Extremely Car Sick Kitty

My 11 year old Cat has been diagnosed with Hyper thyroid.  we need to moniter her weight to get her on the right maintenance level of meds. .  The vet wants me to bring her in for a weigh vs me calling in the weight. She will no longer eat kibble and needs dental work but we need her weight up and stable before we can even think about dental work. 

I want to weigh her at home and call it in, but my weigh scale is not as accurate.  She gets extremely stressed in the car.  Allot of people will suggest ways to get her used to being in the car, but....she has been in the car many many times to the vet, my previous vet was a drive on the highway at 100km per hour.  She always hated the car but has become much much worse with age!   I believe it is related to her poor eyesight perhaps.  So it is not because she is not used to going to the vet.

Last drive which is only 5 minuets! to my new vet.  I cover her, she is seat belted in her carrier in the front seat which is better than the back seat.  Noises of other vehicles freak her out so I have the fan on to drown them out.  This time I was going 40km per hour with my 4ways to alert people to go around,   and a big truck  who apparently could not see my four ways were on until the last minuet :-/  quickly  passed around and by and his air brakes went off, she was freaking out so bad she was hitting the sides of the crate!  She vomited twice on the way their, she yowells like she is going to die,  and I made sure not to feed her before we went, also I have one hand in the crate trying to calm her talking to her,.  Feliway spray was sprayed in the crate per the directions for travel.  No affect.  

I have heard of some people using 1/2 a childrens tab of gravol, has anyone heard of that and know if it is safe?

I have asked the vet and he does not recommend anything!  Even after explaining the above situation he still wants me to bring her in to weigh her instead of phoning in the weight- I'm beginning to question if he is the right vet, but he is 5min away cant see her handling a car ride any further than that!  He did not even  comment on the stressful ride, like he didn't care..and still wants me to bring her in.  She has been poked and prodded so much lately I am trying to save her from whatever stress I can. 

If anyone knows if gravol is safe to give to a cat please let me know, the vet would not answer.  Or if they know of something else other than feliway which I have tried and no results.  I think it is actual motion sickness as well as stress.   

I have no suggestions about the car ride, sorry. It sounds horrendous. If your vet wants a weight only, then you could weigh something approximately the weight of your cat on your scale, then weigh the same object on the vet's scale. That way, you could at least give the vet's office the differential between the two scales. What is most important in my humble opinion, is not weighing the cat on the vet's scales but tracking the weight loss/gain of the cat.

A number of people use baby scales rather than scales designed for adults at home to get the most accurate reading.

Some cats do tend to get overly stressed with car rides I think it's more the anticipation of where they are headed though.

Do you notice the ride home is less stressful?

I say take her one more time, get her weighed, then go home and weigh her on your scale to see what it says.

Then you can accurately monitor her weight loss/gain.

I know for plane trips they have a motion sickness med, but a 5 minute car ride wouldn't warrant medicating her I don't think.

So far I am really not liking this Vet, I explained the situation to him and brought the weigh scale to measure the difference and he still insisted, but last time was the last straw, the assistant I spoke to spoke to him-and came out and told me I could weigh her at home.  But still once a month she has to go in.  Im going to plead and plead my spouse to take time out of his day to come with, and help keep her calm.  Also going to try Bach Rescue Remedy and see how that goes.  Feliway spray in the carrier did nothing.  She did car rides before no problem, I believe her age and eyesight are part of it.  Thanks for your tips, my next step is to go to the holistic Vet with my other cat, and get help with them and change of diets and eventually switch her, I suspect they will have a herbal suggestion for the car ride.

Thanks for your tips :-)

If the vet thinks it's absolutely necessary to bring her monthly, ask him about giving her 1/4-1/2 pill of acepromazine.

Maybe you could find a local vet that does house calls?

Yes even a 5 minuet ride makes her vomit once or twice, even Pants!   She is old, I think she thinks she is going to die.  I used to take her on the highway to go to a vet just on the outskirts of the city and she might or might not vomit but now it is much much worse, there has to be something, she is more paranoid now around other cats and I suspect her vision is not as good.

I tried the Bach Rescue Remedy and it helped.....but I ditched the vet that was 5 minuets away and now go to a Holistic Vet which is further away!  Unfortunately if a motorbike goes by she is literally bouncing of the crate, I find the slower I go the better she is but 50k is the slowest I can go.  I want to jump out of my car and yell at those guys with the motorbikes cranking them to make noise for no reason!! The location of this vet is rather hard to park and lots of motorbikes but they don't push vaccines and crappy pet food at me.  Poor ole girl.   

I think for the average animal out there (mine is a special situation I think there is a reason she is actually getting motion sickness) the Bach Rescue Remedy (not the one for sleep! you can find at any health food store)  Is the way to go!