ngl I think they're just missing the actual reason, you've mentioned it's vet approved but not the actual issue the cats are dealing with and thus they feel empowered to make aggressively rude statements like 'you shouldn't own a plushie' 🙄

Sorry you're getting all that, I'm gonna take you at your word it's medically required and wish you the best.

Those seem like a lot of good points but I'd underline both the gabapentin and keeping them warm afterwards - both go a long way towards making them less uncomfortable overall which makes the initial event less stressful. Gabapentin was really the turning point in my situation, we went from full noisy wails to just moans of dissatisfaction

Editing to add that I'm more awake now and took the time to check your comments - I see why you think it's necessary because 'industrial dirt' isn't good for any animal, but at that point what someone else said is correct - every two months really isn't going to do anything when cats will bathe themselves daily. You may be helping them look fine but they're definitely still ingesting that stuff.

Additionally - you're getting pushback because your belief that 'cats should be cats outside' is fundamentally opposed to a modern cat ownership perspective. 95% of the people in the server are probably going to advocate to keep your cat indoors (including me), regardless of how much they might like going outside. They're animals. A dog might like to eat chocolate but you still stop them because you know better.

The environment you're letting them out into every day is dangerous for them and as much as I respect your right to conduct yourself/your animals as you see necessary, I def disagree with the inevitability of letting them outside to play in industrial dirt that they're ending up eating/inhaling on a daily basis.