How does kinetosis occur?
It's not just us humans who can get sick when traveling. Some cats and dogs get motion sick, too, and even fish can get seasick if they are transported in a swaying aquarium.
Horrible kinetosis
08 September 2022 — by Ramona Koppensteiner
Kinetosis, or motion sickness as it is commonly known, is the body's reaction to unfamiliar movements such as when traveling by car or boat. But why does the body react with symptoms such as nausea and discomfort? And what are the typical triggers of kinetosis?
In transportation, our bodies are exposed to physical forces such as linear, radial and angular acceleration. The problem is that these movements do not match what our eyes see and the mechano receptors in our joints report: sitting still. This leads to contradictory signal processing in the body or, more accurately, in the brain.
The organ of balance in the inner ear registers all rotational movements of the head via the semicircular canals and perceives horizontal and vertical movements in space via the otolith organs. Small receptor cells register every change in position in space and send this information to the brain as electrical signals through the relevant nerves. In the muscles and tendons, the proprioceptors measure the respective state of stretching and also send this information to the brain. The eyes are another important source of information for the brain when it comes to positioning the body in space.
All this information, which the brain receives from the sensory cells about the position in space, is normally combined to form a three-dimensional image.
This is more difficult when moving in a car or on a boat, as the eyes cannot always follow the movements of a vehicle, resulting in an error signal in the midbrain and cerebellum. The merging of the signals from the eyes, balance organs and mechanoreceptors of the joints in the brain stem is impaired.
This leads to a stress reaction in the body, causing the brain to release messenger substances such as histamine and serotonin. The released histamine stimulates the vomiting center in the brain, which triggers the typical symptoms of kinetosis.
In rare cases, the symptoms of kinetosis can last for several hours to days. The risk of dehydration due to prolonged vomiting as a result of high fluid loss and the associated loss of electrolytes is particularly high in the case of existing cardiovascular disease. In these cases, blood pressure drops and the heart rate accelerates.
If the symptoms persist for a long time, a vet should always be consulted.
Symptoms of motion sickness
- Nausea, increased salivation
- Vomiting
- Restlessness, hyperventilation, increased panting
- Vocalizations
- Dizziness
- Increased sweating
- Palpitations
- Drop in blood pressure
Tips for prevention
Before starting your journey, only give your dog easily digestible food - as low in fat as possible. For example, a portion of boiled chicken with rice.
Exercise the animals as much as possible before starting the journey. During sleep, the sense of balance is reduced and there is no visual stimulation.
Supporting anti-nausea preparations should be administered thirty minutes to one hour before the start of the journey.
Further reading
- Vetline: "Use of H1 antihistamines in veterinary medicine" https://www.vetline.de/einsatz-von-h1-antihistaminika-in-der-veterinaermedizin
- Thieme "Motion sickness (kinetosis) in dogs - an unsolved problem?" https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0031-1275576
- Thieme: "Efficacy of ondansetron for the treatment of nausea in 16 dogs with vestibular syndrome: a case series" https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/s-0041-1723899
