8

There are a few questions about closed doors, but I feel my question has a bunch of different angles which makes most replies inapplicable.

One of our three cats has a big issue with going to the vet. While normally a very calm cat, catching him to put him into the box turns into a literal persistence hunt, all the tricks to get him in the box won't work until he just gives up from exhaustion and we can pick him up - but even then only with gloves or your hands will be severely cut, as he puts up a fight for his life. This is also the reason why we need to close the bedroom door when we want to catch him, because otherwise he will hide under the big bed that we can hardly move and therefore cannot catch him.

This has caused him to associate a closed bedroom door with the "torture" of getting caught and going to the vet. While the door normally stays open, my wife sometimes gets up much earlier than I do and will have to close the door for 1-2 hours or I cannot sleep anymore. With every visit to the vet the behavior gets worse. Currently we are at the stage where he will cry (yell) non-stop at the door, attempt to scratch it open, pounce into it without interruption, which means I can now choose not to sleep because my wife is getting ready for work with the door open or because the cat is crying his soul out...

Are there any recommendations how we could approach this situation?

EDIT: Funnily today's vet visit was super calm, he hid in a corner, walked into the box after a few minutes and has been super quiet even with the bedroom door closed. Maybe he read this post and was embarrassed...

lila
  • 185
  • 5
  • 10
  • 37
Yanick Salzmann
  • 203
  • 2
  • 6
  • 1
    Does he scratch when he is outside the bedroom? When he has access to all the rooms in the house except your bedroom? – ck1987pd Sep 12 '20 at 13:22
  • 1
    Yes, exactly, he wants to get into the bedroom, he assumes its time for the box when the bedroom door closes and wants to go hide under the bed – Yanick Salzmann Sep 12 '20 at 13:24
  • 1
    Oh and when he is inside and you close the door he wants to go out, albeit not that vehemently – Yanick Salzmann Sep 12 '20 at 13:25
  • 3
    The obvious solution is to have a cat flap on your bedroom. But not a handsome solution. – ck1987pd Sep 12 '20 at 13:27
  • 3
    Have you tried gently squeezing the cat behind the neck, and then picking him up? This usually has a strong calming effect. – vsz Sep 13 '20 at 12:04
  • yes, we did, as tried the vet, however even they didnt manage to get the typical response from squeezing the neck. I think the whole situation to him boils down to the primal instinct of survival knocking out all other reflexes/instincts. – Yanick Salzmann Sep 13 '20 at 15:10
  • Why do you think the vet is the reason for upset over the closed door? If you search "cat closed door" or look at any of the related questions on the side you can see that a lot of cats just don't like closed doors. I would keep an open mind as to why your cat doesn't like this, and just stick with general methods for training the cat to stop yelling and being OK with closed doors and crates. – user3067860 Sep 14 '20 at 19:13
  • There was no issue for a year with closed bedroom doors and it started exactly after the first visit to the vet. – Yanick Salzmann Sep 15 '20 at 04:38
  • @YanickSalzmann Re. your edit: Did you behave differently? Calmer? Accepting the drama (that then didn’t happen)? Cats have super good antennas for their humans’ emotional state. – Stephie Sep 15 '20 at 20:54
  • @Stephie not sure about the catching but post vet was the anesthesia side effect, cause the next day it was back to being loud. I am just getting used to sleeping with the door open... it’s really complex, last week the door closed from the wind and I could not get up from a meeting but saw that everyone was outside. He saw the closed door but it didn’t bother him at all. I have yet to find the exact combination triggering the behavior. Same for the carrier. He’s not afraid at all, even sleeps inside (we keep it in the apartment now). But time for the vet it’s panic mode even before we try... – Yanick Salzmann Sep 23 '20 at 15:03

4 Answers4

23

You need to break the existing conditioning your cat has at the moment. The classic approach would be to close the door and immediately open it again. Then slowly increase the time that the cat will accept the closed door.

Make sure you always open the door before he starts to fuss and complain and by all means before he freaks out - or you’ll likely start at square one again. Plan to work on that for quite some time, multiple times per day, and absolutely don’t do that catching him routine again. Don’t talk or fuss or console (hint: if you “console”, something must be “wrong” in his view, and so increase his anxiety), be very casual and matter of fact. Do it when he’s far away or near you, to make clear that the door opening and closing is not related to him.

If you are interested, you could look into clicker training to teach him to remain calm or ask you “politely” to open the door. But in high-stress situations it’s going to be tough, adrenaline tends to override food and learning drive.

Until you break the closed-door-panic, you must keep the bedroom door open even if it impacts your sleep.

Edit:
This post purposely focuses on the door issue as asked about in the question. How to de-stress vet visits and crate training is an adjacent and related field where cat and owner can benefit from training. Dealing with these may or may not help with the door drama. From the way the OP presented the situation, I feel the closed door has evolved into its own problem.

Stephie
  • 3,089
  • 13
  • 33
  • 1
    That sounds interesting, I just fear we might be back on square one the next time he has to go to the vet. We will have to close the door again or the second he sees me entering the door with the boxes he will run to the bedroom and hide under the bed as far away as possible :( – Yanick Salzmann Sep 12 '20 at 15:51
  • 3
    That’s a completely different thing - don’t ever do this kind of catching again. A trivial solution may be to pick him up first (get a helper), then go get the carrier. If you can’t put him easily into the carrier, investing in another model may be an option. – Stephie Sep 12 '20 at 15:55
  • 1
    Yea, that is indeed a different issue, I fear he will then just associate being picked up with going to the vet which would would not be desirable. Also that helper will have to be very well protected as he becomes extremely agressive when he realizes something is up and will use everything he can to escape. But yea, I am going to research on things to do here outside of this question. I assume there was maybe some past trauma. – Yanick Salzmann Sep 12 '20 at 16:02
  • 2
    But picking up probably happens very frequently anyway... I would guess we have a few Q/As on the vet/carrier topic. – Stephie Sep 12 '20 at 16:03
  • He lets you pick him up, but its not really his favorite thing so we try not to do it too often. – Yanick Salzmann Sep 12 '20 at 16:05
  • Would this still work even when the cat has associated closed door = vet when it must be one vet visit per dozens of times the door is closed for other reasons? That's some overwhelming numbers to overcome. That's almost like a "never again" scenario than conditioning. – DKNguyen Sep 13 '20 at 00:49
  • @YanickSalzmann Isn't it counterproductive to run hide in the bedroom when the bedroom is where he gets locked in? – DKNguyen Sep 13 '20 at 00:52
  • @DKNguyen the key factor isn’t the closing, it’s that the door immediately opens again. – Stephie Sep 13 '20 at 08:36
  • Exactly, if you let him in after crying at the door he has a quick look inside and then does whatever he was doing before as if nothing happend. – Yanick Salzmann Sep 13 '20 at 14:27
  • I guess I am getting confused from OP's description. I'm not sure whenever you're talking about the cat being outside the room with the door closed and whenever the cat is inside the room with the door closed. – DKNguyen Sep 13 '20 at 14:41
  • Him outside, door closed -> access to the hiding spot under the bed not possible -> very bad behavior. Him inside, door closed -> slightly better, but as any other cat, not desirable to him and will cause pleads to go outside as they never get locked into any room under any circumstance. – Yanick Salzmann Sep 13 '20 at 14:54
  • @YanickSalzmann Oh, I see. For some reason I assumed it would be more difficult to catch him running all over the house so I thought he would have to be locked in the bedroom to catch him. – DKNguyen Sep 13 '20 at 16:58
  • Fyi, 1.5 months later no change in behavior whatsoever, as soon as he realizes the door is closed he comes running and screams. We even tried standing next to the door to immediately open it when he comes running, then he will just sit inside the door frame to prevent you from closing the door for 15 minutes. My wive sometimes manages to get him to shu... be quiet for 15 minutes or so by repeatetly pretending to give food. Thats enough so I can get back to sleep. Bottom line: I'm getting used to being often sleep deprived for the next 15 years :-) – Yanick Salzmann Oct 25 '20 at 03:11
20

Our cat was not thrilled to go into the box either (it was less severe than you, though). As soon as she felt that something was wrong she would run for her life under the bed and good luck getting her out of there.

We did two things:

  • we broke the routine of closing her somewhere and sneaking in with the box
  • we put the box right in the middle of the living room for a few days, it was just sitting there without any use. Then we moved it across the apartment to various rooms.

What happened is that the cat initially was scared, then got used to the box and event entered there from time to time (we would not close it).

Then, after some time, when she was in, we would close the box and reopen it shortly afterward. And move the box with her inside (open or closed).

She ended up not paying much attention to it anymore. When she was being transported somewhere she did not like (anywhere, basically), she would jump out of the box when home but we would leave the box where it was. After a few hours, she was giving up being pissed off by the box and the more we did that, the shorter that cooldown time was. Then she stopped associating the box with the problem of getting out.

WoJ
  • 363
  • 2
  • 9
  • 1
    I agree with this. This is definitely going to work. It takes the investment of time but in the long run it's worth it. – chasly - supports Monica Sep 13 '20 at 08:50
  • Thanks I've found some good starting points for the box-training, I think we might be able to do something here, he responds very well to training, it took him like 2 times playing with the laser pointer to associate the rattling of the chain of the laser pointer to play time and the third day he already was running to us when I picked up the laserpointer from a different room :) – Yanick Salzmann Sep 13 '20 at 14:28
4

I feed my cats twice a day in their transportation crates. If I need to take them to the vet, I just close the door as they are eating.

I would suggest getting a new crate (no bad associations), and start making it the most wonderful place ever. Put tasty food treats in there. Make it warm and cozy. Anything you can do to increase the value of the crate.

Once the cat is unafraid of the crate, start feeding them there exclusively.

Steven Gubkin
  • 141
  • 2
  • 2
    Welcome to Pets SE! Please keep in mind that the question doesn't ask about how to get a cat into a transportation crate, but how to stop the cat from scratching at and screaming in front of the closed door. Although your answer is viable, it doesn't answer the question asked by the OP. – Elmy Sep 14 '20 at 13:07
  • 2
    @Elmy This is an example of an XY problem. While OP is asking a question about how to prevent his cat from meowing at the closed door, this is only relevant as part of a strategy for transporting the cat. My suggestion addresses the transportation problem through an alternative strategy which avoids locking the cat in a room at all. As such, I believe the answer is on topic. – Steven Gubkin Sep 14 '20 at 14:27
  • 1
    While in my opinion there is some bit of an underlying X-Y problem, addressing the crate topic won’t necessarily and automatically deal with the door issue as well. It may just as well have evolved into a “closed door -> panic” automatism. I think that crate training will be good for the cat in general, but in my opinion, the door is a separate field that needs work, especially as the OP has (involuntary) trained the door reaction quite solidly. – Stephie Sep 14 '20 at 20:27
  • 1
    @Stephie One could combine my current answer with the installation of a cat door. – Steven Gubkin Sep 14 '20 at 21:24
3

When you aren't going to the vet, and you want to sleep, put the box just inside the bedroom door when it's closed. When you open the door he will see the box and decide to go elsewhere.

Okay, you'll have to get up a few times earlier than you want but you won't have to do this many times - cats learn quickly..

You may have to adjust this a little according to how he reacts. For example if he cries at the door when you aren't going to the vet, pick up the box and show it to him. He will believe that crying outside the bedroom causes the box to appear.

There are dozens of other possibilities you just have think like a cat! Their logic is pretty basic.

P.S.

I'm not sure if I've explained well. Here's the simple cat logic:

At the moment he thinks closed door means box will appear outside of the bedroom.

You need him to believe that an actively opening bedroom door means the box will appear inside the bedroom.

This won't stop him going into the bedroom when the door is already fully open. If it does, ask again.

chasly - supports Monica
  • 804
  • 4
  • 6
  • I am not sure whether adding another scare to the existing fear is a good approach. – Stephie Sep 13 '20 at 08:38
  • 1
    P.S. I see that @WoJ has in fact outlined the long term solution in their just-submitted answer. I recommend it! – chasly - supports Monica Sep 13 '20 at 08:49
  • Yep, saw it. The classic procedure. I focused on the immediate issue in my answer, assuming that we have Q/As on the box topic. But admittedly didn’t check. – Stephie Sep 13 '20 at 08:51