Travelling With Your Pet in Pakistan: Car Journeys, Heat and Carriers

Most pet travel in Pakistan is not a journey between cities. It is twenty minutes across town to a clinic, with an animal who does not want to go, in traffic, in heat.

Almost everything that goes wrong on that trip is preventable, and most of it comes down to two things: how the animal is secured, and temperature.

Secured, not loose

An unrestrained animal in a moving vehicle is a hazard to itself and to everyone else. In a sudden stop it becomes a projectile. On an ordinary journey it distracts the driver. At the destination it can bolt through an opening door into traffic.

• Cats: always a carrier, hard-sided if possible, secured so it cannot slide
• Small dogs: a carrier or crate is simplest and safest
• Large dogs: a crate, a boot barrier, or a harness designed for vehicle use and clipped to a seatbelt
• Never on a lap, never with the head out of the window, never loose in an open pickup

Heat, which is the local problem

A Karachi summer changes the maths on every journey. Travel early or late where you can, run air conditioning, and check that the airflow actually reaches a carrier on the floor rather than blowing over it.

• Carry water and something to offer it in
• Use a sunshade on the window nearest the animal
• Watch for heavy panting, drooling, weakness or unsteadiness, and stop and cool the animal if you see them
• Remember that a carrier on a hot floor is warmer than the seat

The cat problem

For many cats the carrier is the worst part of the appointment, and the reason vaccinations quietly lapse in cat households. The trick is that the carrier should stop being a signal.

• Leave it out permanently, open, with bedding inside, so it becomes furniture
• Feed treats in it on ordinary days when no trip is happening
• Put in something that smells of home, not freshly washed
• Cover it with a light cloth in the car, since less visual input means less panic
• Confine the cat to one room before you need to leave, or you will spend the appointment window under a bed

For routine appointments there is a simpler answer: a home visit removes the journey from the equation entirely, and vaccination and check-ups need no clinic equipment.

Travel sickness

Drooling, restlessness, whining and vomiting are common, particularly in young animals. Withhold food for a few hours before travelling, but not water. Keep the vehicle cool and the ride as smooth as the roads allow.

If it happens on every journey, raise it with a veterinarian rather than accepting it. Repeated bad journeys teach an animal to dread travel, which makes each one harder than the last.

A short checklist before you leave

• Carrier or restraint ready, and the animal already in it
• Collar, tag and any identification on, in case of an escape
• Water, and a towel in case of accidents
• Vaccination card or records, or the app to hand
• Air conditioning on before the animal gets in, not after

If getting there is the obstacle rather than the appointment, a home visit removes the journey from the equation: vaccinations and routine check-ups need no clinic equipment.