Is there truly a way to immobilize a cat? We have an adorable 9 lb., yet very compact and muscular, orange marble tabby that has a demon inside. We did not discover this until she needed to be tested for Bartonella - nearly maiming a Vet Tech, escaping from the back rooms, locking herself in the people bathroom, and fighting and yowling for her life until the Tech finally emerged, bloody, with her suspended in the air. Needless to say, she went directly into the “Nite Nite” box, and still managed to growl while knocked out.
So now, Mandy does not care to be held for more than oh-lets-say 1 minute. She has razor sharp claws, and is not a member of the Nail Clipping Club or the Tummy Blowing Club like some of our other kitties.
Oh and she is smart. No treat can dupe her; in fact, she doesn’t except them from us unless we put them down and leave the room now. Also, no towel goes unnoticed.
Now, I can hold her briefly every now and then (and I try to on purpose in only a loving situation) to help her get used to it. But, I’m worried that if she gets sick again, nothing short of a tranquilizer gun will help us. Can you hold a cat immobilized? Is there a special technique? I hate to declaw, but it may be our only option if she doesn’t change her ways and needs to be permanently medicated.
Yes there is, but you need a bit of rigging to do it. A pet grooming table has a pair of arms on it, that stick out above the cat’s head. The arms have a hook on the end. You put a collar around the cat’s neck, and another around the cat’s waist, and then use an adjustable-piece length of cord or leash to tie each end of the cat to the arms. The leashes are adjusted snug so that the cat is stuck in a standing-up position and basically can’t move much at all. The groomer then puts a leather glove on one hand, grabs one paw at a time, and trims with clippers in the other hand. Of course groomers won’t automatically use this stuff, but rest assured they have it there if it’s necessary.
They use a similar setup around for giving baths, and it’s all adjustable often so that they can even put fairly-large dogs into it if they have to. And if the pet is resistive, hell no they don’t like it. But it doesn’t take long to do, and a pet’s feelings are not so precious.
I use a similar setup for my mom’s cat, with a cup hook fastened under the edge of the lower cabinets in the kitchen. I just use one collar around her neck, and I use a piece of nylon webbing in a “quick-snap” collar, not a real pet collar, asn they are too difficult to quickly get on her. This cat will never peaceably allow me or anyone else to trim its claws, ever–it simply isn’t gonna happen–but with a neck-leash only, it takes me maybe two minutes to trim all the claws on all four feet, and she hates the neck collar so bad that she spends all her effort pulling against that, and makes no attempt to scratch me. The cat tries to hide when she sees me coming with the “trimming collar”, but acts like a normal cat the rest of the time. There is simply no evidence of “psychological wounding” from having her claws forcibly trimmed.
…
It can be very tough, speaking as one who has left a bathroom after administering a flea bath looking as though I’d just battled Attilla the Hun. I’ve tried the heavy towel and thick leather gloves for pill administration and other issues with several cats, and continue to marvel at the strength of a 17 pound critter. My elder tomcat Max was banned from more than one vet office.
Perhaps this is why the Egyptians worshipped them.
Do you want to immobilize the cat or control the cat long enough to get him/her into a carrier?
To control, just get a leash with a long hollow tube (say 3’ long - 1" heavy duty PCV works well). Feed the leash (with a choker) through the tube and slip it over their neck. Tighten by pulling on the end sticking out the other side of the tube, and viola, you can move the cat around pretty easily while staying out of reach of claws and teeth - even to the point of lifting them off the ground (yes, you will be lifting them by the neck; trust me that they will not choke if it only for a short distance).
If you want to immobilize, a heavy towel is the way to go, but the wrapping process can be a bitch.
If the cat is not too psycho, you can also grab him/her by the scruff of the neck. This seems to immobilize most cats though I have never tried this on a total “run for the hills, we are going to die” psycho feral cat. Holding by the scruff of the neck can help with the towel wrapping of moderatly psycho cats.
And before I get jumped on for being cruel to kitties (with the tube/leash), let me say that I LOVE cats. I have 2 3/4 cats (one has 3 legs - born this way) that I had for over 10 years. I also spent ~6 years volunteering at an animal shelter (feeding, petting, walking, cleaning cages, etc…) where I had to clean the cages and try to calm down (in hopes they would be adopted) many feral cats (thus the experience). My 3/4 kitty (aptly named Kali after the goddess of death) was feral when I got her and it took ~ 5 years for her to become normal as far as physical contact. She is great with me, my wife, my mother, and most of our friends, but she still will go for blood with many strangers.
I once stuck my cat into a heavy coat sleeve so only her head stuck out. Our vet also had a little straight-jacket for cats when she freaked out; mind you they usually ended up bleeding by that time, but once tied up the cat was immobilized. If in doubt just watch some episodes of the Crocodile Hunter; old Steve seems to be able to subdue anything (although he does get bitten a lot). They had an episode where he was climbing trees catching 20-lb feral cats.
Gloves and bag are nifty. Thanks, Metacom. Even a coat sleeve in a pinch sounds doable, but what coat would I choose to have destroyed. Maybe one of the hubby’s?
Ultimately, we just need to be able to control her if she has to be medicated for like 2 weeks again. The Bartonella 2 week treatment was a very stressful, nightmare. We tried to randomize when we would medicate her, so she couldn’t predict it. But, it got to the point where my husband and I could look at each other across the living room with a glance that meant “Okay, it’s time.” And Mandy would see this, know, and hide under the pool table. She has a neat trick of staying just outside arm’s reach.
I would *love * it if we could get her comfortable with being held, having her paws touched, nails clipped or mouth opened. Any special tricks for “training” already grown cats that holding is okay?
There is a feline facial pheromone that you can purchase that has a calming effect on cats. Brand name is Feliway. Made by VPL (Veterinary Products Laboratories). It is available through your veterinarian. IME it is effective in about 30% of cats like yours.
Nothing really to add, except that I was a fan of the James Herriot “All Creatures Great & Small” books when I was younger. In one of the later ones he mentions his prowess at cat-wrapping (I suppose this is a variant of the towel technique except that the cat is completely wrapped in ace-type bandage with only the bit that needs to be treated sticking out). There’s a quote something along the lines of:
“all younger vets say, ‘that Herriot is a bit old-fashioned but BY GUM can he wrap a cat.’”
As far as training the cat, you would do it the same way you train any animal – with repition and praise. Slooowly expand the time you hold her, while a helpful assistant strokes her and (if possible) plies her with a treat. I know you said she wont take treats – not anything? Have you tried straight up tuna or salmon? The oil that tuna comes packed in (cats love fat)? Little bits of raw steak?
She will take treats/dried salmon flakes/wet food if we set them down and leave the room. She is a raw chicken fan (though we haven’t tried steak, hmm…). That just may help while we are trying to hold her.
I don’t want to make it sound like Mandy doesn’t love us. She sleeps by me, and crawls up into my lap to curl up and receive pets. She is funny about stepping on you initially. She won’t jump directly onto you or walk across you for no reason. Instead, she will jump to the arm of the couch first, then onto you or go out of her way not to walk across you.
She just knows when something is up. When we, the evildoers that we are, want to hold her for a reason. Really a smart cat at reading us - no matter how nonchalant we act.
The gloves are, in my professional opinion, beyond useless for anything so delicate as medicating an animal. They’re okay for hanging onto something while stuffing it into a catbox or letting someone else put on a muzzle, but that’s pretty much it. You simply can’t do anything that requires any manual dexterity at all in the stinking things. And a large cat can bite right through them anyhow.
Cat bags are nice enough, but they’re really just store-bought versions of using a towel or sheet to make kitty a burrito baby. And there are sizing issues with cat bags. Too big and kitty’s got room to roll and twist and carry on. Too small and you can’t get the darn thing zipped up.
The only special bit of equipment I really think much of for cats is the snappysnare. It’s just the trick for getting hold of really aggressive critters. It’s a short martingale-style leash on the end of a firm but flexible pole. You slide the loop of the leash down over the pole to form a rigid bow shape that you put over the animal’s head, then release the loop. The rod snaps straight, shooting the loop up to the end. You pull up to get it snug around the neck, and then you can just pull them on out of the cage or corner or out from under the bench or wherever. And the pole allows you to hold them rather at arm’s length, so you don’t have to worry about them swinging around and nailing you.
Thanks for all your advise, CrazyCatLady. I’m really starting to crack up over the fact that there are such things as snappysnares, bags and gauntlets specifically designed to help us with our more difficult feline children.
I think the gloves would be good for stuffing her into a carrier or when the hubby needs to hold her while I do/administer whatever. Maybe I could wear something more in the range of a slightly thicker Isotoner glove in case she tries to get me too.
For now, I think I’ll hope she never, ever gets sick again.
