Vet manhandling cat

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Is this normal. My cat is very scared of the vet and hisses a lot at the vet. The solution seems to be to wrap him in a towel which he absolutely hates.

Horrible experience for everyone involved

wrapping a cat in the towel is to keep both the vet and cat safe.

My cet struggles though, so not sure it is that good for my cat!

I feel the wrapping in towel is making him even more scared

I think the vet just wants to avoid being scratched 100 times per day as most cats and dogs in my experience passionately hate vets.
My dog used to try to bite our lovely vet and she was muzzled as a preventive measure.
Ofcourse she hated it and I didn’t enjoy seeing her so stressed but as long as the vet is not being out of orderly brusque or intentionally hurting the cat I would just let it go. Would you want to be scratched and bitten potentially a 100 times a day?

What's the alternative?

what would the alternative be?
no examination/treatment?
crush cage?

What do you want the vet to do?

My previous cat was terrified of vets and only the nurses could handle her. She leveraged a vets eyeball.....this you do not want!

What gender is the vet? Mine was far better around females.

On occasion if the vet is very calm and quiet with him he is ok to be handled a bit rather than be put in the towel.

But I think if the vets are more doggie types they immediately get the big towel out.

Usual vet is female but she’s now on mat leave so it will be a man

Is the vet tagged as ' cat and small pet friendly' ? Some vets specialise in cats. My current two love their vet trips.

Change your vet!

The word in my PP should be lacerated!!!

OP, my dog reacted the same to our male vet who is very skilled, lovely and genuinely fond of animals. He lives above his practice and you can call him 24/7 in case of emergencies, he won’t even charge you for the time the spends on the phone call. He has always been kind and gentle to her, yet, when she sees him she already wants to attack him before he has even said hello.

The female vet is also nice but not significantly nicer then the male vet but my dog is much calmer with her.

Might have to do with animals being aware that a male human being is treating them and perceiving this as more threatening then a female humanbeinf.

The vet staff has the right to take steps to keep themselves safe - cat bites and scratches can be very serious. It's not "manhandling" and doesn't cause any harm...

Could you use a vet that does home visits, if your cat would be better in their own environment?

I would seriously question whether it is not causing him any harm.

Started off ok today, then if they try and hold him down or restrain him in anyway he will basically fight them to the death. Stuff like they want to weight him so lift him to weight him and it all escalates from there.

He’s semi ok if they just leave him in bottom half of cat box and do what they need to do quickly.

He is v v stressed and in danger of hurting himself or the vet with this carry on.

They don't need to weigh a cat if he appears healthy. Likewise examining teeth.
I said it before ... Change vet.

DCat will fight the vet (swipes sideways with her front paw, and kicks with her back legs like a donkey) if I am there, so they take her through to the back room to do the routine jobs as she's much calmer without an audience.

DCat also forgives me quicker afterwards as well.

(I suspect the vets also distract her with the Dreamies that they tell me not to give her.)

Unfortunately teeth and weight have to be done as she's a recent rescue with issues in both departments.

My parents had a Siamese and the vet had to wear gauntlets to treat the little shit.

Its called a kitty burrito and allows veterinary professionals to restrain a fractious cat without too much restraint. We are a strictly no scruff practice and work on a hands off, gently does it way. Sometimes a towel is just the thing. Studies have shown that closely wrapping animals (akin to swaddling babies) does help to calm them.

There are definitely those who can "do cats" and those who can't. They don't do anything different but some folk just have a way.

I have cat breasts - blessed with boobies that i smother them with and relax them

If your at all unhappy change practices.

We muzzled my cat last time, I think he was too affronted to play up after that. It was on and off in seconds.

Can you help by putting kitty on the scales and holding him while the vet looks in his mouth. The cat can sit on your lap.They dont always get so frightened If the.ownerslave is there to reassure them.

My cat is HUGE and very strong. We changed vets because they were too aggressive with my escape artist cat; this is after we warn them every time (and in notes) hecwill need two people to handle him - the vet nurses tended to get it. The vet took it as an insult to his masculinity and we ended up traumatised, let alone the cat. Also, my cat had a serious injury in his youth; multiple broken bones so I didn't take kindly to him being manhandled. Current vet 'decants' him into a crush cage (sounds worse than it is) so can do injections, claws, teeth etc.