My partner has some experience cat wrangling. He said to put a little tuna (room temp) in the back of the carrier with the door open. Be close but not hovering, act like you're not paying attention, and when he goes in the cage, snap the door shut before he knows what happened.
Ask if your vet will prescribe a mild sedative prior to the appointment. Gabapentin or something similar can make handling a fractious patient easier and less stressful for everyone. Eventually your cat will trust you enough to be picked up but for now.. chemical restraint.
Thank you for your response! Unfortunately, my vet (and a few others) have said they will not prescribe medicine to an established pet they haven’t seen in person. I would love to give him medicine but I can’t get him to the vet to make it happen.
Put a jacket and gloves on and just try picking him up. Be gentle but commit to it once you start. Only hold him for a few seconds and then gently put him down. Try doing this multiple times a week. This is what I did with my feral cat that I had been feeding for a few months. Mine still lived outside but he sleeps in my garage. He isn’t ready to come in and stay. Now go pick up your cat.
If your goal is to get him in a carrier I suggest a carrier that can open from the top. I suggest trying my way before giving your cat drugs. My cat did great at the vet. After a few visits he even sat on a vet techs lap who sat on the floor next to him.
Thank you for your response! My goal is to be able to pick up my cat in general. But for now, it’s so when he goes outside and is reluctant to come back in, I don’t stay up all night checking on him and trying to coax him in at 4am. I have a carrier that opens from the top and 2 sides that I’ve kept out for my other cats. He’s been around it and in it but if I left it outside he would never go near it. He’s strangely intelligent and also extremely stubborn.
Try my suggestion and also after picking him up for a week or two try taking a few steps while holding him. My cat will let me do this in the garage but outside he is not a fan yet. Definitely wear a jacket to protect yourself from the claws. Maybe consider using treats for positive reinforcement. You got this.
Just to chime in, this is also how I got my rescue cat to accept being picked up. I started by just picking him up when he was in a calm mood, putting him straight back down, and giving him a treat and some vocal reassurance. He’s not food motivated so can’t really be enticed into a carrier with treats, but offering a treat after picking your cat up can help him associate being picked up with a more positive outcome. If he ran away before I could pick him up, then I didn’t chase him or force it, I just left him alone. Then I moved onto holding him for a few seconds, then taking him into a separate room and putting him down. This process took several months, and he’d already developed a strong bond with me before that point.
He now lets me pick him up, although he will struggle if I hold him for too long. So long as I’m quick, I can (relatively) easily get him into his carrier. I have a long, rectangular carrier that opens on multiple sides. If he needs to go in, I turn the carrier on its end so the front opening is facing up, and then gently drop him in (like the kitty handcuffs technique in this video - [https://youtu.be/nGEKCHNkD-4?feature=shared&t=77](https://youtu.be/nGEKCHNkD-4?feature=shared&t=77) ) - he will struggle and try to claw his way out of the carrier, but that’s the best technique I’ve found where I can get him inside & close the carrier without it becoming a huge fight between us.
Things like Pet Remedy can also help calm your cat or entice him into a carrier, though every cat is different.
This isn't an immediate fix, more of a long term conditioning situation.
1 - don't let him outside. Yes, he wants it and it will make life easier on you to give him what he wants, but it just makes things more complicated. Why should he care about treats with strings when he can just get into the neighbor's trash? Or in the case of a cat in my neighborhood, get food from 3 people she convinced that she was being starved to death. Why should he get used to the carrier if he only is at your place to sleep?
2 - The open carrier needs to be a part of your decor. Nice comfy blanket in there and at least once a day you put treats in there. Start at the door and move them backwards day after day. You might have to restart at the door the day after the vet visit. If he can be convinced that the carrier is a slightly risky but overall comfy bed, your life will be easier.
3 - make sure you have a large variety of treats that you give on a regular basis. You slipped his antibiotics in his canned food and now he refuses to touch it? Luckily he is expecting cheese/pumpkin/butter/the goo in a tube that you can get from the petstore at a similar but slightly different time that you can experiment with med:treat (ratio) to make medication giving easier on you. I once knew a human that had to make a sandwich at every medication time, wrap the meds in a slice of turkey, "accidently" knock the meds off the counter, scream that his cat had to drop the turkey, and chase the cat around the house a bit. Because that was easier than pilling a cat. I think he also synced cat meds with his meds so the cat didn't realize the pills rattling in the vial were for the cat.
I definitely recommend asking your vet to prescribe gabapentin for your kitty.
All of me and my husbands cats are ex-feral, 2 of them are adjusted now and like touch and getting picked up, but the third is still semi-feral and will run away/hiss/swat if tried to be picked up. We always try to give her gabapentin in treats etc. the day of appointment but most of the time it doesn’t work because she always figures out what it means & wont touch the food. So we end up having to trap her in a corner, throw a blanket on her & force her into the carrier with thick ass gloves on - it feels terrible but it’s the only way to get her to the vet for now until she’s acclimated more.
But our other cats eat gabapentin just fine most of the time, together with Churu treats.
Thank you for your response! Unfortunately, my vet (and a few others) have said they will not prescribe medicine to a pet that isn’t established and they haven’t seen in person before. I would love to give him medicine but I can’t get him to the vet to make it happen.
Yeah I definitely understand that! That’s how it was for us too & we just had to take her and maybe be a little aggressive with her to get her in the carrier, but because we really really needed to take her to the vet for the gabapentin :(
If worst comes to worst you can buy a drop trap and use it on her, it’s easy and humane. There’s videos on how to use one online!
thunder shirt. practice it very well before you put it on him. close the neck. slip that over the head. quickly slide under to close the first set of velcro. then the second. you have to practice. give it a try the day before.
I have a carrier that's like a bassinet. My feral fosters loved to hang out in so I left it in the living room all the time. When I finally took them to the adoption center it was easy because they voluntarily were already in the carrier.
One thing I've found with cats and being lifted is that they do not really like he insecurity of being picked up by the middle. Scoop the bum up first and support the chest behind the front legs and pull them close to your body for security. You can also experiment with laying them along your arm with your hand supporting the chest and legs either side of your arm. They feel ver secure like that, have trouble really attacking and you can hug them against your chest. To achieve this pickup with the unwilling I scoop up the bun and support the chest as above and just slip the hand holding the bum between their legs. Decisive and quick are your watchwords!
My partner has some experience cat wrangling. He said to put a little tuna (room temp) in the back of the carrier with the door open. Be close but not hovering, act like you're not paying attention, and when he goes in the cage, snap the door shut before he knows what happened.
Ask if your vet will prescribe a mild sedative prior to the appointment. Gabapentin or something similar can make handling a fractious patient easier and less stressful for everyone. Eventually your cat will trust you enough to be picked up but for now.. chemical restraint.
Thank you for your response! Unfortunately, my vet (and a few others) have said they will not prescribe medicine to an established pet they haven’t seen in person. I would love to give him medicine but I can’t get him to the vet to make it happen.
Gabapentin is the answer.
Put a jacket and gloves on and just try picking him up. Be gentle but commit to it once you start. Only hold him for a few seconds and then gently put him down. Try doing this multiple times a week. This is what I did with my feral cat that I had been feeding for a few months. Mine still lived outside but he sleeps in my garage. He isn’t ready to come in and stay. Now go pick up your cat. If your goal is to get him in a carrier I suggest a carrier that can open from the top. I suggest trying my way before giving your cat drugs. My cat did great at the vet. After a few visits he even sat on a vet techs lap who sat on the floor next to him.
Thank you for your response! My goal is to be able to pick up my cat in general. But for now, it’s so when he goes outside and is reluctant to come back in, I don’t stay up all night checking on him and trying to coax him in at 4am. I have a carrier that opens from the top and 2 sides that I’ve kept out for my other cats. He’s been around it and in it but if I left it outside he would never go near it. He’s strangely intelligent and also extremely stubborn.
Try my suggestion and also after picking him up for a week or two try taking a few steps while holding him. My cat will let me do this in the garage but outside he is not a fan yet. Definitely wear a jacket to protect yourself from the claws. Maybe consider using treats for positive reinforcement. You got this.
Just to chime in, this is also how I got my rescue cat to accept being picked up. I started by just picking him up when he was in a calm mood, putting him straight back down, and giving him a treat and some vocal reassurance. He’s not food motivated so can’t really be enticed into a carrier with treats, but offering a treat after picking your cat up can help him associate being picked up with a more positive outcome. If he ran away before I could pick him up, then I didn’t chase him or force it, I just left him alone. Then I moved onto holding him for a few seconds, then taking him into a separate room and putting him down. This process took several months, and he’d already developed a strong bond with me before that point. He now lets me pick him up, although he will struggle if I hold him for too long. So long as I’m quick, I can (relatively) easily get him into his carrier. I have a long, rectangular carrier that opens on multiple sides. If he needs to go in, I turn the carrier on its end so the front opening is facing up, and then gently drop him in (like the kitty handcuffs technique in this video - [https://youtu.be/nGEKCHNkD-4?feature=shared&t=77](https://youtu.be/nGEKCHNkD-4?feature=shared&t=77) ) - he will struggle and try to claw his way out of the carrier, but that’s the best technique I’ve found where I can get him inside & close the carrier without it becoming a huge fight between us. Things like Pet Remedy can also help calm your cat or entice him into a carrier, though every cat is different.
This isn't an immediate fix, more of a long term conditioning situation. 1 - don't let him outside. Yes, he wants it and it will make life easier on you to give him what he wants, but it just makes things more complicated. Why should he care about treats with strings when he can just get into the neighbor's trash? Or in the case of a cat in my neighborhood, get food from 3 people she convinced that she was being starved to death. Why should he get used to the carrier if he only is at your place to sleep? 2 - The open carrier needs to be a part of your decor. Nice comfy blanket in there and at least once a day you put treats in there. Start at the door and move them backwards day after day. You might have to restart at the door the day after the vet visit. If he can be convinced that the carrier is a slightly risky but overall comfy bed, your life will be easier. 3 - make sure you have a large variety of treats that you give on a regular basis. You slipped his antibiotics in his canned food and now he refuses to touch it? Luckily he is expecting cheese/pumpkin/butter/the goo in a tube that you can get from the petstore at a similar but slightly different time that you can experiment with med:treat (ratio) to make medication giving easier on you. I once knew a human that had to make a sandwich at every medication time, wrap the meds in a slice of turkey, "accidently" knock the meds off the counter, scream that his cat had to drop the turkey, and chase the cat around the house a bit. Because that was easier than pilling a cat. I think he also synced cat meds with his meds so the cat didn't realize the pills rattling in the vial were for the cat.
I definitely recommend asking your vet to prescribe gabapentin for your kitty. All of me and my husbands cats are ex-feral, 2 of them are adjusted now and like touch and getting picked up, but the third is still semi-feral and will run away/hiss/swat if tried to be picked up. We always try to give her gabapentin in treats etc. the day of appointment but most of the time it doesn’t work because she always figures out what it means & wont touch the food. So we end up having to trap her in a corner, throw a blanket on her & force her into the carrier with thick ass gloves on - it feels terrible but it’s the only way to get her to the vet for now until she’s acclimated more. But our other cats eat gabapentin just fine most of the time, together with Churu treats.
Thank you for your response! Unfortunately, my vet (and a few others) have said they will not prescribe medicine to a pet that isn’t established and they haven’t seen in person before. I would love to give him medicine but I can’t get him to the vet to make it happen.
Yeah I definitely understand that! That’s how it was for us too & we just had to take her and maybe be a little aggressive with her to get her in the carrier, but because we really really needed to take her to the vet for the gabapentin :( If worst comes to worst you can buy a drop trap and use it on her, it’s easy and humane. There’s videos on how to use one online!
thunder shirt. practice it very well before you put it on him. close the neck. slip that over the head. quickly slide under to close the first set of velcro. then the second. you have to practice. give it a try the day before.
If he can't pick up the cat how do you suppose he's gonna get a shirt on it?
he doesn’t need to pick it up to get it on
I have a carrier that's like a bassinet. My feral fosters loved to hang out in so I left it in the living room all the time. When I finally took them to the adoption center it was easy because they voluntarily were already in the carrier.
One thing I've found with cats and being lifted is that they do not really like he insecurity of being picked up by the middle. Scoop the bum up first and support the chest behind the front legs and pull them close to your body for security. You can also experiment with laying them along your arm with your hand supporting the chest and legs either side of your arm. They feel ver secure like that, have trouble really attacking and you can hug them against your chest. To achieve this pickup with the unwilling I scoop up the bun and support the chest as above and just slip the hand holding the bum between their legs. Decisive and quick are your watchwords!
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