Preventing Heat Stroke

brooklet425

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Hi all. I have a question and was hoping someone had some experience in this. We'll be moving at the beginning of August from Washington state, where I still have my heater on at night and sometimes during the day, to south Texas. Obviously there's going to be a drastic temperature difference in the middle of summer. We'll be driving south through California, Arizona, New Mexico and then Texas. Part of the route takes us through Death Valley in California. My husband's in the Navy so this is a military move, and therefore we have no choice about the timing of the move. The last time we moved across the country was also in the summer, but we took a northern route, where it was hot, but not unbearably hot (I think we only had one day in one state where it was over 100 degrees).

We're taking our house full of cats with us, but I want to make sure that we keep them comfortable in the heat. The last time we did this, we did make stops along the way - like rest stops and restaurants - but we also stopped to see the sights along the way. I think the most time that we were ever away from the car was for 45 minutes and when we were gone, we parked the car in whatever shade we could find. We left the windows rolled up, but the car was still running with Max A/C on and the circulation in the car was set to outside air. The cats had water, and we had shades on the windows. We also left a note in the window of the car explaining that the A/C was on as high as it could go, the cats had water and we had the inside circulation set to outside air, with our phone numbers in case someone came by and got angry that we had the cats in the car, or saw a problem. We wanted them to contact us, and not the police. Basically, we did everything we could think of to keep them cool, and we always made sure we were back to the car as quickly as we possibly could be. None of the cats had any problems, and when we got back to the car each time, it was always perfectly cool and comfortable inside.

However, now that we're going to be going through a much hotter climate, I'm a little worried. I've been reading about precautions to take, one of which was to attach battery powered fans onto the carriers if we stop and get out of the car. However, it figures that only a few days ago I was watching a TV show about how cars driving through Death Valley often overheat in the summer. Obviously, an overheated car/s is not what we need with 11 cats in tow. We do plan on seeing some sights along the way this time too, but my main concern is the cats.

So this is what I know to do - always leave the A/C on, keep shades on the windows, park in the shade if possible, make sure the cats have water, attach fans to the carriers and I was also reading that putting a bottle of frozen water in the carrier with them is also a good idea (though I don't know how well this will work if we don't have a freezer in our hotel room the night before). Is there anything else anyone can suggest to make sure they don't have any problems with the heat along the way? A friend of mine drove this same route with 3 cats last summer and she had no problems at all (they also stopped several times along the way to sight see), but I tend to be paranoid, so I want to make sure I have all of my bases covered.

So if anyone has any advice or suggestions I'd appreciate it. Also, if anyone has any advice on hotel stays I'd also appreciate that. This is the most we have ever moved with, but in the past we just stay at pet friendly hotels and just omit the number of pets that we have. So if anyone knows of hotels that will happily accept 11 cats in a room, or any ways to get around a pet limit policy I'd love to hear them! Otherwise, we'll just do as we always do and hope we don't get caught. I guess there's really no other way.
 

arlyn

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As someone living in the Mojave desert, I can tell you, I would not do this to my pets.

Save the hotel money and rent an RV that has AC as well as a generator, that would be my advice.
 
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brooklet425

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I'd love to do something like that, but unfortunately, we have to drive the cars because we need our cars with us, and its way beyond our budget to have them shipped to us, plus rent an RV. The military will reimburse us for hotels, but nothing else. When we drive through Death Valley (my geography isn't so great - thats in or near the Mojave Desert right?) we have no intention of stopping there. We plan to just drive straight through. My biggest fear is the car overheating. I wish there was another way to drive, but we only have a certain number of travel days allowed, so this is the only way we can really go. I don't want to just turn down any advice given, but not driving the cars just isn't an option at all. We'll each have a car though, so I suppose if one car overheats, we can move everyone to the other car to stay cool. It'll take a lot of shuffling things around, but it can be done.

ETA: I just looked up your location, and I don't know if this makes much of a difference at all, but we'll be traveling north of where you are. We still have to go through Death Valley, and then Las Vegas (which does look pretty close to you), but then we were planning to sort of skim along the top of Arizona so that we'll be in Utah and Colorado for part of the trip. I don't know if the weather is any different in that area, vs where you are. Here's a question for you though. What time of day is the hottest in that area? We might be able to plan so that we aren't there at the peak hot time. That may seem like a stupid question, but we've lived in several states now, and the hottest part of the day in Washington isn't the same time as the hottest part of the day in North Carolina. So maybe we can plan out the trip to not be driving during the hottest hours of the day.
 

arlyn

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3pm-6pm is the hottest.
Southern Utah has high temps as well, you may feel some relief going through Colorado.

Death Valley is in the Mojave.
As a rule, we don't even go to the store without lots of water with us.

Can't even walk the dog during daylight hours.
 
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brooklet425

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This is all really good to know. I've never been to this part of the country before. We lived in South Texas once before, but we didn't drive through the southwest to get there.

So I'm sorry for the continuing potentially stupid questions, but this is what our plan looks like for the moment. I've been researching this ever since I found out what route we would be driving. I found a hotel outside of Death Valley - on the northwest outskirts. I'm not sure what town its in, or if its even in a town, but they claim to be 10-15 degrees cooler than in the valley. We are going to stop in Yosemite and then head through Death Valley so the plan now is to stop at this hotel first (after Yosemite but before Death Valley). I was able to get reservations which is great because they were almost booked up. But if we leave Yosemite and get to this hotel in the afternoon or early evening, then we can wake up early in the morning and head through Death Valley before the hottest part of the day and hopefully be in Las Vegas by early afternoon, where we can leave the cats in an air conditioned hotel room before going out to see the town. Thats pretty much my best option at the moment. So since you live there, and an RV won't be possible, do you think that sounds like a logical plan? (at least as logical as it can be? I really wish we were doing this at a different time of the year or driving a different route.)
 

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I'm not too sure, but I think that AC is more effective when air is set to recirculate?

One solution not often coming to mind is sell cars and get other ones at destination, but we often are too attached to our things to really do that, however it is one possibility.

Going 50 or 55 instead of 70 cuts fuel usage quite a bit, what is not often told is that it does decrease greatly amount of heat burning fuel is generating and can help great bit at hotter areas.

We are having here now around 90F which is really a lot of heat for us, I still have 2/3 of radiator vents blocked to get lower air resistance and thus better fuel economy and with my driving only 50mph and coasting any downhills, letting speed slow at uphills there is no overheating and I get around 65mpg so with style of driving one can help car to survive at hotter areas too.

On race track we use old trick of lifting rear part of hood up, which helps with cooling too. But that is perhaps not plausible in your case.

Do they still have ice at every gas station there? metal bucket with lid, filled with ice is good for few hours I think?

It is not uncommon at all fuel hose of car to rupture, so leaving car running by itself is bit of risky, even water house can break, when car is idling stationary temperature under the bonnet increases and all parts there are getting hotter than normally, which can pose greater potential to some kind of failure, these are risks that are good to know, how potential risks are to come into reality, depends from case by case, depending from car, car's history, etc etc.

Of course one have to work with tools given to him/her, there are so many things we can't change but we must just try to make it trough what tools there are.

Best result often comes when you find out what can go wrong, then prepare so that it does not matter if such thing goes wrong, so if one car brokes down in heat, can you continue with all cats with other? Planning and preparing can be time consuming and often there is no 'need' for it but when the worst happens it can be life saving to be prepared.

That is how I think about this problem and how to solve it, always have a backup plan for backup plan


I don't surely know much from deserts, but our winters have ton of snow and temps can be so cold that tires are 'square', I'm used to camping in these conditions and I think lot of basic idea that works in extreme cold should work in extreme hot too.
 

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Above poster is right, for best efficiency, run the AC as circulate inside air.

Unless you have an older car/broken AC, I don't see why you couldn't leave them in there with the AC on. The AC in our car can get the temp down to 70 even if it is 100 outside and the car is in the sun. It wastes a LOT of gas though. (And I live in Texas, and before that a desert part of California, so I know about HOT, lol)
 

ligwa

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I wouldn't advise leaving your car unattended (even with the air on) with your kitties inside. Anything could happen. Your car could, for many reasons, stop running. It takes only minutes for an animal to die in a car. Please don't leave them in there alone. Do your sightseeing some other time, when your kitties are safely at home.
 

minka

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Originally Posted by Ligwa

Do your sightseeing some other time, when your kitties are safely at home.
They aren't doing sightseeing, they are moving several states over.
 

anziani

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Why are you driving south? I would drive east through Montana then south through Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Should be considerably cooler with this approach. Death Valley is NOT an easy drive. I would bypass it completely. I would drive as long and as far as I could each day ignoring any tourist spots. After all, the idea is to get your family and cats to a new home. I would definitely not let the engine idle in a hot location. People from Washington have no concept as to how hot it can get down here. We live in the Palm Springs area. This weekend it will be 115F and then cool down to 110F until October. Unless your cars are new and in tip top shape, they will overheat in a flash. Arizona is not much cooler. When we lived in the Seattle area and moved down here we made arrangements with a local kennel to board our cats, then put them on a plane to us after we arrived. It was a fair price and the cats were not traumatized with a four day car trip.
I am a CA native who lived in WA for 10 years and have traveled extensively by car all over the West.
Anziani
 
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brooklet425

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Originally Posted by anziani

People from Washington have no concept as to how hot it can get down here.
We aren't from Washington. We live here because of the military too. We lived in South Texas for a few years before, so I do know what hot means. We just didn't move there in the summer last time, so when we had 115 degree days down there, I had no reason to take the cats out of the house.


Originally Posted by anziani

Why are you driving south?
We're stopping to see family that we haven't seen in years in California. Plus everyone we know who has relocated from here to Texas has driven this route. I'm not sure of the reasons why they drove this particular route, but we do know several people who have done it before, in the middle of summer, with pets, and had no problems at all. None of them seemed to actually have a real plan in place though, which is why I was asking for advice on here.

You also mentioned having them flown to us, which also isn't an option, once again because of the heat, and because of the cost. We looked into flying them out of south Texas with us several years ago and in the middle of summer, no airline would put animals on the plane. I'm not at all comfortable with the idea of them being in a cargo hold of a plane in this weather either. Unless, you meant you had someone fly with them in the cabin of the plane. Also cost is an issue - we have 11 of them, so to board 11 and then fly 11 is a logistical and financial nightmare. I don't think any airlines will even put 11 cats on a plane at once, but I could be wrong. I'm not one to not take care of my cats due to money. I've spent ridiculous amounts of money on their health care, but some things really are just too expensive. To board all 11 of them for just one night here is $250. Just 4 nights would already be $1000. Maybe there are cheaper places outside of this town, but we've looked into boarding before, and with 11 cats its pretty expensive, and since this isn't a vacation, our budget is very limited right now.

Someone else mentioned sightseeing. I may not have been clear in my OP so I'm sorry about that. When I said we stopped to see the sights, anytime we actually did anything "vacation" (quoting because its not an actual vacation) related we did without the cats. We stopped in a few towns and left the cats in the hotel room while we went out to explore. The longest we were ever gone from the car was about 45 minutes but that was NEVER because we were sight seeing. We have to eat, and some places we drove through were pretty remote so a fast food drive through wasn't an option. Not eating an actual meal also isn't an option either. We actually don't like stopping to eat that way though because it takes up too much time, but in some towns it was necessary. I've never driven this route before though, so I don't know what food options will be like along the way.

As for the part of the trip I'm most worried about, I posted a few posts up that I think we figured out the best plan for the moment. We got hotel reservations outside of Death Valley, and if we leave early enough the next morning we should be able to be in Las Vegas and in a cool hotel room before the hottest part of the day even hits.

Our cars are both only two years old and we always get full tune ups before a long drive like this, so they should be running just fine (someone mentioned that they should be ok if they are new and running well.)

I know this isn't an ideal plan and if I could, I'd change the route we're driving and the time of year that we're driving. I'm really not trying to be a bad owner by purposefully taking the cats in a hot car. But a lot of factors aren't negotiable in this trip, and there's not much I can do about that. I'm really not trying to be difficult I swear! We have no choice as to when we move, and I'm not going to tell my husband that he can't see his grandparents either. They're old and not doing well and he hasn't seen them in 5 years. So I can't change the driving route or the time of year we're driving, though it would be nice if I could.

ETA: Flying them to avoid the heat and so they weren't traumatized by the car ride was also mentioned. I just wanted to say that I've moved several times already and have always taken the cats and no one has been traumatized by the car rides. I have a few who actually seem to like the car rides, and the rest usually sleep the whole way. I know some cats can freak out in a carrier and in a car, but we've been lucky and haven't had one of those yet.
 
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