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Speed is our friend. Have the carrier set up and ready to accept the cat before getting the cat. Don’t tip our hand; cats can hide really well. Don’t call the cat over, or we risk weeks before the cat will come when called again. Coming upon them when they are sleeping may seem like dirty pool, but there’s no good way to broach this topic.
Top loading carriers have a great advantage, but even the conventional carriers can be adapted. Set them up with the door facing upwards. Then lower the cat into it hind legs first. Don’t falsely economize with carriers that are too small or too flimsy for large or determined cats. We will be using this product many times, under periods of stress. Don’t add to it.
Once Mr. Bond was so determined to not go to the vet that he broke out of his plastic cat carrier three times. He didn’t put a paw on us, or try to hurt us. He would get put in the cat carrier and then he’d bend the plastic door until the supporting pins popped out. The third time I had Mr WereBear hold the door closed while I sealed the door shut in the only way open to me; by wrapping the carrier completely with duct tape. That’s a way to get noticed in the vet waiting room.
After that incident, a dear friend got me a soft, top loading carrier. I can carry them in my arms, which is reassuring, but I can still belt them into the car for the trip because this style has a solid bottom. Any carrier can have the seat belt pulled through the handle on top, and it’s a good safety procedure. Choose one that can be cleaned easily, for obvious reasons.
Don’t think we can dispense with the carrier. Cats don’t want to go, and it’s better that they associate this unpleasantness with the carrier, not us. Also, we have to get to the vet’s office somehow, and we don’t want the cat getting away from us or wedging themselves under the brake pedal. Cats who are determined to get away from the current unpleasantness have been known to worm their way under the back seat of a car and refuse to come out. Avoid at least this much mayhem by getting a sturdy carrier, and using it.
Expect that they will wail all the way there and eject what seems to be half their fur with amazingly long trajectories. Lawrence was a particularly nervous specimen. I would find his silvery white fur on the roof liner. Talk to them, explain what’s going on, and if they have a song, sing to them. This tip from a Faithful Reader turned out to work well.
Once at the vet, stay with the cat as much as possible. Good vets encourage us to bring the cat into the examining room and stand by to be a source of information and reassurance. Routine checkups and other procedures that take place in the room should always feature us there as a symbol of Home and Going Back There Eventually. Cats who have already experienced one abandonment are particularly sensitive to this possibility, but all cats worry about losing us.
Going home, especially after the first time, when they start seeing a pattern, will usually lessen the expressions of nervousness, but not always. Keep them in the carrier until we are safely home.
Once home, let them alone. It’s okay to follow them around and explain that we don’t like it either, but don’t try to scoop them up and cuddle them; they will be afraid of Round Two. Let them get their act together, clean the smell reminders from their fur, and feel settled before we expect things to go back to normal again.
Which it does. Having a trusting, close relationship means the cat might not understand what we are doing; but they will trust us that it had to be done. If we have taken the cat in for a problem which then gets better, they will connect their increased sense of well-being with the unpleasant, but ultimately not-too-bad, experience of visiting their medical professional.
Which, after all, no one likes.
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Check my link above, half the challenge with cat carrier is simply to teach them that cat carriers are their happy place. Our boys love their carriers … but they hate the vet too.
We’ve had difficult cats before but with my current three I don’t find vet time stressful at all.
All of my cats go on regular non-vet car rides to acclimate them to travel without the stress and Violet thoroughly enjoys the car.
I avoid closed carriers because they get distressed being confined, and I had one cat bloody her nose on the mesh sides of a soft carrier. Instead, I have a soft carrier with one opening that has no door. The rest is padded and opaque so it’s kind of cave-like and secure. The cat gets harnessed up and sits quietly in the open carrier the whole ride. There’s a clip inside that I can attach the leash too if she looks like she’s in a wandering mood, but she can see me clearly and I can pet her easily if needed.
In the office they are on the leash and can come and go from the carrier and explore the area around my seat if there are no other animals close by.
Maybe I’ve just gotten really lucky, but I think a little extra effort into getting the cats accustomed to being away from home, in a vehicle and in unfamiliar surroundings can go a long way to making vet time minimally stressful.
With naturally unpleasant things at the vet like getting shots, temperature taken, anal glans expressed and being handled by an unfamiliar person, the rest of the trip should be as easy as we can make it
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First, this blog and your knowledge of cats is truly amazing!
I have two of the soft top-loading carriers and they are great for two of our three cats. I just got a sturdy plastic carrier with a metal door though, because one of our boys always has “accidents” on the way to the vet, no matter how long he goes w/out food beforehand, and my soft carriers are difficult to clean. Also, he’ll push open the top flap from inside to escape, unless we twist-tie the two zipper pulls together. No such problems with the other cats, thankfully! Haven’t used the new carrier yet, but he goes to the vet next week so we’ll see.
We took him on lots of trips as a kitten and he used to love riding in the car – unfortunately a couple of traumatic emergency surgeries undid all of that. When we adopted the others they came with typical cat opinions of car trips – lots of wailing but that’s about it. We’ve always done what you do – have the carriers ready and sneak up on the cats before they have a chance to hide. They get over it once they get home and lick off the “vet smell”, even our hysterical pooping escape-artist.
Ah. I have a top-loading carrier but I actually have an easier time getting my cat, Boo, in through the carrier’s front door. Maybe that’s just because I’m used to those types of carriers… I would like to try one of those softer carriers (mine’s hard plastic). They do whine the whole way to the vet’s, don’t they? That always makes me feel bad.
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Great blog and my cats are like yours. They would rather die than get in that carrier. So I do set the carrier up so I can kind of drop them in. But my cats are all feral cats and so just catching them is a job. And I have a wonderful vet that makes the cats feel right at home.
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If I had the room, I would leave the carrier out, to act as a “home away from home.” It makes sense to try desensitizing the cat to the carrier and the car ride. But I’m sure cats’ favorite part will still be the ride home.
I leave the cat carrier out for a few days before the appointment, so that she’ll “forget” it’s there. When it’s time to scoop her up, I don’t call her, I just walk over to her, grab her by the scruff of the neck, hold the carrier upright, and drop her in. I spent the rest of the journey to the vet apologizing, but hey, it gets her in the carrier.
Funny, but she’ll let the vet do anything he wants to her, including clip her claws without so much as a meow, but let me try and do that, i’d have no skin left on my body.
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