Dear Copa members, I would like to fly with an SR22T and with my dog (poodle 5 kg) up to FL 180. Does anyone have experience if this is possible and how it works? Best regards, Theo
Donāt. Waaaaay to high, IMO.
But I have read threads here that mention plastic film surrounds for cages where you insert an O2 line into the enclosure.
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@Theo_Budde Welcome to COPA!
As David said, this is a topic which has been discussed at length on the Member forums, there are both individually produced solutions as well as commercially available O2 systems for animals.
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No. Leave it at home with a sitter, ship to destination or limit to much lower FL.
12k limit for the very expensive pups I fly per their vet team
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Many discussions on the member forums, including this one that has information on canine oxygen masks.
Theo:
If you love your dog please do not even try to do that! Depending on the type and age of the dog, you are pushing it if above 15000 feet and even 15K is very much on the fence. There are no good effective supplemental O2 devices for dogs that I have seen.
Theo,
You have received plenty of good advice, mostly surrounding hypoxia. Iāll add that descent from those altitudes can also lead to stomach problems. Iāve flown with many dogs for both work and pleasure, and for some reason coming out of altitude can cause an upset stomach (had few vomit). Doesnāt seem to happen below 5K, but over 10K itās no bueno. Slow descents are helpful.
BTW, donāt worry about the āmutt muffsā, none of our working dogs wore them in helicoptersā¦Vet says they donāt live long enough to experience the kind of hearing loss humans get with old age.
-Will
Possibly an effect of altitude sickness? Some ski buddies have thrown up when they fly into Denver and then head up to Breckenridge the same day.
Steven,
Not sure what the cause of the vomiting might be. It can happen on short flights (less than 45min) so Iām not sure what it is related to. Could just be air sickness or a gas bubble, but I noticed the faster I descended in both airplanes and helicopters the more it happened.
As an āexā ski patroller, I can positively say altitude sickness = nausea. Thatās one of the main symptoms and putting people on O2 gets it under control. I would guess same thing on pups.
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Just pulled this off a Vet website in Colorado.
Know the Signs
Just as with humans, altitude sickness in pets occurs because the concentration of oxygen molecules in the air is lower the higher up you go in elevation. As a petās body works to compensate for the decrease in oxygen, the following symptoms may occur:
- Shortness of breath
- Vomiting/nausea
- Loss of appetite
- Increased heart rate
- Pale gums
- Swelling of face, limbs
- Excessive panting or drooling
- Bleeding from the nose
- Collapse
If your pet is showing any of these signs of altitude sickness, decrease its activity and offer water immediately, then get your pet to an elevation below 8,000 feet as soon as possible.
If these symptoms donāt improve once your pet is at a lower elevation, your pet will need to be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible. If not immediately addressed, the symptoms of high altitude sickness can become life-threatening.
We have had 6 German shepherds, since me and the captain got together. Donāt think, we ever flew one in the Cirrus. We used to flew our turbo between 16.-17.5. We used oxygen. We have no problem flying our shepherd in our pressurized jet, at any altitude. Please donāt fly your 4 legged friend very high, if youāre not pressurized.
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What a gorgeous beast. Such kind eyes.
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Hey Theo- Iāve tried with 10 lb poodle using a commercially produced transparent halo device which you velcro around the dogs neck creating a relatively tight O2 environment. The O2 is run at half adult flow rate for the altitude at which you are flying. Problems are 1) the dog may not like it and try to pull it off. 2) you canāt check the dogs pulse oximetry so you donāt know how the dog is doing 3) Mutt Muffs for hearing protection tend to slide off the dogs ears requiring adjustment which means undoing the halo and repositioning the Mutt Muffs which is awkward. I gave up on the idea and fly at 12,500 or below using O2 for myself over 10,000 feet. Nice thought but really not practical unless you can train you dog to accept the Halo and your dogs head configuration allows for the Mutt Muffs to stay in place. A pressurized turbine solves all of these problems!
Ken
When I asked the dog O2 sales folks at OSH, they said 8K is the limit for dogs.
That would be a surprise to the dogs Iāve seen cavorting atop Pikes Peak (14,000ā+)