Should My Pet Be Tranquilized?

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 The common consensus of The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) is recommendation against tranquilizing or sedating, in most cases for travel. Additionally, some airlines prohibit any tranquilizing/sedating of animals traveling with them. Some airlines may even require signed statements that your pet has not been sedated prior to flying.

 According to the AVMA sedating cats or dogs comes with some risks especially during air travel such as increased heart and respiratory problems. A most common issue is an inhibited gag reflex. Where if a pet vomits, due to the medication, the gag reflex is slowed. This allows vomit to be inhaled which can cause serious complications including death. Another risk inherent with using medication to calm the pets is they may become unsteady on their feet, and could fall and injure themselves. There has been much research on this subject. At a meeting of the United States Department of Agriculture and airline officials, a report suggested that “… over-sedation is the most frequent cause of animal deaths during airline transport.” It becomes obvious tranquilizing or sedating a pet for travel should be a last resort. 

  According to a study published in the Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research: “Psychology And Behavior Of Dogs During Transport.” there was no statistical significance between medicated and non-medicated dogs regarding stress factors and activity while traveling. There were some confounding factors that could explain this, including medication wearing off before travel was completed. More research needs to be done. What is interesting about this study is that they monitored dogs throughout travel, including drive to airport, waiting in cargo, being transported to the plane and being loaded into the plane. The moments of most stress for the dogs were loading and unloading from the plane. The conclusion suggested this was caused by being an unfamiliar activity for the pet. The majority of the time, the pets did not exhibit any significant stress levels. Overall, levels of stress and activity varied very little between the dogs that were tranquilized and those that were not.  

 Discuss this topic with your veterinarian well in advance of your expected travel date, if you think your pet needs to be tranquilized. Most Veterinarians will advise against unless there are clear reasons for doing so. If the decision is made to do so, we will need to discuss this with the veterinarian to verify meds used, dosage and timing, as well understand adverse effects. We also would like you to administer the medication several weeks prior to travel to make sure there are no adverse effects.