If anyone is interested, my bunny did very well on our 3 day car ride. I’ve done this trip a lot of times with my dogs, so we have the routine down well, but I needed to add this bunny this time. This is a long post, but I thought if anyone else needs to take a trip with their bun, it might have some useful info.
I bought a dog carrier for the trip. The one I got is big enough for him to fully stretch out plus a little extra room. I lined the bottom with very absorbent material, a bunch of timothy hay, and attached his bottle to the door. I love the Ferplast bottle and wouldn’t try this with a standard bottle due to the probability of leaking.
So, I had my big dog in the cargo area, medium dog in the back seat with the bunny. My cooler and gear were in the front passenger seat. I put all the veggies for the bunny in the cooler.
The worst of it was managing the heat. There are three main routes east from CA: I-40, I-70, I-80. I-40 goes through the desert states and will be hot at least 2 days – no way. I-70 is better, but you still have to go through Vegas and Utah, which are pretty hot. I opted for that one because I-80 is longer, very boring, and precariously few services in some areas.
The first day and part of the second were hot. I cranked the AC and the bunny seemed comfortable, but I’d prefer better ventilation than the carrier provided. I might drill some holes in its top for the trip back.
Stopping is the most dangerous part. If it is 110 outside, the car gets hot very fast. I use frozen water bottles to keep the cooler cold, so when I stopped to take the dogs out I would put one in his carrier. I made it a point to try not stopping when it was super hot and to hold out until we got under 100. Fortunately my car has an outdoor temperature gauge. We only had to make two short stops over 100. Day 2 we went from 112 in Mojave to 62 in Aspen with snow. We were fine with temperatures from that point on.
He was eating well, but not drinking very much, which had me concerned. I did not know if maybe the bottle was too low or if he was shutting down. I put a little bowl of water in his cage when we stopped, but he wasn’t interested. He did lick the frozen bottle I put in. I also made sure to rinse the veggies in water just before giving so he would get more liquids when eating.
Finally I did see him drink from the bottle at one of our stops. I think he does better when he has private time, so when we got to cooler weather I made it a point to leave him alone a bit longer. We spent nights in the car instead of getting a room, so I also took extended breaks in the mornings and brought his carrier out of the car for fresh air. That seemed to perk him up a lot.
In the end though, everything went well. It took him a few days to perk up at our destination. He was still sluggish about drinking and peeing at first, but now he is doing both in spades. He’s getting fresh picked veggies every day from my mom’s garden, and we built him a large pen in the back yard for exercise. It is all good.
I will be here for a couple of months before returning, which is long enough for him to recover. The heat is concerning. I got a flat in Utah and was able to change it quickly, but it was mighty hot. The thought of being on the side of the highway for an hour or more from a breakdown makes me wonder if I should go the I-80 route on the way back.