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Originally Posted by theporkieyorkie  Sigh...I just gave my older dog his sunday night bath and found a scratch on his head, in his ear and on the outside of his eye. I knew that the boys and that cat had a serious fight last week because the cat was hissing at them and that has NEVER happened. I think they attacked her and hurt her. I noticed his eye was watering more than usual the other day but because the shadow from his hair, I didn't notice the scratch. It's not deep, but I am not happy about it at all.
I am not a huge advocate of declawing and have basically let my cat get away with destroying my house. She's tore up furniture, the carpeting and even the walls....it got so bad I was putting nail caps on her. Now I am questioning whether I should let her keep her claws. She teases the dogs and the dogs go after her...there is definitely no innocent party in the mix...but I am afraid she's going to end up seriously hurting one of the boys being that she's much bigger and stronger than both my boys. I don't think she realizes she is a big bully, but she is. She jumped on top of Ricky once and he totally disappeared. You couldn't even see she was sitting on the dog. Out of all of the times they harass each other, she's rarely hurt them.....but I don't let it escalate either.
I was thinking of putting the nail caps on again....accept she can still poke them in the eye with her nail capped.
Any advice??
I am thinking of getting a squirt gun to use when they start going after each other. I yell and they disperse....but it doesn't stop them from starting all over again a few minutes later. The worst of it seems to happen later at night, during bed time and in the morning when we are getting up. It seems to be when miss kitty is the most playful. I am sure she's bored, despite all of the interactive toys she's acquired....besides...it's much more fun to play with a live animal. Ricky isn't really any bigger than some of the prey she'd hunt. She's only a year old. When will she grow out of this crazy cat phase? |
De-clawing an adult cat is a major event. It is usually best to do it when they are very young if it is going to be done at all. I did it once years ago to an adult cat. and she was never the same. She started peeing all over the place and acting very strange. I would never do it again.
I now trim the nails on my indoor cats. It can be done if you do it from the time they are young. The caps are an option, too.
Really the best thing for the cat and the dog is to train them to coexist. Fighting should never be tolerated. If you need to get a squirt bottle to stop it then I would start being the pet police right now. Because dog's are generally more trainable than cats you might want to get your guy used to the sit, down, and stay commands for when he decides a good romp with the cat is in order.