bad time at the vet today...advice needed

hey everyone - I posted a few months ago about the semi-feral I live trapped and brought inside on New Year's eve. Lonely Girl has taken her time, but is becoming very friendly with us, and is super gentle when we have our petting and brushing sessions.  I had to get her nails trimmed this week, as I'm afraid she will get caught on something when we are not at home. I was able to entice her into the carrier this morning with some baby food though she was very unhappy and growled initially.  Went to my vet, and said "you might want to sedate her" but they wanted to try without. One of the vet techs got bitten through his restraining gloves, and they said I cannot bring her back without paying a couple hundred $ for her to be completely sedated.  They know her, as they treated her when I first brought her inside.  I assume they stuck her with a needle full of something while she was still in the carrier that time in order to handle her.

SO...any one have a similar issue? There's no way we can handle her ourselves to trim her nails. We moved her to a big bedroom that has hardwood floors to help wear down the nail tips a bit, but I'm wondering if there's some kind of special scratching post that will act like an emery board..?  I can't afford to pay $250 to get her nails trimmed every 2 months.  Have any of you had this dilemma?  thanks in advance for any advice you can give me

There is a scratching device like that, and some of my cats like it.  It's called the Emery Cat Board and looks like a normal corrugated cardboard scratching board but has something else in there too.  I'm not sure if it would actually DULL her nails but it would probably at least shorten them, which is what you want.  It is inexpensive and available just about everywhere -- Amazon, PetSmart, WalMart etc.  Just Google Emery Pet Board and you will find it.

Also, since she allows you to have grooming and petting sessions, you MIGHT be able to trim one claw a day.  I have one cat like that, and when she's really happy being petted and having her ears rubbed and her eyes are closed, I can usually sneak the clippers over the tip of one claw and trim it before she notices, after which she is wary (I use the small bird toenail clippers that look like blunt-tipped mini-scissors).  One every day or two helps, although the inner "thumb" claws are really hard to get without her noticing.

thank you!! I will order that today for sure.

As for trimming her nails one at a time I MIGHT be able to do that eventually, but I'm unwilling to try it now since I am still trust-building with her.  I handle her paws every "love" session we have in preparation for me being able to do that one day.  She's is a very scared girl, and has a giant flee/escape reflex that kicks on if we make a sudden move, or she hears a sound.  I've had her on Composure for a couple weeks. Feliway in her room.  Gave her 3 Composure today before her nail trim appointment...alas 

My cats have gotten hooked on things but never for long. I would do the Emory scratcher as suggested and skip vet visits unless absolutely needed.

thank you, I will do that.  I also feel terrible about the vet tech getting bitten today, so better to make do unless it's an emergency I'm realizing

I have had cats for over 50 years and have NEVER trimmed their nails. They have never grown to the point to be harmful to the cat. I have always had them use scratching posts and those corrugated scratchers.(found at Walmart and pet stores) You may want to look up cats nails on the internet, they are not like dog nails that can overgrow. I wouldn't trim her nails for a while and see how it goes. Good luck and keep us posted!

Vet techs can be a little macho and are not always savvy about feral/semi-feral cats.  Your cat should definitely be sedated if she needs vet work done and it doesn't have to be anything long-acting, just a quick shot in the butt does it very well.  Grey Boy, my feral, had to go in for bandage changes every 5 days for 6 weeks.  I would tranquilize him at home by putting 1/4 of a 1 mg. lorazepam tablet, crushed, into a piece of turkey bacon and feed it to him about an hour before we would leave. (Lorazepam is generic Ativan, same family as the tranquilizer that vets generally use, but it doesn't taste terrible like the vet product does!  It has virtually NO taste. The vet looked it up and prescribed the dosage.)  That wouldn't knock him out, just made him relaxed and sleepy in his laundry basket bed, and I'd put another laundry basket over that and hitch it with zip ties and take the whole thing to the vet.  He'd clip the zip ties on one side and give the cat a quick shot which put him under in about 10 miniutes.  Then he could take him out of the basket and go change the bandages, bring him back and put him in the basket, and I'd have him home before he woke up.  The very FIRST time I took him in, however, he was there for the day, having been x-rayed, tested for FeLV/FIV, then neutered, vaccinated and wounds dressed, and he was in a cage and AWAKE when I came to get him, although he was still in the laundry basket in a large bottom cage.  Nobody had put the second laundry basket on top and zip tied it however.  I was in an exam room and saw the tech putting on giant oven mitt gloves and asking another tech to go get a cardboard carrier since he didn't have a carrier with him, and I zipped back to the cage area and stopped them before anyone got hurt.  (A cardboard carrier for a feral cat even with both front legs totally wrapped in bandages would not have been a successful travel arrangement, even if he hadn't killed the techs first!)  I'm really glad I saw that before it went further.  Anyhow, I made them find laundry basket #2 and I put it on top of the one he was in, zip tied it and took him home.  The vet would have known better but he was seeing other clients at the time, this was just a "simple" (ha ha) pick up.  Long story longer, do NOT trust techs with your feral.

Some cats, like my Leo, get ingrown nails that grow into the skin because they grow curved, so if you don't trim her claws, keep an eye out for that. When Leo's thumb nail first grew into his pad, I didn't notice until he started to limp. Then I had to use manicure scissor and an emory board to get the curved nail far enough away from the paw pad to use the nail clippers. It was a very upsetting 10 minutes for both of us! Not all cats have this problem, but some do. Outdoor cats don't need their nails trimmed because the pavement wears them down, but indoor cats nails can get very long and sharp. They can really hurt other cats and humans if they scratch, and they can also get them caught on curtains and other objects.

I would recommend a corrugated scratching pad until you're able to trim them.

My feral, Mia, didn't allow me to trim her nails her first several months with me, but now she does. I hold her in my lap on her back, like a baby, and gently and very quickly go from toe to toe with my nail clipper. The thumbnails I do last. I talk soothingly to her while I do it. She tolerates it well now because she knows I'm not going to hurt her. I like the idea of doing a few nails at a time--if you do a nail or two a day, you'll get them all done in a week, and even if you don't, you'll get some done.

I would avoid vet trips for things like trimming nails. What I have observed is that the majority of vet techs dislike having to deal with ferals, and will deal harshly with the cat or at the very least make snotty comments about how the cat is a lost cause and too wild to tame. They don't make a lot of money and don't like risking getting bitten or scratche--that's the bottom line.

thanks everyone for the sage advice - this is my favorite cat site!! The depth of knowledge and experience here is overwhelming...

We have two half grown kittens that we found in our yard. We take care iof a colony and a lot of youngsters seem to find their way to us.

I try to trim their front nails once a week. I try to get them when they are napping or still groggy from a nap. I have been able to trim them without them fully waking. Most of the time I hold them with their back to me while I trim. I just take the points off to protect the furniture a bit.

They were pretty wild and afraid when we first found them but I wouldn't call them feral. They were so young that they came around fairly quickly.

I have many cats and do not trim all their nails as not all are willing. Only cat I have that will keep growing has extra toes and only her extra nails will grow.  If you REALLY need to have them done you may want to call a low cost clinic that can sedate her.  I have used a spay/neuter clinic and they charged me 35 or so.  But I needed her nails done as she was a longhair and needed to comb her.

Our rescue cat Danny was either always an outside cat or had been for at least 2 years before we took him in.  It took over 2 years, but I can now clip his toenails, front and back (doing the back ones just happened at the 2-1/2 year mark).

In the meantime, besides the product recommended, I love scratching posts or cat trees with sisal rope - that seems to help quite a bit with shedding the nail sheath.