@Zu_Zu BFFs now
VID_20201011_184209196_HDR
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Excellent ~ Blue Ribbon !
Thanks for sharing !
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Both cats. Sam is well over 20 pounds. Naku weighs less than 7. She’s a retired breeding queen from Harvard Medical School, where she had kittens for Science for a few years. They were going to euthanize her because she was not a good colony cat - much too shy. One of the vets there arranged for me to adopt her in 2005.
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Gabapentin or Acepromazine or Gabapentin AND acepromazine. I have one who had extreme fear of the vet after going through hell to get him to live, so he had good reason, and he literally needed both drugs on board to not literally flip his, er, excrement.
Before that though, I’d get him accustomed to eating really tasty snacks in a medium sized dog carrier. Then, throw in some catnip and towels/blankets/toys so it becomes a place he wants to go. Take your time over a few days/week+ to get him to the point that he wants to be in there all the time and is ok with you being close by. When he is comfortable, start closing the door for a minute or two and working up to closing it for 1/2 and hour or so. Then, make your appointment, obtain the drugs and dope him up with some good stinky food. Adding tuna juice will also help disguise drug flavour.
Good luck!
Update: we are still not there, but have a Havahart trap set up with the door blocked open so it will not close and trap him, and a blanket over it. I’m wanting him to get used to going into a small, dark space for food; both cats have shown that they will go into a carrier for their regular food. I’ll keep moving the food back further so eventually he has to go all the way in. And then… hoping to trap him.
I fully expect him to lose his shit then. Vets know we’re coming, hopefully later this week…
If he has any really complicated medical stuff going on, I’ll have him euthanized. This may a one-time vet visit.
I once had a cat like this. For a long time, I avoided taking her to the vet because it was impossible to get her into a carrier without shredding my hands. I tried for an entire year to get her used to going in the carrier. I left it open, and everyday I put food in the entrance. I had hoped she would gradually learn to get in the carrier without panicking. She would put her head in the entrance, but that’s as far as she would go. After a year of doing this every day I gave up.
I did finally find a solution though. I placed a laundry bag on the floor, doughnut shaped with the opening in the middle. I set the cat in the opening and spent time scratching her chin and ears, then, quick as a wink, I pulled the laundry bag up around her and put the entire package in the carrier. I left the opening loose so she could get out if she wanted while she was in the carrier. Worked like a charm. Cat didn’t panic because she couldn’t see that she was going in the carrier. This is the way I handled it from then on.
You might try this. If you don’t have a laundry bag, a large pillowcase or small blanket might do the trick.
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I can’t even pick this guy up. I can touch him, pet and scritch him where he wants to be scritched, but that’s about it. I’ve gentled feral cats before, but they were not living with me; they were at a shelter.
Good news: he’s nearly all the way into the trap, chowing down!
I was going to get a photo, but I bumped something and he backed out, sigh. Now his little buddy is in the trap eating, and she is actually more wary about it than he is.
(The carrier is long and skinny, so he can’t easily turn around once inside. Little cat might be able to, but she’s going into the big dog crate as soon as I am reasonably certain that the big guy will go allllll the way into the trap for food. OTOH, cats really, really don’t like backing up, so he may get unccoperative as the food moves further in.)
(Also… this guy is super wary of new foods. He wants his kibble, and that’s it. He has deigned to eat a few hairball treats after watching the little one eat them a few times, and steal his from him.)
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Oh argh. So annoying when you get to that so near yet so far stage.
I am working with an outside feral boy. I can get him to come up to the door of my house and I can get within a couple feet of him, I can call him up for food but put up a trap or re-arrange the deck furniture and he’s off and I have to start all over again. Maddening.
Good luck. I think you’re getting there.
I haven’t read all of the replies, but here is a thought. I trap cats for a lady with a ton of feral cats (another story). We took wire and rolled it into a square tube, if that makes sense, and she puts food in there all of the time. This makes her cats extremely easy to trap, and they can be trapped repeatedly. It just kind of acclimated them to it.
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Well, then, his kibble shall be served only inside the trap!
Half joking, but this could be the incentive to go aaaallllll the way in.
Wishing you LUCK!
That is exactly what I’m doing. I’m a bit worried that the little cat won’t go in there, and don’t want to put her in the big dog crate (where she has lived before, post surgery) until I’m closer to trapping Sam.
Update… Sam is going all the way in (including most of his tail) but not far enough to trip the trap. I pull the food out at night so Naku can eat it; she’s not going into the trap, period, even though she fits and he really doesn’t.
I used to volunteer at a cat rescue in Laguna Canyon, CA, before I moved to MA in 1996. They had some very feral cats, including one called “Rafters” because that is where he was if there was any human within 100 feet of the house. Once a year, the vet caught him in a huge butterfly net, sedated him, and did his shots plus whatever else needed doing.
There was a huge mudslide a few years after I moved; they had very little time to evacuate, but they caught all the cats except Rafters, so they assumed he was killed in the mudslide. The shelter was completely destroyed, but people raised money so they could occupy a closed nursing home. Some time later… I am thinking weeks or even months… someone spotted Rafters in the ruins of the old place. He was trapped and reunited with his pals.
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GOT HIM!
I had to use a string to pull the trap door shut. Poor fellow.
He’s actually being pretty quiet, after about 10 minutes of struggling.
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He’s back. He desperately needs his teeth attended to, but there was no room in the schedule this week. He weighs 23 pounds, has had his rabies and distemper shots, blood drawn, they clipped the big mats off his back and even trimmed his claws. The vet said he was not close to the most difficult cat she’s dealt with.
He’s laying down about 3 feet from me and grooming himself. He doesn’t seem too traumatized.
I’m going to keep feeding him and the little girl cat in the trap, so hopefully next Tuesday we’ll do this all over again.
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Glad both of you survived! It will be interesting to see how he is about the trap after today.
Victory!!!
That’s great progress.
There are traps made for catching feral cats that have a door at each end, so you can let them eat and walk forwards out until trapping day.
YAY! Glad you got him and were able to get him the help he needs. And 23 lbs!!! Yikes! He must be huge. 
Yay!
If he is anything like my Cheeto, he will forgive you completely & be trappable when needed 
Mr C just had to visit the vet Sunday - straining outside the box & a wee bit of dribbling (on my couch 
)
Looks like I caught a UTI very early on.
I just scruffed him & squished him into my carrier.
Vet techs loved him & he forgave me within minutes of getting home.
Hoping for Same for you & your Chonk 
He is already going into the trap to eat. He won’t go all the way in, but halfway is a good start given that it was just yesterday that I trapped him. He is now asleep and snoring.
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