"Natural" sedative to calm a cat for grooming

[9GreenBottles]

One of my cats is 11, and has very thick, short fur that she has always been bad at grooming. She is also very intolerant of being combed and gets upset and bitey after about 30 seconds. She has started getting matted patches on her haunches that she won't let me touch.

Can anyone advise if there is a product, (I'm thinking like a travel sedative) which would make her relaxed enough to give her a good comb?

Does she normally allow stroking if no brush is involved? Maybe a grooming mit might work if so?

It might be better to take her down to your vets and let them sedate and dematt her first (usually involves clipping all the matts off and grooming the rest). Then get her used to being groomed while there are no matts to make her sore while you brush her. Also worth getting her teeth checked while you are there. It is quite common for cats to groom themselves less due to dental pain.

I'd wondered about the sedation by the vet but hadn't wanted to subject her to that unnecessarily - but if it was linked to teeth cleaning, I would consider that.

She's a bit temperamental Weeds, so it might work for a few minutes and then I'd be risking a shredding