Kitten play aggression/vet trips, help?

[cutie pie awry]

Hello! This is my second time posting here and I had some pretty great advice so I thought I would come back! :)

My kitten is now 9 weeks old and as playful as ever. I love her to death but she is testing my patience with her play aggression. She has plenty of toys that I change out every week, and she seems more than happy to play with them most of the time. When she is calm, she is gentle, and if she is biting, she is licking us at the same time, so I thought that maybe it was just her way of showing affection. But when she isn't calm. . . she never lets me put a hand on her without her thinking my fingers are toys! There are times when she will ignore a toy when I throw it towards her or wave it in front of her just so she can play with my fingers. I have tried hissing back at her or yowling but she just keeps going. I have also tried to walk away and end the play time, but she just follows me and tries to go for my ankles. She never breaks the skin when she bites but it definitely seems to be nonstop, no matter how much I play with her. I feel like I have tried everything but no avail, and it was especially bad when I took her to the vet today. . .

She was fine with one vet tech, but since she has been sort of constipated her bum was sore so she was fussy when they tried to take her temperature. I was holding her for the vet tech for a while, but she decided to bring in a different vet tech to help. When the other woman came in, she didn't even bother to pet my cat at all, she just scruffed her by the neck and started holding her down, but when she let her go, my kitten swatted at her and clipped her with her nails. She did not break the skin and wasn't hissing at the woman (she didn't even have her ears back) but the lady immediately stopped and started to get frustrated at me, saying that I did not handle her enough and we could not give her shots if she did not get her temperature. Needless to say I was very embarrassed, and they both left for a long time until the actual vet came.

I did not feel very well for the rest of the trip, especially when they took her back to wash her ears out (since she was just treated for ear mites), and my kitten was screaming bloody murder. They ended up giving her the shots anyway and something to help with her constipation. The vet and original vet tech were very nice and did not charge me for the check up, but I was so embarrassed, especially since it is only her second trip.

Now I am more concerned than ever. :( I don't want her scratching and biting to become a bad habit when she is older. I'm calling a groomer to see if they will give her nails a good clip - I normally do it myself, but I get so nervous that I don't think I cut them low enough. I will admit that I am guilty of giving in when she starts to get fussy with me, especially when giving her baths to keep her clean, but I just don't want to hurt her.

Please help :(

(sorry if typos, posting on mobile)

[Bombero343]

ok....well coming from a vet tech she shouldn't have gotten frustrated at you over that...its part of the job, you get scratched and bitten no matter what its near unavoidable.... a lot of the time we are in a hurry so please forgive her for coming in and not loving on your cat before scruffing her, sometimes we need to get in and out because we have so much going on... I worked at a emergency clinic so I'd have patients to care for in the back in critical care but still have to help with exams and vaccines...

We prefer to do vaccines in back and a lot in the back without the owner because animals are better without owners there, some become protective or more fearful with their owner because they're looking for safety.. so she was unprofessional to an extent but doing her job also.


As far as the scratching behaviors, when she gets into those fits where she starts playing with your hands, refuse to play with her, if she jumps on you put her down, move to another room or put her in another room, show her that you will not react to those behaviors. Don't even look at her or give her eye contact when she's like that because even just eye contact is a form of attention to them. Completely ignore her and remove either yourself or her from the situation. When she's calm you can give her attention and even treats. This isn't a overnight fix you need to stick to it and give it time to sink in to her.

To help with her nails if you go to petco or petsmart they should have nail caps, they come in different sizes so pay attention to that, they come in clear or a variety of colors, you just slip them on the nails and they should fit snug, she won't be able to effectively scratch you or anything or anyone with them on and they shouldn't bother her if she even notices them.

[cutie pie awry]

EGWhiz

Thank you for responding! c:
I had figured that it was that, or perhaps she was having a bad day. I just felt so bad that my kitten had made her upset, and she was talking about it outside of the office. I felt awful! I don't blame her, I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again since I have to keep going back.

I have been thinking about trying the nail clips. I just stopped by Petsmart to make an appointment with the groomer, and was wondering around there. If clipping doesn't work (or if she gets snappy with that groomer which I hope doesn't happen,) then I will give those a shot. I don't think she means to scratch sometimes, because if she really wanted to hurt us then she would bite.

I will keep it up. I think half of the battle is the eye contact. I didn't think that mattered so much, but now I know! :) Thank you so much, I will try this over the next few weeks.

[Bombero343]

cutie pie awry

EGWhiz

Thank you for responding! c:
I had figured that it was that, or perhaps she was having a bad day. I just felt so bad that my kitten had made her upset, and she was talking about it outside of the office. I felt awful! I don't blame her, I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again since I have to keep going back.

I have been thinking about trying the nail clips. I just stopped by Petsmart to make an appointment with the groomer, and was wondering around there. If clipping doesn't work (or if she gets snappy with that groomer which I hope doesn't happen,) then I will give those a shot. I don't think she means to scratch sometimes, because if she really wanted to hurt us then she would bite.

I will keep it up. I think half of the battle is the eye contact. I didn't think that mattered so much, but now I know! :) Thank you so much, I will try this over the next few weeks.

I hope it al works out for you!! Eye contact is a huge thing to them so make sure you try to not do that, she's looking for any kind of attention.
The fact that she was even talking about it annoys me, that whole situation that she even got annoyed really annoys me, its never fun when a animal gets you but thats part of the job once again and she should be happy it didn't break the skin!! Most do!

[~ Aki - Fairy ~]

catbehaviorassociates.com/ may be a helpful site; if not right now, in the future

[freelance lover]

I wonder how much is just kitten playfulness? I mean, wrestling and biting with littermates is sort of a normal thing. Not that you should encourage it, but perhaps its something she'll grow out of?

We got our girl when she was around 8 months old? She likes to wrestle and gets a little bitey with me. My boyfriend doesn't stand for it, but I sort of let her sweatdrop But I can always tell that it's just her wanting to play, because she always ends up chasing me/sprinting away wanting me to chase her. It's not had biting or anything, so I don't stop her like I probably should.

I'm certainly no cat expert, just a thought.

[Desi the fuzzy fluffhead]

It sounds like she gets over stimulated.

If she starts getting rough I'd give a loud clap a no and an end to play time.
Then walking away.
If she chases after you, maybe a squirt of water will deal with it?

The key is to be consistent. Have a 0 tolerance for aggression.

Kittens are kind of butts at the vet all the time though. Don't feel too bad.