How to prevent a mid-flight kitty poo-splosion?

Post date: 2026-09-28 16:54:11

We need to take our cat on a nine hour flight (can't be avoided) and the last time we flew with her, a few years ago, she had explosive diarrhea both on the flight out AND the flight back, a month later. How do we prevent this from happening again, and minimize her distress?

(Obviously we wouldn't travel with her again if it could be avoided.) Years ago, we had given her Gabapentin for a few days before the previous flight, and also gave her a sedative the morning of the flight, and also didn't feed her for 8 hours before both flights, but it didn't seem to make a difference re: the diarrhea. (Gabapentin hasn't given her diarrhea when we've given it to her in the past, for example before vet visits.)

This time we are planning on giving her a sleeping pill (Trazodone) as well as Gabapentin. But we want to make sure she isn't dehydrated on such a long flight, so we're not sure what we should feed her and how many hours to do it before the flight, in order to minimize stress-induced diarrhea.

On normal days she usually has a can of wet food in the morning, and another one in the evening. We were considering giving her just a liquid treat the morning before the flight so she's not dehydrated, and maybe some kibble. But we really don't know what the best regimen is, for a flight of this length. We also are willing to consider putting her in a kitty diaper but would prefer to avoid doing anything else to make this transit any harder on her.

(And please don't say "just don't travel with her" -- it's not an option in this case, and it won't be a frequent occurrence -- this kind of thing happens only once every few years.) Thank you!

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