Sedated animals in the cargo bay are completely unsupervised. There's no way to predict how they're going to respond to the sedation. Also, their blood pressure and heart and respiratory rates are much lower, so there's a serious chance of complications, especially if anything goes even slightly weird with the flight.
I won't prescribe tranquilizers for animals that are flying, because of the risks, and I'm glad to see that some airlines are starting to agree.
Re: As a note, more and more airlines are refusing to fly animals if they're sedated
Sedated animals in the cargo bay are completely unsupervised. There's no way to predict how they're going to respond to the sedation. Also, their blood pressure and heart and respiratory rates are much lower, so there's a serious chance of complications, especially if anything goes even slightly weird with the flight.
I won't prescribe tranquilizers for animals that are flying, because of the risks, and I'm glad to see that some airlines are starting to agree.