?? Cats and declawing
 

My daughter's roomate has a cat and since she just bought all new furniture and new carpet I would like her to have the cat declawed. The owner of the cat is okay with this. It is a strictly indoor cat and has never been outside.

Do you declaw the front and back paws or just the front?

Is this considered cruel?

How long is the recovery period?

Has anyone tried soft paws - like plastic covering for the nails?

Thanks.

training the cat is the best way to go cats can learn the word No just like dogs

declawing is one of the most cruel things you can do to a animal its VERY pain full since they do take off the first nuckle
i would NEVER do it

Deff Do not get the back done if god forbit that cat gets out it will have no way to defend itself

i have 3 cats none of them claw at anything there no supposed to
they all listen to no
a spray bottle with water works well to
they also have those plactic corner covers for you couch

the caps for the nails never work cause they pull them right off

if they are set of getting it done good luck finding a vet cause most of them wont do it and it will cost alot

I think you are supposed to have this done by 12 weeks of age. After that it is way too painful. :(

We have always had our cats declawed until recently. I heard that declawing a cat was like chopping off your first knuckle. (Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure.) Our vet is very against declawing now. Our cat has his nails still. We used a spray bottle to train our cat not to sharpen his nails on the furniture. Clipping the nails with human nail clippers helps with scratching.

I personally wouldn't do it, but that's just me.

I understand that declawing a cat is one of the most painful surgeries that a cat undergoes. Before I knew better I did have a cat declawed, but never again.

oh please dont do that.. to them its like chopping off your fingers..
can you imagine the pain... if you love animals, dont do it....it should have
already been taken care of...

Thanks for all the replies. I've never owned a cat so I wasn't aware of the facts surrounding declawing, but knew some of you would.

I did call my vet's office and they said they do prefer to do it as a kitten, but do it with cats also. Front declawing is only $87.00. They did say the safe paws (nail covers) don't work. They said it was a painful surgery and recovery was about a week.

I think we will try to see about getting covers for the couch ends and try the water bottle method first.

Thanks again.

We tried the Soft Paws once... some fell off within a week and one took off part of our kitty's nail.:( It's a great idea (in theory), but they just didn't do it for us.

All 3 of my cats have all of their claws. The have a cat tree that is about 6 feet tall to climb on and scratch to their heart's content. The also have this scratching post that is disposable and it is like a box that has catnip in it, it is hard to explain, but they absoultely love it and use it all the time!! Between those two things, they leave the furniture alone since they have their own things. I do know that double sided tape will keep them from scratching anything and they will learn not to even try to scratch the furniture even after the tape is long gone.

I did have one cat that we had declawed a long time ago before we knew about it and he had his front claws removed. He was so sore and he would always bleed there where his claws use to be. Even several years after he was declawed the paws were still sore and would bleed. I think if you give them plenty of their own things to scratch on and encourage them to scratch on the approved items and discourage them to claw on things that are not allowed, I think you will be alright and should not have any problems with them.

Cats CAN be trained just like dogs. I think their just a little more stubbron. I would say that they are kinda like yorkies....LOL

I have a friend that her cat sits and lays down and fetches. It just takes a little time and patience like with any other animal. I don't feel it is necessary to declaw.

But, like someone else said... If you do declaw then please only do the front claws so if the cat was to make it's wat outside then it can take care of itself

Crystal

I have 2 siamese cats that were declawed as kittens. They are declawed front and back. They have never had any problems and healed extremely quick. They were in more pain after spaying and neutering then declawing.

Same here, BUT, if you absolutely must declaw, please only the front, at least with back claws a cat can still climb a tree to get away. Just don't do it, there are many others ways to discourage unwanted scratching.

I would NEVER declaw my cat. Many vets won't do it anymore and the only ones that do IMO are just money hungry. You never know how much pain these animals are in and I heard that they always will be in pain. Delawing is also a MAJOR reason why many people end up dumping their cats in shelters. The cat ends up in so much pain from digging in a catbox that it stops using the litterbox. The US is one of the only countries who still hasn't outlawed declawing.
I had a friend who adopted a cat from a shelter. She took it to be declawed and since he had bandages she put him in the bathroom away from the other pets. When she went back to the bathroom he had shook the bandages off and the bathroom was covered in blood. She couldn't believe how much he was bleeding, it was really terrible.
You can always clip a cat's nails or put softpaws on their claws. They work better if someone experienced puts them on the cat like a groomer.
Here's some sites about declawing:
http://amby.com/cat_site/declaw.html
http://cats.about.com/cs/declawing/a/declawing.htm

I suggest getting several scratching posts and some catnip and put the posts near the spots that it tends to scratch. Occasionally rub the catnip on the posts and it will attract the cat once again, the catnip smell wears off after a little while. This is what we are doing right now. I have a 9 yr old cat who doesn't scratch but our 3 yr old does. We just got new furniture so we really started working with Sophie, the 3 yr old, on not scratching. She has started going to the post on her own and has not yet scratched the new furniture. If the cats starts scratching the furniture tell it no then take it to the post and puts its paws on it to scratch. Ours would scratch the ends of the couch so that's where our posts are now.

You may even want to get couple different types of posts to see what the cat likes best. They have them that are covered in rope and ones covered in carpet(our cat doesn't like this one) and some that stand alone and some that lie on the floor and some that hang on a door knob.

Also putting double stick tape on the area where the cat scratches keeps the cat from scratching it too. They don't like the sticky feel on their feet. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...09&N=2002+2017 you can check this out but I've heard that in craft stores they have big sheets(the size of paper) that are sticky on both sides, I haven't found any yet though. You may have to wait until the cat is scratching to do this though to know where its going to be prone to scratch.

You can definately train them though. Ours know not to get on the counters and tables and what rooms not to go in. The water gun sounds great, I haven't tried them but I've heard great things about them. Just get several and put them throughout the house so they are always handy. Good luck.

I'm absolutely sick to my stomach as I read these posts. I have 3 cats 2 of which I had front declawed. No one ever told me (not even the vet) how painful this is for the cat. My poor boys. I'm just so sad I did that to them.

I am working at a vet clinic and can assure you that after declawing surgery the cat is not well at all .

aww. don't beat yourself up about it. you didn't know, it's OK. They still love you!

anyway, I have 2 cats and I'd never have them declawed. i didn't even know about all of this stuff until just now when i read this thread...but it's always seemed cruel to me. We just trained our cats to stay away from the couches and things with a spray bottle. and we have these new couches now...and I think it's the material that they're made out of but the cats don't scratch them anymore.

i agree they need to be kitten, both my moms cats are declawed and they did really well, and they are the best cats ever, they had no problems and they didnt SEEM to be in pain, but i wasnt in his paws neither

Ok DECLAWING DON'T DO :thumbdown !!! YES THEY DO REMOVE THE FIRST KNUCKLE!:mad: also a spray bottle and some double sided tape will stop scratching cats hate when things stick to thier paws so tape is great also they will do bad things if they don't have toys or a scratching post to play with my cats like the kitty cardboard box from petsmart it was $10.00 great investment they hated the scratching post.

People might consider it cruel. I tried everthing possible suggested to get my cat away from her destructive ways to no avail. I finally gave in and her her only front paws declawed. She was a bit sore for a day or so but recovered quickly. She has no problems from it and it has helped save all my new furniture, carpets and children.

Curious.... What makes docking tails, cropping ears and removing dew claws okay and declawing a cat inhumane?

Well I'm not saying one is any better or worse that the other. I will say though that a cat's claws are meant for protection where as a dog's ears aren't going to help it much in that way. So many people do get their cat's declawed and say at the time its not going outside then years down the road the cat ends up outside, we had this happen with a neighbor in my old house, I'm not saying that this is always the case or will be the case with the original poster, but the thing is you never know what could happen in 5 years. Also experiences are different with everybody I do know that both the cats I knew that were declawed just had more of an aggressive attitude, I didn't know them before the surgery though so it may or may not have had anything to do with the attitude. I didn't say not to have the cat declawed(not saying you said I did) I just really think double-sided tape is cheaper and has worked for us so why not try that first, as well as other suggestions, before putting the cat through that. You wouldn't want to put any animal through a surgery to correct something that may be corrected in other ways.

In the end I just think that a cat's claws are more necessary to it than a dog's tail is to it, I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with docking or clipping of ears etc. And if I'm not mistaken, which I could be, aren't a dog's dewclaws removed for preventative measures, so that they don't get caught and torn on things?

I do think there is a legitimate reason for removing dew claws to prevent them from being caught on something and ripped off. Also if an owner is negligent in nail clipping the dew claws grow curved and will grow into the skin.

I think docking tails, cropping ears and declawing is cruel and should not be done. I actually think tails and ears might be worse than declawing because they are done for no reason whatsoever just because we like how they look. I'm not judging anyone for doing this because the poll taken in the last few weeks clearly shows that most Americans prefer the tails to be docked.

Declawing cats is being outlawed in some places, since it is considered cruel and painful.

I don't know I'm a little ify on this. Yes there is a "reason" to declaw but what is it? So the cat doesn't scratch up furniture/carpet. I don't know that that reason is really any better than docking a tail because you like how it looks. Techinically they are both selfish reasons, you are not doing it for the animal but for what you want. I'm not defending docking or condemning declawing just throwing out my opinion.

The only reason for declawing a cat is the furnitures . All the persons that come to the clinic gave us this reason . My cat have her claws and she never touched one piece of furnitures or injured one of my Yorkies . She is more like a dog , very funny to look at her .

I just had to throw that out there... I'm not condemning nor condoning it (though all my cats were/are/will be declawed).

It's all altering our pet in an unnatural way. For whatever reason, some practices are just more accepted than others.

I think docking tails and cropping ears are worse. It's usually done without anesthesia and without any pain management. At least with declawing the cat is under and can be given some sort of pain medication afterwards.

JMHO

I think docking tails and cropping ears are worse. It's usually done without anesthesia and without any pain management. At least with declawing the cat is under and can be given some sort of pain medication afterwards.

JMHO[/QUOTE]

Ear cropping is never done without anesthesia .

Actually the pain meds is optional with declawing cats at a lot of the vets around here. I think that's horrible... It should always be mandatory and shouldn't be just about how cheap a person is willing to go.

Hm, didn't know ear cropping was done under anesthesia. Good to know... Why don't they do that with tail docking and dew claw removal then?!


My vet automatically gives pain meds after any surgery. I believe my cat got two weeks worth after neutering/declaw. The dogs got a weeks worth after their spay/neuter.

It's relatively cheap (I think it was maybe $8 or so), so I don't see why they wouldn't at least offer it... And if a pet owner doesn't want to spend that little amount to keep their pet as comforable as possible, they don't deserve to have it!