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To drug or not to drug? That is the question. I prefer to think of it as, "avoiding life-threatening allergic response...just in case!"

I had a 6 week old kitten I needed to take on 3 flights from Ontario, California to Albany, New York as carry-on luggage. While I wasn't too keen on "drugging" her, I decided to opt for the tamer Benedryl. With Benedryl you wouldn't have as much reaction worry because it is already an H-2 histamine receptor blocker-you're already giving them what they would have anyway for a reaction! Make sure you do the math with the vet so you don't OD little kitty :-). The liquid form in a three to five milliliter syringe works best (and pull a burrito on them-wrap kitty in a towel with the head sticking out). She took it in stride for the first two flights, and I gave her half the dose before we left Chicago about 7 hours after that. She snored all the way to NY and woke up happy as a clam about 45 min after we landed. I would highly recommend this to someone taking a relatively short flight or flights with a cat (i.e. staying in the same country). My kitty was young and timid and would have spent the next 12 hours all tense and "freaked out". And she also was found by me one week before in my car engine next to the timing belt, so I figured she was death-proof to begin with (just kidding!).

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