bad?
TIA

In alternative could you sedate your dog? Years ago (40 years and in France) our cat was hysterical the second he was in a cage and the vet gave as pills we would crush and put in small plate of milk.
Don’t wait for your big trip to test the medication. Also don’t feed the dog in the 8 hours prior to trip. Make a test drive

I'm a vet. It works very well. Given 1-2hrs before travel with small amount of food but not wrapped in food. It lasts all day so may cover your return trip too? Expensive though and cannot be used daily, so best kept for big trips. He is likely to outgrow the car sickness given time. A view out the window, plenty of ventilation and frequent short non-bumpy trips to nice places will help this.

Thanks both, we are trying to desensitise him with short journeys but no much success so far.
villainousbroodmare sorry to ask but vet has prescribed 2x 24mg for our 16kg mutt. I had a look online and dosing for motion sickness seemed to be 8mg/kg. Don't want to question my vets expertise but can ask an expert stranger online Also 24mg are out of stock everywhere so may need to ask for an amended prescription (16mg and 60mg available at some online stores) not sure what vet etiquette is for that??

Yes, you are correct, it's a much higher dose for travel sickness than for simple nausea. He needs 148mg so 2 x 60mg plus 1 x 24mg would be fine. It's apparently important not to divide or crush tablets even when opening pack. I would ask your vet tactfully.

Thanks so much for your advice, spoke to the vet who's amended the prescription for the 160mg tablets (this is recommended dose on data sheet for 15-20kg dogs so hopefully that should be ok).
Think we'll try a one hour journey day trip to the beach (don't think he's ever seen sand or sea before) and if that goes ok we might have the option of a few days in N Wales (2+ hour journey) next month 🤞

Good stuff. Hope he enjoys it. Nausea is horrible. My dog who used to flee at the merest jingle of keys now likes to camp in the car in case anyone might be going somewhere.

Once watched a dog trainer open both car doors and lead ddog in one door out the other.
Every day for a few weeks.
Then a pause mid way and a treat given.
Repeated for a few weeks.
Then a sit in for a few mins in the back for a few mins.
Lengthen that time.
Then closed doors sit in..
Seemed a good result eventually! !

Thanks for all of the advice.
He will reluctantly get in the car but just starts to drool and subsequently puke once car is moving. Can sometimes manage a 5 min journey but mostly not.
He came overland from Bosnia (is a rescued street dog) in a crate within a van which I imagine was a long, anxious and sickly journey ☹️
Hopefully if we can switch off the puke centre in his brain with cerenia for a couple of trips and then get some positive associations attached to journeys he'll grow to love it and not vomit all over the new car I'm collecting next week

I have never had cerenia fail for a travel sick dog and in lots of cases two good size journeys with cerenia and travel sickness is cured for good.

My experience echoes Lonecatwithkitten I work with my dogs and had a very travel sick puppy. We did the short journeys building up etc nothing worked.

I then had a 6 hour journey for work and he had to come. I was almost thinking of resigning

Gave the dog the Cerenia and he has never been sick in the car again and is now a fully working happy travelling dog.

I do hope you get the same result

It worked!
He seemed to get hypersalivation as a side effect (or maybe he would have drooled that much anyway!) but tolerated the 90 min journey on 160mg dose well. Managed a 10 min drive the next day and then made it home 3 days later on a half dose (still soaked his bed with slobber). Hoping to have a trip to the seaside soon

Very interested in your update, congratulations.
Please keep us posted. We have recently got a v v car sick adult dog.

Got to the seaside and back on half a tablet per 2.5 hour car journey (with gallons of saliva again but no vomit) and he loved the beach

This was a few weeks ago, tried a local 5 min journey this week, ok on way there, puked on way back.

At least we know the Cerenia works for longer journeys but short, local drives are still problematic.