I don’t believe that you can’t totally prevent cat fear at the vets, but you can do things that help to reduce it.
Having read Ruth’s double whammy (two cats at the same time) session at the vets, I thought I’d pass on the advice of Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson¹ about how to minimise the fear and anxiety a cat feels when taken to the vets.
Even bold and confident cats can get frightened at the vet’s clinic. Is there is one cat alive who doesn’t hate it? Temple Grandin has a method for handling a cow and she recommends the same for cats! These are basic principles. There are three:
- The cat’s owner should use “calm, steady movement” when handling a cat that is going to the vet’s. Jerky or sudden movements make things worse.
- Slippery surfaces can unnerve a cat and the examining tables of vet’s clinics can be slippery. So, Ms Grandin suggests taking a non-slip bathmat and placing it on the table. I am not sure if a vet would accept that, but I suppose he would.
- Firmly stroking a cat applies deep pressure and calms a cat. This appears to be a reference to the same principles behind the Thundershirt.
The next thing to do is to take steps to make sure your cat is not anxious about being in a cat carrier. It needs to feel like a safe place to be for your cat.
Temple Grandin recommends:
- Food treats be fed to your cat while inside the cat carrier
- Your cat be left in the carrier for longer and longer periods to desensitize him to being in the carrier (my words). This is a form of training, if you like, in preparation for a vet visit.
The idea is to get your cat to be relaxed in the cat carrier before going to the vet.
OK, that is Temple Grandin’s advice. I am not sure it is that great, to be honest. Although I respect her skills and knowledge. Personally, I don’t think you can remove the anxiety and fear element from the cat when going to the vet. Almost whatever you do, it will be a difficult for a cat to accept calmly and we have to accept it.
Ms Grandin makes the interesting point that black cats have a calm nature and are less aggressive than orange cats. She quotes Sarah Hartwell who refers to “laid-back blacks” compared to “naughty torties”. Black cats are friendlier than other cats and are better able to deal with social life. Black cats are also said to be healthier than other cats. All this is due to the colour of their fur. I don’t see this as hard science but there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence to support it.
Black cats would seem to be the best for the vets! Now, I have to gently disagree based on my experiences with Charlie, who is jet black (with a hint of rust). Perhaps, though, Charlie had a very bad experience before, during and after a visit to a veterinary clinic when he had his right foreleg amputated. That sort of experience may have scared him.
Associated page: Taking Your Cat To The Vet
Note:
- Animals Make Us Human pages 77-80.
Thanks Ruth. I do check and everything seems as healthy as can be. It always did actually. There was never eny redness or swelling. I was suprised that even right after the fact it just looked like a little stitch on totally white skin in the case of Gigi and darker skin in the case of Molly. No redness with either.
Sorry Marc I meant to say Mattrass stitch not Blanket.
We’d usually gently lift the knot with tweezers and cut the stitch to one side of it then pull on the knot and the whole bit of nylon comes out but it sounds like yours was very tightly stitched.
There may be a bit of nylon left in the skin, it might have worked its way out on its own or might do yet, but if you see any swelling or redness or pus it does mean a trip to the vets.
Hopefully it will be OK!
Thanks Ruth. It was a knot above the skin which I snipped off. I can only assume some part of the string is still in the surface somewhere. There wasn’t really enough room under the knot to cut one string and pull it out totally. The know was litterally on the surface. I actually used nail clippers, the ones with the lever that ‘bite’. They don’t have such dangerous consequences if the cat moves – a pair of sharp scissors seemed to dangerous.I suppose it is as if the know it still there in terms of whats ‘in’ the skin. The know, as Isaid, was dangling there.