See! I should totally be able to amputate the cat’s head to prevent that from happening. You don’t know what kind of cat germs are all over that glass now! After all, it’s **my **pet.
If you can show me cites from vets or anyone else with a very good handle on cat physiology (or is that anatomy? I can never remember the difference) that it doesn’t adversely affect the cat to lose the first joint on all of its toes, I will retract my objections.
I can’t really look right now, I am doing year end stuff here at work… but Shodan’s dad was a vet. My vet told me the same thing. I have had two declawed cats (front only) and they run and play and jump on top of the counter and kill mice just the same.
He said the only time there are really problems is if a vet doesn’t do it right. He said its pretty simple though.
I wonder about differing schools of thought here, since my vet (who’s exceptional with cats and smaller, at least) has said the high risk of gait problems and the ease of behavioral solutions make declawing inhumane.
Vets are people with their own prejudices. Some won’t like any unnecessary surgery at all. Some figure “its your cat.” Some are going to ask you to make sure you thought it through and talk to you about it (that’s my current vet. They discourage declawing, but if you’ve decided you need your cat declawed, they declaw).