Learning to give cat a wellness exam

I'm looking for references on what to look for if I were to do a basic wellness exam on Punkin.

The why and wherefore of all this is because Punkin is a nice pleasant cat for me... but he's a monster at the vet. This isn't just your average angry cat, either; they've admitted that he's the second most dangerous current patient they have (the worst being the assistant's cat ). He's like trying to hold down an eel... a very pointy eel. He bites, and has been know to rip leather cat gloves off of hands (something I'd thought impossible until he did it Monday). Meanwhile, when we're at home, I can do anything with him, including pilling, lifting, and looking at his teeth and gums.

Anyway, since he makes things very difficult, I'd like to be able to keep a basic eye on him myself, and learn to take his temperature and pulse, know what his abdomen should feel like, his lungs should sound like, and his ears and eyes should look like. This way I can have a general idea on his condition well before he goes in, and if they can't get a good look at something I can at least be reassured that I'm familiar enough with his body to be fairly confident that there's no problem.

What I should have done was ask the vet to show me how with my other cat while I was there, but I didn't think about it until it was too late. So it may be that for next year I can't do anything, or maybe can only do his pulse, ears, and eyes. But if anyone has refs on this sort of thing, I'd love to see them

try finding a vet who makes housecalls ... this service may cost a few $$ more but for me had been a lifesaver

Won't help. He rips the daylights out of strangers no matter where he is. If anything he's worse at home if he can't get away.

Is it possible to schedule a time to visit with your vet anyway? A qualified vet tech might be capable of explaining what to look for.

I don't remember who to give the credit, but I read on TCS that someone used a heavy denim material made into a sack with a draw string. The cat is secured from scratching with the head only out of the bag and supposedly safe to hold without getting shredded by claws. My next choice (and I say this light hearted as I have a similar cat) would be sedation.

Hmm... the bag might be a good idea--I know we've done a towel wrap before. The difficulty -- as I'm sure you personally understand -- is that every time something works, it only works once. I think they used the net on him this time. Last time it was the squeezebox (and because he had a UTI, they ended up sedating him to get a sample and also took advantage of it to get him checked out), before that a muzzle, before that gloves, and before that was the time that he just chewed several hands off at the wrist

I always kind of hate to do sedation with cats because they don't always handle it well. Just wish he wasn't such a monster with other people.