My (and sasvermont's), RB cat, Gabe, had to be sedated to see the vet. He was a mess at the vets. Although, i don't think SAS had quite as much trouble with him as I did. ANyway, my feeling is, if it is only once a year (hopefully) that they need to see the vet, a little tranqulizer won't hurt. Many humans take these sort of meds before flying on planes, etc. I know, being in your shoes, that it is no fun being the human, either, when you have to bring an unhappy animal to the vet's. But i am sure they see several unhappy cats and dogs, as well, quite often. There is a sign in our vets office, and it says " Pets often act like wild animals when placed into a strange situation...so please leash and cage them while in the office", and it has a pic of wild tigers and so forth...so i am sure it happens often enough, for that sign to be up Anyway, do what you think is right, but i dont see anything wrong with giving the animal something to make it calm down, especially if it is only like once a year or so...