I train new assistants on 22g cephalic catheter placement and oral dosing in cats, and I’m looking for your best low‑stress tweaks for busy Friday clinics. I teach towel anchoring at the elbow, head neutral, a tiny lidocaine bleb before the poke, and a pill gun only after a short chin‑scratch desensitization — what else helps you keep hands safe and meds accurate under a 10‑minute slot?
I’ve had good luck with a chin shelf hold and a burrito with an elbow window on a non‑slip mat, plus pre‑warmed flush/T‑port — cats relax when everything’s warm and quiet, and our sticks are faster. I also skip the lidocaine bleb on tiny/dehydrated geriatrics because it makes the vein roll, and use a Churu chaser for pills with a [redacted] water flush — “aim for still, not pinned” per ISFM: https://icatcare.org/feline-friendly-handling/.
I do a tiny “lick-and-stick”: smear a pea of Churu on the towel right where the nose lands, then place the 22g while they’re busy licking, hands stay off the face and the head stays neutral; if they’re NPO or nauseous, I swap to a pheromone-wiped towel.
And quick tweak that helped us on Fridays: pre-loop a Penrose drain as a quick‑release tourniquet under the towel so you can occlude the cephalic without extra grabbing and release the moment the catheter seats — like a tiny seatbelt. I also face them into a corner with a light towel hood and wipe with saline first to “hide the alcohol smell,” which cuts the pre‑poke flinch. If a cat balks at the pill gun, I switch to a small gel cap with a dab of lube and a 1–2 ml water chaser, head level, for cleaner swallows.