So I inherited two cats from a prior relationship. Not a huge cat fan but the girls have been with me for three years now. They are about 5 to 6 years old. They are mutts and exceptionally hairy. I’ve kept them because I didn’t think it was fair that they got tossed into a shelter (I broke up the relationship, she was terribly allergic to them so even though they were her cats I kept them). So we sort of co-exist.
I recently moved into a new home in Chicago. I also purchased a fair amount of nice, new furniture. The cats are currently destroying each piece one by one.
I think it’s time I get them declawed (front claws). Any thoughts on the pros and cons of doing it to them this late in their life (well, they might live until they are 30 so who knows).
Would most likely only do the front claws. I purchased furniture that had material that was supposed to be somewhat cat resistant. They’re destroying it. This ain’t Ikea furniture either.
I’ve tried trimming their nails but that’s just not working.
Please don’t do it. Besides the fact that I think it is a cruel practice in general these are adult cats. It will take them much longer to heal and they will have trouble adjusting afterwards. This is similar to the thought of being circumsized as an adult. Think about that before you consider declawing them and go to Petco and get some soft paws.
Do you have any scratching posts? Cats have to scratch. My cats use one that’s wrapped with burlap-rope stuff. You can also make them using carpet samples attached to a piece of wood. Just make sure that the post doesn’t move when the cat uses it. Mine is wedged under the corner of a couch.
I am not going to discuss the declawing. Not even going there.
Try buying a few of those catnip infused cardboard cat scratchers they have at Petco/petsmart/wherever and put them near the furniture to entice them to use the scratchers. My cats go nuts for them.
I have four cats and they will occasionally scratch on the fabric furniture. But when I catch them, I give them a loud NO (usually multiple Loud No’s and several BAD KITTY’s) pick them up and take them to their scratcher.
You just have to choose which is more important to you- furniture or the animals.
Really? The process is disarticulation of the first joint of each toe. Not only is it painful, it’s disorienting for older cats. Many vets no longer offer declawing.
There are other solutions. The easiest is to trim thier nails frequently, anlong with retraining them to use a scratching post.
My previous cats were declawed, but that was another era (20 years ago) when that happened and I understand that more vets are against it.
However, I have decided that my current cat is going to be declawed as soon as I can afford it.
Why? She has repeatedly attacked my face; and other people and animals. The biggest problem is that she likes to come up and rest on my chest, calmly sleeping with her head next to my face. Then, about once every 2-3 months, when I simply decide to get up, she’ll go apeshit and scratch the fuck out of my face. She nearly put my left eye out two months ago.
To give a frame of reference; When I broke my ankle, I had very minor bruising for only about five days. When I had endodontic surgery, I had puffing and minor bruising on my face for about four days. When she nailed the corner of my left eye, I had a major league bruise for more than a week.
Smacking the shit out of her and locking her in the kennel only means that she doesn’t do it again for about a month. It hasn’t ended the behavior.
Other than these rare freakouts (it’s obvious that it’s just irritation that I’m getting up when she’s comfortable), she’s a very sweet girl. She loves other people. But she slashed the shit out of my sister’s hand last weekend (to be true, it was the presence of her dog that set the cat off), then slashed me in the face while I was in bed the next day, and I’m done with tolerating the knives. They go bye-bye. (Or she’s going to need to be put down at some point.)
*The incidence of behavior problems following onychectomy in cats; two months to five years (median 11.5 months) after surgery:
"(33%) developed at least one behavior problem.
“(17.9%) had an increase in biting habits or intensity.”
“(15.4%) would not use the litter box” *
Elimination problems ( always the #1 behaviour issue with cats ) are what you really want to avoid and moral qualms aside, I personally wouldn’t gamble on a 15% chance of that sort of outcome.
The difficulty is that having learned to scratch your furniture already and being older cats, it will be harder ( possibly slightly impossible ) to completely train them off. Mine have a decent abundance of posts/carpeted cat trees and thus don’t hit the furniture much - mostly the box spring on my bed by one of them and that I could give a shit about. But I accept a certain fairly minor amount of collateral damage is inevitable.
If you can’t or won’t, aren’t willing to go the softpaws route and you’re otherwise somewhat indifferent to them, I’d try to adopt them out. Only if you can’t adopt them out and/or are really attached to them, would I go ahead with that kind of surgery - it’s a pretty drastic step ( and as noted fewer and fewer US vets seem to be performing it ). Better than euthanasia, but that’s about it.
Now in all fairness, I’ve known a few pretty well-adjusted declawed cats. But the one I knew best, who was declawed at a somewhat young age and lived to the ripe old age of 19, did have a very slight litterbox issue. After declawing he refused to bury his deposits, making him slightly stinkier than average.
Soft Paws and Sticky Paws are two common solutions. Soft Paws seem to work pretty well, the only issue is that you will be re-glueing nails pretty regularly - they don’t seem to come off all at once, but one at a time. Sticky Paws apparently can be effective as well as aversion therapy, if you give the cat alternatives. But some folks don’t like putting it on their furniture.
For adopting I’d try Craigslist if you have one local - a really generous offer will be tempting for some folks ( heck I got paid $100 to take one of my cats as a kitten ).
Softpaws are little plastic covers that slide over the nails.
I started training my cats a LOT younger, but I have trained them to scratch their scratching post on command - it can’t hurt to try before you do anything as drastic as declawing.
I bought an exceptionally tall post (4 feet) so they would really be able to stretch out which they seem to really like (apparently some cats like the ones that are flat on the ground). The scratching post is sisal, which seems to be a kitty favorite. I also bought bonito fish flakes which are like crack for my cats.
I trained them in 2 ways:
After I caught them scratching in appropriately, I would pick them up (gently) and take them to their post and scratch my fingernails on it until they would scratch. Then, I would praise them lavishly and give them fish flakes.
I would proactively go over to the post with the can of fish flakes and say…ahem…“show me what a good kitty does.” They would scratch and I would repeat the praise and the treats.
Now, they scratch whenever I ask them too and they often “beg” for treats by running over and scratching furiously. Depending on how many they’ve had that day, I give more treats, but sometimes just pets and praise.
They also have a hanging scratcher I have looped over a doorknob in the hallway, they only get praise for using that one, but my girl cat seems to like that one.
I also trim their nails once a week with a special clipper I got from the vet. Diego doesn’t mind at all (except he sometimes tries to play with the clipper). Serafina has to be rolled “burrito style” in a towel for the operation.
They are very very good kitties and only scratch where they are supposed to, they have never damaged any furniture.
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