Right. Back from the vets, my daughter has been fed, my parents have been Skyped and the clippered cat is still hiding under the bed. Perfect. Thanks to all initial posters for your help, I was at a loss.
I found the cat as per photo below, Sudocrem visible on head and back, not visible on stomach and hindquarters. The photo, regrettably, does not do justice to either the amount of product applied or how deeply it had been rubbed in. Getting meta, I understand this will prevent the thread from becoming a classic. Sorry.
First point, baby wipes will not remove Sudocrem from a relatively hairy cat, although on the bright side it’s easy to try. Second point, Fairy liquid won’t shift it either and you’ll be sorry you bothered. In brief, following the vet’s initial advice (and the baby wipe trial) I took the cat to the bathroom, shut myself in with her, lathered her up with Fairy liquid and then realised I couldn’t rinse her by myself due to being unable to hold both cat and showerhead (the kind that comes out of the bath faucet part on a long metal hose).
Fortunately, my daughter (age 3 and 5 months) was waiting outside the door and was only too keen to help. The cat made a few – and given the tales above, quite frankly pathetic – attempts to escape and then settled on plaintive mewing and urination as being the best way to pass the time. The water got much, but not all, of the Fairy liquid out of her coat, and none of the Sudocrem.
Wanting to calm the cat before completing the rinse, I asked my daughter to go and get the cat treats (little crunchy Whiskas things) from downstairs. She came back wearing her cycle helmet and waving her ’emergency’ Union Jack. This is a flag that she whips vigorously back and forth if a situation is deemed sufficiently dangerous. The situation in the bathroom became sufficiently dangerous and I now have holes in my Howies merino t 🙁
We managed to rinse the cat for a second time. The Sudocrem remained in situ, as did slightly more than trace amounts of Fairy liquid. I dried the cat as best I could (poorly) and phoned the vet again. She said that she wasn’t surprised the Fairy liquid hadn’t worked, but that she felt it had been worth a go. I disagreed. In my head. She suggested clippering and I agreed. I told her I’d head over as soon as possible and then discovered that I’d been calling not our vet (10 minutes down the road) but rather another practice some 20 minutes away. No wonder they didn’t have us on record.
Found cat carrier, washed cat carrier (had been left in out building and was coated in foulness), disinfected daughter (after she had helped with cleaning carrier), drove to vets, had cat clippered, came home, made dinner, blah blah blah.
Below is an (again poor and not showing the full extent of the carnage) photo of the clippered cat hiding under the bed.
Glad this has provided some amusement. For some reason this whole palava has made me feel even worse than has the Executive Time Management thread – I think I’m mid life crisising.