Yearly vet visit

Friday the 5th, Basti was due for her yearly vaccinations. Her sister and 'step-brother' are due as well, but it's almost impossible to safely take 3 cats to the vet in my tiny car. So, being the specialty cat in my house, she went first.  The good thing about all those past trips to the vet is that she is the easiest of the three to transport. She was talkative this time which is unusual. I sometimes think that she keeps quiet in the car to the vet when she feels really unwell but when she feels reasonably well, she doesn't understand why she should be going to a doctor and therefore complaints.

Basti saying she wants food..sitting on top of her box.

One thing that seemed to work last April when she had one of her anorexic episodes, was cobalamin and folate injections. As she's gradually been eating less and less again, I was hoping that giving her the vitamin shots now, would at least help her in going back to her old amounts. Here comes the weird part; I didn't see any improvement over the weekend but we were out a lot. Come Monday however, and I'm home most of the time, she ate an amazing 62 grams! Compared to the 40 or so grams she has been eating, I was ecstatic.Then a thought occurred to me: Could it be that she eats less because she doesn't like being alone or even doesn't like eating alone?

In the mean time, we're still trying to get her in her box. Our vet had 'open house' on Sunday, and the cat behaviorist was present as well. I mentioned to her that we had problems getting Basti into her box. She asked if Basti was responsive to catnip and when we said 'yes', she suggested using dried Valerian. Boy, that stuff smells!

Well, she reacted to it like we would..she squinted her eyes, pulled a face and walked away. Not the response I had expected. Still no other solutions besides perhaps dried catnip leaves. I've already tried spraying the inside of the box with catnip spray but that has no effect. If my guess about her not wanting to eat alone is correct, I'll never get her to go inside on her own.