Our 7 yr old cat seems to have ‘lost’ some of his claws.
We found a loose claw in it’s fur and thought it odd, so we inspected his paws and it appears that some others are missing. No blood or anything, but the area looks a little pink.
That said we are not 100% sure and unless we tease him enough for him to scratch us (j/k) we can’t think of an easy way to tell.
Has anyone heard of this happening?
Jim
Cat’s claws grow in concentric layers, and sometimes the outermost layer gets damaged, stuck on something, and falls off. It’s normal to find the occasional hollow shell of a claw lying around.
Squink - yep that looks like it alright.
Cheers!
It should be easy enough to squeeze the paws and pop out the claws for examination (don’t you trim your cats’ nails?) but yeah, don’t be worried when you find those hollow little outerlayers.
Squink has it right. Cat claws go through a process of delamination. Entire claws can be lost via trauma or autoimmune disease, but significant bleeding would be evident.
Yes, they can lose their claws if they get caught in something. I work at a vet’s office and last week we had to remove two of a dog’s front claws because he had gotten them caught between the slats of the owner’s wooden floor and were pretty well shredded. If the cat’s claws are actually “gone” then it would most likely be in extreme pain or, at the very least, limping and bleeding.
Just look at the cats paws and see if the claws are still there. Like others have mentioned, their claws shed layers so if that is the case then there should be nothing to worry about. I assume that’s a mechanism used by the body to assure that the claws stay sharp.