Ok, so I have a question…
My cat is bent on tearing up the bed and the sofa, and the doorjambs, and pretty much anything she can get her hands on except the nice carpet scratching board we put out for her.
Will declawing hurt for her? What does it generally cost? What are the problems with it? She’s an indoor kitty, so she doesn’t really need her claws, but if it’s going to cause her pain then I dunno…
yes very much so for about a few days then lessining over a week or 2 - don’t let anyone tell you otherwise - I have seen it. It is basically removal of the bone that attaches to the claws at the tip if the paw ‘fingers’
Price varries regonally - call a vet or 2 and ask
declaws are more likely to become biters and are more likely to develope bad litterbox habbits latter in life.
They still use them for ballance and such as it gives them the ability to stick to a landing spot or to launch off when needed - they can ajust to not having them but it does help them.
I’ve got two cats (well, they’re my kids’ cats) and they have been declawed for about 4 years now. They don’t seem to have suffered any long term bad effects. They are also indoor kitties. They NEVER go outside. They run and jump all over the place with no problems.
YKMV (your kitties may vary).
There is an old thread about this that turned into a Great Debate here.
For the record my little fur ball has his claws and will be keeping them. He’s a good kitty and generally only claws at his cat tree.
IMO it depends a lot on the quality of the veterinarian. The last three cats we had declawed came home the next day and showed absolutely no signs of tenderness whatsoever.
When my cat got really old, his claws used to grow very long and all I did (initially with the vets supervision) was cut them with human nail clippers. As long as you are careful and don’t go too close to the fleshy bit, it’s painless and easy. This combined with a scratchy post should be enough for indoor cats.
I just had my kitty declawed and spayed. It cost about 200 dollars. She stayed for two nights at the vets. She seems to be a little sore still, but other than that she’s back to her old ornry self.
I think I’ve learned better than to try and get into a debate with those who believe that declawing is evil. That is why previous threads, as Gut mentioned, get moved into great debates.
But after saying that, here is a site that tries to give some factual answers into the various declaw methods available, and set the record straight about some common “myths” that some people tend to perpetuate:
Declawing and Its Alternatives
Many hospitals will apply a Fentynal Patch to the cat, which administers a steady dose of pain medication, which for most cats will eliminate any pain at all for the couple of days after surgery that it might have been a problem. I’ve also heard that the new “laser” declaw method also eliminates the pain considerations.
My best advice would be to call your vet, let them know what your considerations are, and hear what they have to say about it before making a final decision either way.
After reading the above link to declawing and it’s alternitives (which makes it sound not so bad) I got to the bottom:
This seems to go against what they were saying above somewhat. Whatever they do say declawing is painful.
As for the litterbox issue, they say that their studies don’t show any cooralation between declawing and not using the box. THe trouble is that this issue is not imeadiate - it will take years for this behavour to come about and even though they don’t say how long they studied these cats I doubt it was much longer then 2-4 years while the box issue comes into play as the cat passes 10 yrs old.
C’mon, k2dave, let’s be reasonable. The quote you selected doesn’t “go against what they were saying above somewhat,” it is just being objective and pointing out that surgery will sometimes have complications. This is as true for cats having surgery as it is for people, yet I don’t hear anyone claiming that no one should ever get their tonsils removed (to pick a perhaps not so insignifigant example) or have any “elective” surgery done because it is possible there could be a complication. That’s just the way it is with surgery, and to say declawing just means you snap your fingers and it’s done without any possibility of complications would not be responsible.
As with any surgery, there are complications a certain percentage of the time (I would guess it’s a VERY SMALL percentage, but they don’t say), and for those who are using the chance of possible complications to choose one method over another, now they know that either of those two methods have the same percentage. This statement does not contradict anything else on this site.
Perhaps some people think that if there is any pain whatsoever it would be wrong to declaw a cat. Many people would not agree. They certainly spay and neuter their pets, yet those too are surgeries, and AS WITH ANY SURGERY, there is going to be some degree of discomfort and a certain risk of complications. That is what pain medication is for, and if that works, then we are back to no pain anyways.
A cat in a home is not a wild animal, it is a pet with an interaction with it’s owner(s). The quality of life for that cat will be much, much better if it is not being constantly scolded or punished for clawing up the furniture. Unfortunately, you cannot reason with a cat to get him to stop his instinctual behavior. You can train a cat to some degree, and this will be more effective with some cats than others. Some degree of discomfort after a declaw surgery may make the cat’s overall quality of life much, much better, and if this is the case, then I would argue that declawing the cat is in it’s best interests.
For the record, I currently have four cats at home. Three are declawed, and one isn’t. The one who isn’t just doesn’t claw up or destroy things, so does not need to be declawed. The others vary in age: 18 years, 5 years and 1 year. Even the 18 year old cat still uses the litterbox just fine, thank you very much, as do the others.
Hmmm. . . It looks like this isn’t a General Question with a factual answer after all. It’s a Great Debate.
Off to Great Debates.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
I’m against declawing for a number of reasons, but don’t have the energy to go into them. (The Humane Society passes out pamphlets about why not to do it, btw)
Something you may want to look into as an alternative is Soft Paws. They are little plastic/rubber things that you glue over your cat’s claws and then they can’t hurt you or your furniture. You have to replace them, but they last for a while. And it’s nicer to kitty.
I’m not weighing in to this, since I don’t even own a cat, but allow me to say that if you choose to declaw your cat you should never EVER EVER let it loose outside. A declawed cat cannot defend itself, and a cat that cannot defend itself outside (from other cats, dogs and other predators) is a sitting duck. Er, cat.
Cats also use their claws for grooming and scratching.
I was horrified by the concept of declawing before - I’m even more horrified now.
It’s not just the fingernails they cut off, it’s the bone they’re chopping off.
I personally think if you want to have a pet, and you do not have a garden, and you are not prepared to have your furniture scratched up, you get a goldfish, hamster, or a docile dog. I would love to get an animal but I can’t in my small flat because keeping anything other than goldfish there alone all day would be cruel and selfish. I guess I am lucky to have an alleycat that visits occasionally, but even if she wasn’t there, I wouldn’t permanently alter some animal just to make it fit my lifestyle and circumstances.
The fact that a declawed cat can’t be let out again means that effectively you are creating a maimed, disabled animal. I realise people that declaw probably genuinely love their cats, treat them well, give them excellent lives. But declawing to me is horrific and unacceptable.
Declawing is an amputation of the ‘fingertips,’ and I wouldn’t do it unless all non-surgical options had been exhausted first. It’s pretty painful for the cat, and sometimes the lack of defenses can cause the cat to take up other defensive measures, like spraying, that can be even worse than the clawing.
There’s a product called Soft Paws (if I remember correctly), little caps for the claws so the cat doesn’t do any damage when he claws.
Your cat might just need to be taught how to use the scratching post- mine did. The trick is simply to make the post the most attractive place to scratch in the house. Identify the places your cats like to scratch, and make them inhospitable for scratching. I used duct tape on all my cat’s favorite scratching places, like the sofa and that spot on the carpet. Make the post a cat wonderland- I kept treats on the top of the post and at its base as much as I could, and made sure that toys were scattered around it.
Then when you see the cat scratching inappropriately, you grab it, tell it ‘No’ firmly, carry it to the post, put its paws on the post, and praise and pet it extravagantly, as if it had gotten there itself.
I have three cats, and this method worked with all of them, even the stray alley-cat.
It’s not unlike potty-training, I guess.
Try gettting your cat a sissal scratching post, and try it in different places. First off, cats often develop a preference for certain textures to scratch, and having a carpet scratch board or post teaches them to want to claw carpet. Secondly, they tend to have preferred areas where they want to claw. Eponine won’t have anything to with her post if it’s against the wall, but if you move it two feet toward the middle of the room she’s all over it.
Declawing your cat will hurt for a while, and it’ll take her longer to recover than if you’d had it done at 10 weeks. But she should recover just fine, and most declawed cats don’t ever realize they don’t have their toes anymore. They smack at you when they’re pissy, and they paw like hell at the stuff they want to scratch. They don’t notice that they don’t seem to be getting anywhere.
Oh, and one more thing…have you changed your habits in anyway lately? Spending less time at home, got another animal, rearranged the furniture, gotten rid of something around the house? If so, the cat may be letting you know she’s pissed off. Sometimes they express themselves by clawing, or by pissing on your belongings, or crapping in your shoes. Heck, when my aunt changed her work schedule, her cat starting chewing up her shoes. Not her husband’s, just hers. So don’t think they’re not capable of disapproving of your actions.
I second the notion of getting a scratching board that has a surface dissimilar to that covering your floor, furniture, etc. Cats have a tough time differentiating between the carpet board they’re supposed to scratch and the actual carpet that they’re not. They also use scratching as a means of stretching, so you might want to look into a board that has a slant or a post that stands upright.
They use their rear claws for that. We only remove the front ones.
My cats are fine and happy and they forgot they ever had front claws years ago.
Geesh. Some people are too sensitive.
Maybe you have seen a cat that had a bad vet but it’s completely ridiculous to try and say emphatically “yes very much so” when so many of us have had our cats come home the next day and not exhibit one single bit of modified behaviour.
I had my beloved Miranda declawed at the age of 8 (she’s 14 now) and even at that age she came home the next day and ran and played and jumped and displayed nothing out of the ordinary. She shakes her ‘hand’ when a bubble* sticks to it but did not then or now or ever. Neither did my 12 week old Ziggy who is now 2 years, and neither did my mother’s cats Minnie who was 2 years old then and is now 5 or Jessie who was 6 weeks and now 8 years.
These are happy, well adjusted cats and we are cat lovers who would notice immediately and simpathize with our feline friends.
The bullshit around here is too thick for me. Flame me if you will but I reside in GQ.
Yeah, cause it’s just a cat, right?
