this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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That’s where the term “catatonic” comes from, or so I’ve heard, and it’s a reflex because mother cats carry their babies by the scruff of their neck. From what I understand it’s totally harmless.
Someone who actually knows these things can correct me if I’m wrong of course.
As the owner of various cats over 50 years it does nothing to adult cats. It will hurt an adult cat because their weight is too much for the skin to hold. As a kid I tried it many times because I heard the myth and it only made my cat more angry.
I don't believe kittens are affected other than being physically unable to do anything. Sort of like if you were put in a half-Nelson hold. You wouldn't be catatonic, just unable to fight back.
You don't pick an adult cat up by the scruff! But -- at least for some videogenic cats -- they will instinctively relax.
My cat relaxes, but then my cat gets all loungy anytime I interact with him.
Pet tax: He is one with the universe in a box.
To be fair, he wasn't talking about picking the cat up by the scruff of the neck, only squeezing it there.
Anyway, regardless of your anecdote, it is a real thing: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/animal-welfare/article/pinchinduced-behavioural-inhibition-clipthesia-as-a-restraint-method-for-cats-during-veterinary-examinations-preliminary-results-on-cat-susceptibility-and-welfare/CFCC52F39F2235340C1DBA4630EC07F0
As an owner of a less cats over less years, this is absolutely a thing and is sometimes referred to as “disabling” or “deactivating” the cat. You can do it at home with a clothes pin.
You don’t pick them up.
Here’s an example from what looks like a professional setting. https://youtu.be/T9TmmF79Rw0
This is regarding parent comment about:
You're wrong.
Catatonic syndrome was a diagnosis first used by a German psychiatrist in the 1800's. Before that it was described by ancient Greeks.
It's a category (also a word that has nothing to do with cats) of major depression and schizophrenia.
Scruffing a cat poisons it into a coma?
That's what the conversation was initially about. My mistake.
The rest of my comment stands.