Hi all, I've posted about HLA here: Socializing a senior (10-plus year old) feral kitty
She needs to go back to the vet on Thursday, and I'm trying to plan my strategy for getting her in the carrier.
Right now, she is staying in our spare bedroom, where she spends 99 percent of her time hanging out in a cat bed on top of a desk, or sitting on a cat tower. She has no interest in hanging out in any kind of enclosed space, whether it's a carrier, a box or whatever.
I have ordered some compounded 100 mg gabapentin chew treats through my vet. I was going to give her one Thursday morning two hours before her appointment. My hope is that this will make her loopy enough that I can walk right up to her, put a towel around her, and move her to her carrier.
I have some questions, though--should I test this sometime before Thursday, to see if 1. she eats the treat, and 2. it has the desired effect on her? Have others had good experience with gabapentin in getting ferals contained?
My biggest fear is that Thursday will arrive, she either won't eat the treat or won't be sufficiently zonked out, and I'll be all out of tricks. I really want to avoid having to chase her around the room, and destroy any sort of trust we've been able to build so far. She tolerates my hand next to her face when feeding her, but she is very wary of me when I'm just walking around the room, however slowly. I really want her to be so out of it Thursday morning that it doesn't even register what's going on.
Does my plan seem sound? Thanks.
She needs to go back to the vet on Thursday, and I'm trying to plan my strategy for getting her in the carrier.
Right now, she is staying in our spare bedroom, where she spends 99 percent of her time hanging out in a cat bed on top of a desk, or sitting on a cat tower. She has no interest in hanging out in any kind of enclosed space, whether it's a carrier, a box or whatever.
I have ordered some compounded 100 mg gabapentin chew treats through my vet. I was going to give her one Thursday morning two hours before her appointment. My hope is that this will make her loopy enough that I can walk right up to her, put a towel around her, and move her to her carrier.
I have some questions, though--should I test this sometime before Thursday, to see if 1. she eats the treat, and 2. it has the desired effect on her? Have others had good experience with gabapentin in getting ferals contained?
My biggest fear is that Thursday will arrive, she either won't eat the treat or won't be sufficiently zonked out, and I'll be all out of tricks. I really want to avoid having to chase her around the room, and destroy any sort of trust we've been able to build so far. She tolerates my hand next to her face when feeding her, but she is very wary of me when I'm just walking around the room, however slowly. I really want her to be so out of it Thursday morning that it doesn't even register what's going on.
Does my plan seem sound? Thanks.