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I completely agree that this vet was not good this time. Sure, some cats are more difficult in stressful situations, but a good vet should be able to handle them.
Lola4, your situation with your daughter's cat sounds similar to mine. My daughter had to leave her two cats with me, and one of them is a high-strung, skit-ish kitty. Never before had a cat hated me so much. It took me over a month, but with patience, I turned her. She loved a certain toy that had a bell and a long string of elastic, so I played with her. At first, I'd touch her once. LOL, she'd hiss and scratch. As time went on I was able to touch her more. Then one night I slept in my daughter's room and woke up with this little girl lying on my chest, purring away. This same kitty also gave the vet tech much grief, but we generally do just fine at the vet's office.
Lastly, I don't think I'd be comfortable in allowing a vet to take my pet off and not allow me to be next to them. At least not for a vaccination. That seems suspect to me. Am I wrong?
Though some cats are just never going to do well in a vet's office no matter how good the vet and vet techs are with cats. Five has managed to get the dread red 'I am Shiva, destroyer of worlds' sticker on his chart at two different vet offices and the emergency clinic- he just gets utterly terrified there even with good clinic folks around, and when he gets scared, he lashes out big time.
I don't want to go the mobile vet route either because I don't want him to associate our house with a reason to be scared, so I do a lot of self monitoring with him (weight, waste output, skin condition, check for growths, etc.) and only take him in when there seems to be something wrong.
I don't know if this would be an option for you, but my mom has a cat that is impossible in the car (hyperventilates, vomits, freaks out!) and she found a vet who will actually come to her house. I don't know if there's anyone like that in your area, but it might be worth a google search. Otherwise I would do as the other posters have suggested and find a feline-specific vet. I've heard bad things about Banfield, not just from C-D so maybe even trying a different vet (not necessarily feline-specific) might be the answer.
Also in preparation for a vet visit you may want to try rescue remedy and feliway and do everything you can to keep kitty calm.
Thanks everyone for the help. Mobile Vets, didn't realize that they traveled to treat small animals. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that there is a cat Vet or cat clinic in the area.
I didn't say much (at the scene of the crime) and was just happy to get the cat and leave. I should have realized that things weren't going to go well when the Vet leaned over to get a better look and say "hello" to Shady. Not one to miss an opportunity, kitty reached out and sunk a couple of claws into the Vet's chin. I should explain that scene. The cat was on the table covered by a towel and was being held by the tech. The moment her face was uncovered, she struck. Vet:0 Shady:1
This is when the Vet said that they'd take her into the (back) room to examine her and give her the shots. I can't believe that I agreed to that. I didn't, really; it just sort of happened.
I looked through the small window in the door a minute later and saw that she was on the exam table and that everything seemed to be going well. I looked again a couple of minutes later and saw her slip out from under the towel. When I next caught sight of her, she was under a table in the corner standing upright with her paws in the air like a little prize fighter who'd just won a bout. It took them about five minutes to get her into the pet carrier.
The Vet commented that she had acted "like a little alley cat" and that we should come back another day so that Shady could be sedated for her exam and shots. I noticed that the Vet's hand was bleeding. Vet:0 Shady:2 or maybe 3.
Shady is really my son's cat, she just allows me live in the same house with her. My son did comment that the whole thing would have been much simpler and over with quickly had he been allowed to hold the cat, or as you've all said, with probably any other Vet.
Gerania, we all learn from our experiences. Things happen so quickly, sometimes. I once had an injured cat that had to be euthanized at an ER vet. They wouldn't allow me to go in the back with him. After that I said never again.
We had a psycho kitty that was attached to my husband. It was 3 years before I could even touch that dang cat.
The insurance company for our vet did not "allow" owners to hold the pets during procedures. Our vet knew better. She would just excuse the tech from the room stating, "I'll handle it." She let my husband hold him and things were fine. She was even able to take out about a dozen staples post surgery, with no problem. Cats weren't even her specialty.
Find the right vet and you'll have a better "behaved" cat. If you do have a cat that truly freaks out, then it's doubly important to build up a good "working" relationship with him/her so you can work together to minimize stress.
My daughter has a cat that she calls psycho kitty. Annie is about 7 years old and she does NOT do well at the vet PERIOD! She won't hardly let people she knows touch her so a stranger better not even TRY!
She has used the same vet for all of Annie's life and what he has to do is to put the kennel she is in, in a plastic bag and gas her until she is asleep. That is the ONLY way he can touch her. Once she swallowed a sewing needle and he kept her until she passed it but X-rayed her often to watch how it was moving through her and to make sure it wasn't embedded in her somewhere. He'd just lightly gas her, do the X-ray and put her back in her cage.
They only do that when he needs to touch her or handle her, otherwise the top of the kennel is removed and she gets her shots in the kennel. Just every 2 or 3 years does he gas her to give her a complete exam.
I have had more trouble just getting a cat to the vet's than what happens there. They just HATE being in the car. My vet is very good with cats and calms them as well as can be expected, and I'm there every step of the way.
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