[tigella]

I have a cat that is does not like to be touched... she is mean and will bite.. I need to examine her skin as she is scratching to the point of losing fur.. she won't let me put anything on her or pick her up to see if there is anything I can do.. neither can I get her in a cat carrier to take her to the vet... I've had her since she was 5 weeks old so she doesn't have a history of abuse or anything.. she loves the dog!. any suggestions?.

[morgaine300]

Has she always been this way? If not, there may be some pain involved here making her not want to be touched. If she's always been this way, no idea. Bad things happening early in their lives can affect them, but this seems extreme for that. And she's had human contact at least since she was 5 weeks old.

As for the losing fur, that could be allergies. Or maybe just dry skin. How bad is it and how long has it been going on? Like just losing a tiny bit here or there, or losing bigger patches? If it's something like dry skin, giving her omega 3's can help. (Something like cod or salmon oil. They make kitty versions and you can go by the dose on it, but probably 1/4 tsp.) And I had a cat who was getting some scabs and losing just little bits of fur, and I put Vitamin E on those to help heal them, and also soften them up so the scabs themselves would stop itching. If it's allergies, you may have to do some food testing by eliminating all grains, seafood, beef. (There's a fairly long post on this I did under I believe "cat throwing up.") If steroids are recommended, try to do anything and everything else first, as those are bad news.

As for getting her to the vet, what I used to do with the she-witch I had was drop a towel horizontally over her, trying to aim to get the top edge just about at the edge of her on the head side. Then quickly grab in at the sides of the towel and wrap her. I'd have to be sure to catch all her paws in the towel. It was a knack I developed cause it was the only way to get her to the vet's safely.