Topic: It's the time of year again......

[carrot-cruncher]

............for annual innoculations for my cat, Lily

Last year's visit to the vet started off fine.   Lily willingly came out of her carrier onto the examination table and had a quickie mosey about to see who was available for a punch up.   As nobody volunteered she let the very nice female vet poke and prod her in various places and shine lights etc in her eyes.   She even let that very nice lady stick a needle in her neck without complaint or the drawing of claws then sauntered back into her carrier quite chuffed with herself.   Then the fun began..............................Mummy, being the caring person that she is, decided that the best thing for her darling's health would be an extra innoculation to make things easier & quicker for future years.   Upon sighting the 2nd needle my small and delicately built pet instantly transformed into a demon with fighting skills a ninja would be proud of.   She was in her carrier & nothing short of a nuclear bomb was getting her out of it.   The vet upgraded to gauntlets to extricate my hissing, spitting, snarling furball.   They failed.   I held the carrier on end hoping Lily wouldn't be able to get a grip on the smooth plastic.   That failed.   There is now an impressive  set of grooves on the inside of the carrier that weren't there when I bought it!!!!!   An assistant was called, who promptly arrived fully gauntleted up.   Great.   Fantastic.   It took demon-features all of five seconds to realise that attacking two pairs of gauntlets doesn't get results.   However, taking a swipe or two at unprotected faces produces superb effects.   Fortunately she missed both people who eventually managed to get the 2nd innoculation in, at which point Lily shot back into her carrier still swearing at anybody and everybody in general.

Mummy then exits the examination room directly back into the waiting room/reception which of course, being me, is packed with people who've heard everything & are just grateful it wasn't their pet embarassing them!!!!!   I had to temporarily put Lily's carrier down in order to pay, at which point one owner decided it can't be that bad & it wouldn't hurt their pure-bred Kings Charles puppy to say hello to my cat.   STUPID OWNER!!!!!!!!!!   They are extremely lucky they don't now have a Kings Charles Pug!!!!

If Lily didn't need innoculating in order to go into the cattery I would think long and hard about putting her through this stress every year.   The thing is, when she goes to the cattery she's so chilled about it I don't have any qualms what so ever about leaving her behind.   I know the innoculations are for her benefit but I do wish there was a less stressful way of giving her them.

CC

[Deb P]

Oh dear, I'm afraid I did laugh a bit at your post, it hit a nerve when I first stupidly tried to take my three toms for their innoculations together a couple of years ago.

I decided I would put the two brothers Max and Archie in together, with Vic (small but mean) in his own carrier. All went ok until at the vets, she let all three cats out together in the consulting room; checked them, jabbed them, then wanted to weigh them.....on scales outside the room! Mistake.....as soon as she opened the door Vic attacked Max, who promptly shot out the door, Archie then started on Vic........ten minutes later,  I had Vic (now snarling ball of fur) cornered in the corridor, Max sitting placidly on the curtain rail about 10' up a huge bay window, and Archie cowering in his carrier! They never did get weighed, and I take them separately in their own carriers in two trips now! ::)

[debster]

my daughters cat is always the complete opposite he becomes a real baby when he has to go to the vets he thinks if he cant see the vet the vet cant see him so he hides his head under my daughters arm pit lol hence the vet has an excellent target for his jabs, getting worming tablets in were always the problem, the vet would put it in check and say he has swallowed it, we would walk out the vets and half way home he would spit it out lol

[Deb P]

Getting cats to take worming tablets is another story...... :-\ They can hang on to them for ages!

[lolabelle]

Lola my burmese trots into the carrier whenever its bought out, my cat sitter, was worried about Nero the siamese when see looked after them, she ended up takeing them both as Lola refused to vacate the carrier, she has had numerous trips to specialist vet in Birmingham a good 40 min journey, just takes it all in her stride , thank goodnesss as she has a on going problem,  bless her.

now Titus is another story.......!!! ::)

[carrot-cruncher]

Well, she's been to the vet's today & was a completely different animal to last year.   No hissing, fighting, spitting etc whatsover.

She was first one in & it took all of five minutes, including the one jab.   The innoculation she has covers her for feline leukemia, enteritis, something else & worms.

The vet had seen the notes from last year regarding Lily too.   She had gauntlets in the room just in case & as everything went ok, after Lily had taken her jab, she was treated to a catnip-enriched treat.

CC