Cat hates vet visits

My cat has been diagnosed with lymphoma and the doctor has presented us with an option to try a chemo pill with the idea that if she handles it well that she might get a few extra months. At first she told us she wasn't a good candidate and we just had a few months with her but is willing to offer us this since she would not be able to do any other form of chemo. We are still deciding and will make a decision very soon. 

However, she is so bad at the vet that they have to sedate her just to examine her so having to get regular bloodwork would be a very stressful situation for everyone involved. She is so bad that the vet called me and asked me to please pick her up early after her first UTI/Bladder infection because she was going after them whenever they tried to work/feed the animals around her. We have also figured out that my kitty gets stressed induced Cystitis, which is not fun at all. When she is at home, she is fine and we make sure when we giver her medicine that we give her plenty of love before and after so I hope I am helping keeping her stress level okay at home.

Either way, treatment or no treatment she will have to go to the vet, does anyone have any recommendations that might help ease her stress?  The vet said we could start giving her kitty prozac or another medicine but I really don't want to add another pill  but if a pill is better than the sedation for vet visits it could be an option. We are still trying to work this out but I hate she has to get sedated all the time and her liver is a concern as well.

I have looked into the Sentra Collars but I don't think she will like that very much and I have thought about calmingcollars.com as well. I know the calming  collars are expensive, especially for just a few months (hopefully longer) use but I might have to start using at home if we do the chemo route or as her health declines so it might be worth it.  Are the calming sprays a possible option? We could use it in the places she sleeps and in her carrier when we take her to the vet so I am open to suggestions with that as well. I don't know if I can totally remove the aggression she feels towards the vets but maybe something to take the edge off might help them manage her without sedation.

Any recommendations would be helpful. Thanks guys.

have your tried rescue remedy? your cat  can also be prescribed trazadone to calm her as valium is controversial regarding liver disease---- however if you are just looking at extending her life the doc might be willing to use valium anyway

Please know I am so sorry what you are going through. My Minnie had to have her chest drained every 8 days or so. We had it done 2x.. under sedation.. and after the 2nd one..she took a day or two to bounce back.. not a full appetite through it all, thus began a little weight loss...but still carried on her normal routine and still played with her hairband once and awhile since she felt pretty normal after being drained.. but the fluid came back a little sooner and I couldn't imagine taking her to the vet again... just a week later after recovering from the sedation and just getting back to feeling good...only to do it all over again to her. Surgery would have been super invasive..opening the chest...and maybe at best an 80% survival, but it depended on the kitty... she was 10. I simply didn't want that to be the last thing she went through if it didn't work... thus we had a service come to the house to put her down...as no way did I want to have her ride in her carrier or car to go to the vet to put her down when she hated it so. I hope you find peace in whatever you decide.. I know I concentrated on the great years she had with us and didn't want it to turn into having any bad days of her not being "herself". Her condition would have really been tough to take her through it to fight it.

Is there a mobile vet in your area?

and some vets make house visits. doesn't hurt to ask. 

I really like my vet but I will look around and see if there is a mobile vet or a vet that makes house calls. I know my vet doesn't and I would hate to change but my cat is my priority.

I have not tried rescue remedy but will look into it.

I've had some success with both Rescue Remedy and Feliway (spray the Feliway in the carrier before going to vet, put RR on the cat's ears when putting her in). For my cat who hated going to the vet, they weren't a perfect solution but did take the edge off a bit. 

I've recently switched to a mobile vet and while it does help not having to take the cats anywhere, they still hate being poked and prodded by strangers.

I talked to my vet and she doesn't think anything, would really work unless she was on something like prozac and even then they might still have to sedate her since she is very aggressive to them and me when she is at the vet. I am not a fac of putting her on prozac because it can make them sleepy and it could make it hard to judge how she is doing. She is great at home and isn't stressed out at all (as far as I can tell). She fights a little when we have to give her pills but never tries to kill us like she does to the vet. 

Luckily at this point my vet is pretty much letting me decide if and when the cat should come in and I will let me have some medicines without taking her in. She thinks once a month for blood work would be a good call just to monitor her. She does have cancer so we are just doing as much as we can at home to help her and us at this point.

I do want to mention I am still going to try the spray to see if it will at least help with the ride to and from the vet when needed and if she starts to get anxious at home as time goes on. Another pill is not ideal.