Declawing cats

Well in the same light, I also say that since we are humane enough to euthanize our animals, we should be humane enough to give people that choice should they choose it, but that is not the point here.

The OP already said she thinks it's cruel and I think that sets the precedence for her decision.

And yes, there are people who think it's cruel to sterilize cats and dogs (I'm not one of them and I do not put sterilization on the same level as declawing since the former has further implications on the overall animal population). My MIL is one of them.

I'm of the camp that if you're a pet owner, then you have to deal with the ups and downs of owning that pet. That or don't own a pet. I don't think that pet ownership should be conditioned on a medical procedure that really only benefits the owners. But that's just my opinion.

I would try every other possible solution including behavior modification training or find a new home for the cat if you (general you) can't deal with it.

[Meenah]

Wow, I really could have put this in the debate section. Now I'll pretend I was never here :run:

Yep, I front declawed my kitten....that IS my dirty little secret!!! I'm not an advocate for it. Just reporting how my furball is doing post-op.

I think it's far more cruel to just give pets away. I had my last cat from kittenhood until she passed away from age-related kidney disease. The thought of giving pets away because they're inconvenient for their owners makes my stomach turn. THAT'S offensive to me.

[Michele]

*** moved to debate ***


Carry on.

[mommax3]

I have always declawed the cats I have had (front only) but the more educated I became about the procedure, the more it bothered me. When I got my latest two cats (from a shelter) neither were declawed and the people at the shelter had been trimming their claws. I watched them do it and figured I would at least try it.....if it didn't work out, I would think about declawing. That was three years ago, and so far, so good. One of the cats was a kitten when I got him, so he doesn't really fight it too much because it is all he has ever known. We don't know how old the other kitty was/is, and he doesn't enjoy the trimming as much, so sometimes it takes several tries before I get both paws trimmed. I always back the cat up to me while I am sitting on the bed, so their back paws (which can do the most damage) dig into the mattress. I haven't had too much trouble with biting, etc., but different cats have different personalities. They also have a scratching post on their kitty tower, which they put to good use no matter how much of a claw they are sporting at the time.

The first cat we got after we were married was a stray we adopted and we had him declawed when we decided to keep him. He was well over five years old (probably more like 8 or 9) and it was pitiful afterwards. That always stuck in my mind and probably was responsible for my hesitance this time, since we didn't know how old our older cat was when we adopted him.

Sally

[Urowife]

When I was a kid, we had both of our cats declawed when they were kittens. The first cat had no problems at all, but the second cat had infections in one paw for weeks/months. She ended up fine, but I often felt that she favored that paw for the rest of her life

We can't have cats since DH claims to be allergic So I don't have to worry about whether or not to declaw!

Now, if only I could find one of those bag thingies big enough for our dog, so that I could clip her nails... She HATES it!!! For now, I'll keep taking her to the professionals.

Our cat's not declawed, and I don't think I would ever do it. You are ripping off pretty important parts of their bodies.

Anyway, we've gone through a gazillion scratching posts and he gets to our carpet sometimes (with minimal damage) but other than that he never scratches anything. We do let him outside sometimes supervised, but he is 90 percent an inside cat.

He sometimes can do damage to the skin, but it's not on purpose, usually we have let his claws get a little too long and they merely rub against you. So we cut them quite often and since we've done it since day one it goes quite smoothly. He knows he's getting a treat afterward and the whole process usually takes about a minute.

His worst attribute is he's a biter when he gets playful or aggressive. I don't think we can detooth him.

I had never heard of a de-clawed cat until I saw this post and have to say it seems pretty awful. I just looked into it a little and apparently it is now illegal in the UK, and was very rare even before that, which is probably why I had never heard of it as my cat experience/cat owning friends and family has mostly been there.
Maybe people have more indoor cats here in the US :huh:
It seems so unneccesary. And dont get me started on what people here do to their boxer's and doberman's ears, also new to me.

[madeintaiwan]

And dont get me started on what people here do to their boxer's and doberman's ears, also new to me.

Our boxer does not have his ears clipped. I know leaving their ears uncropped is more common abroad.

[Momo]

a family with kids (both goat and people - ha ha).

[MrsC]

I had never heard of a de-clawed cat until I saw this post and have to say it seems pretty awful. I just looked into it a little and apparently it is now illegal in the UK, and was very rare even before that, which is probably why I had never heard of it as my cat experience/cat owning friends and family has mostly been there.
Maybe people have more indoor cats here in the US :huh:
It seems so unneccesary. And dont get me started on what people here do to their boxer's and doberman's ears, also new to me.

These issues are all new to me too. I know that you wouldn't have found a vet in Ireland who would do any of these procedures.
Believe me, I have had many problems with our cat scratching the furniture (and us). I adopted her a year ago and she is 6 years old. I did consider declawing (after I found out about it) but I thought it would be cruel, especially on an older cat. In the end we tried to keep her in the kitchen until we decided what to do, and now she won't leave it. I have to add that this cat is extremely anti-social, hates being petted, hates being handled (it takes two people to wash and groom her). She only acknowledges you when she wants to be fed. I don't have the the heart to give her away because of her personality.

I did find these http://www.softpaws.com/. Seems like a good alternative. Has anyone tried them?

[Vishenka69]

Our cat is not declawed either and I have never considered it either. I've tried to cut her claws at the beginning but she wasn't too happy about it and I let it go. She never touched the curtains or the couch and doesn't have too much interest in the carpeting. She looooves our IKEA dressers though, a lot more than her actual scratchers. Since we're not in the market for new furniture for at least another year, I refuse to worry about it now.

[JaneDoe]

I've grown up with cats. None of them were ever de-clawed. We firmly believed it was wrong to do until . . . our current cat scratched my dd nearly in the eye. She did not even provoke the cat. We saw the whole thing. The cat was perched on top of a chair and my dd who was about 20 months or so was walking by with a toy and the cat reached out and swatted her.

It was really scary. Dh and I took her to his clinic (in residency) and he had to swaddle her to pin her down while he and the resident on call checked her eye to make sure it did not affect the cornea. (It didn't). After that incident, we decided we had to either declaw the cat or get rid of her. We felt it was more humane to declaw her than to give her away.

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BTW- I noticed a difference in opinions between the NW and Pennsylvania. In the NW, it seems that most people do not declaw their cats. Before I moved to Pa, it would have never occurred to me to even do that. But, in Pa, I observed that many people declawed their cats and they seemed to think it was cruel if your cat was not an indoor-only cat. When we took our cat to the vet to be declawed (in Pa) at 2+ years old, he didn't even bat an eyelash at our request.

[mommax3]

!

Yikes! I am so glad it didn't get her eye. I meant to add in my post that my decision about my current kitties would have been a no-brainer if I still had little ones....I would have definitely declawed them. You just never know what can happen. When my little sister was a baby, (we are 20 months apart) I was *in love* with her and one day decided to show her one of the cats that we had. I dropped it on her while she was in the playpen, and of course it scratched her on the face. She still has a little scar on her face today, and I feel bad every time I look at it, even though I have no memory of the incident.
At the ages my boys are now, I figure that if they get scratched, they probably deserved it. But the trimming thing has worked well for us.

Sally

Sorry... haven't read the thread and don't feel like debating. But have you ever thought about Soft Paws? I used them with moderate success in the past. Here's a link: http://www.softpaws.com/ Might want to check with your vet.