advice for altitude with older dogs in tow

[Archimago]

Looking for advice.
We are planning to fly from central coast California to near Biloxi MS this December (weather permitting of course). I read that pets usually don't do well in elevations in excess of 7 to 8k so I we are planning to fly south to the LA Basin and then loosely follow the I-10 into Texas before flying north of the Houston area. According to Google the highest elevation of the 10 is east of Tucson at 5k. My thoughts are we should be able to make the track at or below 7500 and drop down even lower as terrain gets lower.

Anyone fly this route and willing to offer their insights?

Thanks!

 

[Rushie]

Looking for advice.
We are planning to fly from central coast California to near Biloxi MS this December (weather permitting of course). I read that pets usually don't do well in elevations in excess of 7 to 8k so I we are planning to fly south to the LA Basin and then loosely follow the I-10 into Texas before flying north of the Houston area. According to Google the highest elevation of the 10 is east of Tucson at 5k. My thoughts are we should be able to make the track at or below 7500 and drop down even lower as terrain gets lower.

Anyone fly this route and willing to offer their insights?

Thanks!

I’ll wave at you as you go by. The only insight I can offer you is we have a lot of weather around here.

 

[Rokke214]

Looking for advice.
We are planning to fly from central coast California to near Biloxi MS this December (weather permitting of course). I read that pets usually don't do well in elevations in excess of 7 to 8k so I we are planning to fly south to the LA Basin and then loosely follow the I-10 into Texas before flying north of the Houston area. According to Google the highest elevation of the 10 is east of Tucson at 5k. My thoughts are we should be able to make the track at or below 7500 and drop down even lower as terrain gets lower.

Anyone fly this route and willing to offer their insights?

Thanks!

I keep reading about pets not doing well above 7000’. I’m not sure where that comes from but my house is at 7300’ and we’ve always had dogs and they live to a ripe old age. They also do fine when we take them hiking up 14,000’ mountains. I suppose the difference comes in going from sea level to 7000’, but you won’t be there long and you most likely won’t be doing any real physical activity while flying. Most passenger aircraft are pressurized to 8000’. I see people with dogs on airplanes regularly these days and the dogs really don’t seem to care. I’m a huge dog lover, but I’d be more focused on what altitudes I could handle. Your pet will probably do as well or better than you.

 

[WDD]

M2C. Put dog in cabin, don’t tow.

 

[libertas]

M2C. Put dog in cabin, don’t tow.

 

[Rgbeard]

We travel with our two pugs, ages 8 and 10.

10-12,000 is very common for us, and I have had them at 15.5 for an hour with no notable issues.

YMMV.

 

[Archimago]

I’ll wave at you as you go by. The only insight I can offer you is we have a lot of weather around here.

I'll have to look at that as we get closer and have a plan b if it looks convective along our route

 

[Archimago]

We travel with our two pugs, ages 8 and 10.

10-12,000 is very common for us, and I have had them at 15.5 for an hour with no notable issues.

YMMV.

Thats good to know, I think we will do a test flight soon. We live on the coast so they are acclimated to sea level pressures.

 

[Sluggo63]

Looking for advice.
We are planning to fly from central coast California to near Biloxi MS this December (weather permitting of course). I read that pets usually don't do well in elevations in excess of 7 to 8k so I we are planning to fly south to the LA Basin and then loosely follow the I-10 into Texas before flying north of the Houston area. According to Google the highest elevation of the 10 is east of Tucson at 5k. My thoughts are we should be able to make the track at or below 7500 and drop down even lower as terrain gets lower.

Anyone fly this route and willing to offer their insights?

Thanks!

We live in Phoenix and basically travel that route to Austin to see the kids on a monthly basis. We take our 14 year-old lab with us and we go at 11,500-12,500. The dog has done fine at those altitudes. I'd say 7,000-8,000 won't be a problem.

 

[EdFred]

Kaiser had no issues going above 10k starting at 0.8k. Just kept the ascents and descents around 500fpm.

 

[Rgbeard]

Thats good to know, I think we will do a test flight soon. We live on the coast so they are acclimated to sea level pressures.

Our home in Ensenada is 45 feet above sea level, and our home in the Phoenix area is around 1,000 above.

I honestly believe you're being overly-worrisome.

A test flight to 11,500 would be in order, IMO.

 

[Snowmass]

People regularly come from Texas to Aspen, CO crossing a12,000' pass with their pets. I doubt if they would have any problems.

 

[woodchucker]

I’ve flown PnP missions at 11.5 and up. No issues that I noticed. Usually the pups slept the entire way.

 

[Wrench978]

to reinforce what others are saying, we took our 12 year old dog (and our 2 1/2 year old dog) to 10.5 for about 6 hours at a time and saw no issues.

 

[Tom-Flying]

We fly between 8-10 with our pup frequently. What kind of dog do you have? People claim that flat faced dogs are more affected by altitude. Ours is a shih tzu and we haven't seen it.

I'd be more concerned with anxiety than oxygen. As long as they are comfortable and calm I think you'll be fine.

 

[Archimago]

We have two 12 year old schipperkes and we live pretty close to sea level so that was my initial concern. Thanks to all of you who posted! I feel a little less anxious.