Dog Car Sickness Natural Remedy: Ginger & Lavender Oil

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Explore natural remedies for dog car sickness (travel/motion sickness). What can I give my dog for motion sickness? Well, natural remedies such as ginger for travel sickness have been found to be effective.

You can also use over-the-counter medicines such as Benadryl and Dramamine. Before we go into all that, let’s first define what constitutes dog car/travel/motion sickness.

Definition of Dog Car Sickness

Dog car sickness, also known as motion sickness, refers to the anxiety associated with pets when traveling in a car and makes the canine feel dizzy, hot, and nauseous.

In other cases, symptoms such as restlessness, swallowing, lip licking, drooling, retching, panting and vomiting.

Canines with nauseous behavior exhibit signs of urination or bowel movements, hyperactivity, nervousness, vocalization, and stress during travel.

Just like some humans, moving with a dog in your car can make him uncomfortable. This is an intolerable condition for some dogs.

The problem is not only associated with car movement, but with other objects in motion, including trains, boats, and aircraft.dog car travel sickness

You can tell whether your pet has motion sickness if he has a familiar malady. The inner ear, a balance control organ of your dog gets over-stimulated when in motion.

The most affected are young canines because they are yet to develop their balance fully. If your puppy experiences car sickness, it eventually outgrows the problem.

Can dogs get car sick and throw up?

Yes. Dogs can get motion sickness, throwing up, nausea, dizziness, and increased salivation to name a few symptoms.

Studies have found that about 3-5% of dogs are at risk for motion sickness – sensitivity to motion varies between breeds, but it is most common in toy breeds or those with close relatives that are known to be sensitive to motion.

Vomiting is not necessarily the desired outcome of this condition; excessive drooling also occurs as part of this response. You may wish to take preemptive measures based on how you know your dog will handle similar situations in the past.

What Can You Give a Dog for Motion Sickness?

If your dog is experiencing motion sickness, you can give him or her one of the many over-the-counter conventional prescriptions such as Benadryl and Dramamine among others.

These medications are known to help in addressing issues related to your dog’s nausea during travel. Traditionally, the favorite nausea remedy of veterinarians was Acepromazine (Rx).

This was a common therapy for calming anxious dogs besides helping to minimize vomiting and nausea.

There are reputable homeopathic remedies used in dog motion sickness. They include Aconitum and Cocculus.

About 15 minutes before you travel, give your pet the therapies in 30c potency followed by two more times after 30 to 60 minutes in that interval to reduce anxiety, vomiting, and nausea during the journey.

Pet Alive has a great homemade remedy made from a mixture of the homeopathic and herbal product called Easy Travel Solution. It’s an excellent combination useful for lessening your dog’s motion sickness.

Others include flower essences such as Rescue Remedy and Be Serene also do well with dogs experiencing anxiety and fear related to the car or any other travel and are administered every 15 minutes as required.

Dog Car Sickness Ginger

For years, many countries across the world use ginger to calm nausea in your dog caused by car sickness.

It has a wide range of benefits for your pet because it helps to deal with all issues related to illness, anxiety, to motion sickness. Moreover, if your dog has a stomach upset, the safe home remedy is ginger.

The unique anti-inflammatory properties of ginger make it a perfect natural remedy for dog car sickness. Ginger has long been used for human beings as well.

So you have one more reason to believe in this unique spice inside your kitchen cabinet.

Having read several reviews on the web, I am convinced it is a worth natural remedy for calming the stomach of your pet as well as promoting healthy digestion.

The general dosage using freshly grated or grounded ginger is as follows:

  • Give 1/4 teaspoonful of ginger to a dog weighing between 20 to 25 kg
  • Give 1/8 teaspoonful of ground ginger to a puppy weighing no more than 12kg (25 pounds)

Kindly note: The ginger is effective when used in small but regular doses such as after every 10 or 15 minutes. You should contact your nearest veterinarian if you need relevant and specific advice for your dog.

Here is more information about ginger for dog carsickness:

Ginger Dog Treats for Motion Sickness – Recipes

This is a homemade ginger Biscuits recipe for the treatment of your dog’s nausea caused by motion sickness:

Ginger Biscuits Recipe

Requirements:

  • 1 cup of water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoonful of dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoonful of crushed ginger root
  • 1/2 cups of flour from whole wheat
  • 1/4 cup of oat bran or wheat bran
  • 1 tablespoonful of olive oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 ½ cup of all-purpose, unbleached flour
  • 2 tablespoonfuls of un-sulfured blackstrap molasses

Instructions

  1. In a bread maker, put all the ingredients and mix using the dough cycle.
  2. Remove the dough from the bread maker when ready to use.
  3. Split the dough into 3 rations.
  4. Make ¼ inch thick sheets of rolled dough.
  5. Using a girl or boy template or any other method, cut out cookies from the gingerbread.
  6. Wait for 45 minutes to let the cookies rise.
  7. Using an oven with the temperature set at 275 degrees F, bake the cookies for 1 hour.
  8. Switch off power from the oven and allow the cookies to finish drying at night.
  9. In a dry, cool, airtight container, store the baked cookies.

Homemade Recipe for Gingerbread

For those who wish to give gingerbread to their dogs, the following is the recipe to follow in order to make a loaf of good bread for the pets.

Requirements:

  • 1 cup of water
  • 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups of flour from whole wheat
  • 1 tablespoonful of vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoonful of ginger
  • 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose, unbleached flour
  • 11/2 teaspoonfuls of dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup of oat bran (wheat bran)
  • 2 tablespoonfuls of un-sulfured molasses

Instructions:

  1. Based on your manual, pour all the ingredients into a bread maker and set it ready for making the dough.
  2. Remove the dough when ready and slice it into 3 pieces or sections.
  3. Make ¼ or ½ inch thick dough balls.
  4. Cut out the dog biscuits using bone cookie cutters.
  5. Lay the dough balls down on an oiled baking area for a period of between 30 and 60 minutes.
  6. At 300 degrees F, bake the biscuits until lightly browned or for approximately one hour.
  7. Switch off power from the oven and let the biscuits dry overnight in the oven.
  8. Remove the dog bone treats early when they are hard and crisp and if not, leave them there longer to continue drying up.

How Much Ginger Can I Give My Dog?

There are a variety of ginger forms including raw root, pill/capsule, powder, tea, tincture.

In raw form, administration requires you to use your knife to remove off the skin on raw ginger and mince root’s yellow section into fine pieces.

For pets weighing less than 50 pounds, give a 1/4 teaspoon, and for larger ones, a 1/2 teaspoon.

Alternatively, you can combine it with your dog’s food. However, it’s better to begin the diet with lower doses and steadily increase based on the reaction of the canine and on your holistic veterinarian’s advice about dosing.

Major Natural Remedies for Dog Car Sickness

These are some of the major established natural remedies for car and motion sickness.

#1 Never Travel With Your Dog on an Empty Stomach

Let your pet travel on a full stomach to moderate signs of nausea because an empty belly will only worsen car and motion sickness. However, the canine shouldn’t overeat either. You can, therefore, travel with its food to feed the dog in small, frequent portions.

#2 Put your Dog on Vitamin B6

Research on the effectiveness of Vitamin B6 by Obstetrics and Gynecology found that it can help in controlling your dog’s vomiting because it also helps expectant mothers as well.

#3 Drink or Eat Ginger to Prevent Car and Motion Sickness

A web article states that your pet can actually benefit from ingesting dried ginger, non-alcoholic ginger ale, or ginger candies in capsules any moment you travel with your canine friend.

Ginger has antioxidant properties known as gingerols, an excellent organic remedy for car and motion sickness in dogs.

#4 Lavender for dog car sickness

Lavender oil can also be an effective natural remedy for your dog’s motion sickness. It mainly helps by calming down the dog’s nauseating.

#5 Cocculus Indicus for car travel sickness in dogs

In some cases, car travel sickness in dogs manifests itself as nausea or dizziness. In such cases, homeopathic remedies such as oculus come in handy.

Cocculus works by alleviating the effects the surrounding air has on the state of the pet. For example, cases exist where the fresh food or air in the car worsens the sickness. If you face such, consider this natural homeopathic remedy.

#6 Acupuncture & Massage for dog travel sickness

Homeopathic remedies such as massage and acupuncture have been shown to eradicate car travel sickness symptoms in pets such as dogs and cats. They tend to suppress nausea and anxiety with traveling.

Massages are also effective if they are done before and early into the journey. It is recommended to do a whole-body massage to calm some critical parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Conclusion

Most dogs suffer from motion sickness, annoying their owners who may want to travel with or take them around for rides. As they grow up, the canines steadily grow out of car motion sickness.

Adult dogs can take frequent rides without any issue. Taking your dog out on frequent rides will slowly help the pet grow out of the problem.

For dogs that never get over this problem, you may be forced to make the ride less traumatic by helping them with a few natural remedies and herbs known to ease the trauma.

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