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Smo has always been hard to handle, likely to due a number of reasons. Her irresponsible breeder sold her to her first owner when she was less than a month old, so she had to be bottle fed and was never socialized with other cats. She was then dumped at her owner's mother's house at a year old, and spent a few years mostly roaming outdoors or locked inside without being touched - the only affection she used to get was from random neighbors.
On top of this her caretaker made a habit of paying random people to crate Smo to have her vetted and groomed at a clinic where they basically held her down to treat and clean her. The crating involved strange men coming into the house to throw towels over Smo, grab her and stuff her into her carrier.
This means Smo really, really doesn't like being handled in a way she's not comfortable with. She doesn't like to be held and can only be picked up for short periods of time to be moved. She has to be scruffed to be put in her carrier, as this is the only way to get her in it.
This didn't used to be a huge problem, but Smo has been developing random health problems after having been dumped outdoors for a couple months. I know we could get her out of the house in an emergency, but I worry about things like administering medication to her. She's the type of cat who will immediately know when we've put medicine into her food and refuse to eat it, and the kind who can't be held down to be pilled or syringe-fed. On top of all that she's terrified of being toweled because of how she used to be taken to the vet.
Smo has skin lesions on her stomach right now which could be any number of things, and I know our vet will probably prescribe some sort of cream for her. I'm very apprehensive about how we're going to get medication on her stomach because she will definitely fight back - in summer she would attack us when we tried to dab Laxatone on her paw during a bout of constipation.
I know we need to figure out how to handle her in the future, but she gets very aggressive when she's touched in a way she doesn't like. It's to the point where she bent the vet's syringe needle the first time he tried to sedate her during her visit - it took two grown men to hold her down when she was there to inject her. She's not aggressive with us during normal circumstances though - just when she's feeling threatened.
Does anyone else have a cat like this? And what do you do when you need to handle them in a way they're afraid of?
On top of this her caretaker made a habit of paying random people to crate Smo to have her vetted and groomed at a clinic where they basically held her down to treat and clean her. The crating involved strange men coming into the house to throw towels over Smo, grab her and stuff her into her carrier.
This means Smo really, really doesn't like being handled in a way she's not comfortable with. She doesn't like to be held and can only be picked up for short periods of time to be moved. She has to be scruffed to be put in her carrier, as this is the only way to get her in it.
This didn't used to be a huge problem, but Smo has been developing random health problems after having been dumped outdoors for a couple months. I know we could get her out of the house in an emergency, but I worry about things like administering medication to her. She's the type of cat who will immediately know when we've put medicine into her food and refuse to eat it, and the kind who can't be held down to be pilled or syringe-fed. On top of all that she's terrified of being toweled because of how she used to be taken to the vet.
Smo has skin lesions on her stomach right now which could be any number of things, and I know our vet will probably prescribe some sort of cream for her. I'm very apprehensive about how we're going to get medication on her stomach because she will definitely fight back - in summer she would attack us when we tried to dab Laxatone on her paw during a bout of constipation.
I know we need to figure out how to handle her in the future, but she gets very aggressive when she's touched in a way she doesn't like. It's to the point where she bent the vet's syringe needle the first time he tried to sedate her during her visit - it took two grown men to hold her down when she was there to inject her. She's not aggressive with us during normal circumstances though - just when she's feeling threatened.
Does anyone else have a cat like this? And what do you do when you need to handle them in a way they're afraid of?