PetCatHealth

It’s shocking to me that a lot of people who have a real love of cats will get their cat declawed.  I think the reason they don’t think twice about doing this is that they are imagining a surgery that would involve something similar to getting our fingernails removed.  After all, a claw is just a nail, isn’t it?  Actually that is not the case.   The analogy between declawing and human hands is more like having our fingers amputated at the last joint.   Declawing involves the amputation of bone – the last joint of your cat’s toe.   Why is it necessary to remove the bone at the joint? It’s because the cells that will eventually become claw originate in that part of the toe, so if the declawing surgery did not amputate the bone above a certain point, the claw would grow back. This amputation is “necessary” sheerly for the convenience of humans.   This is a painful surgery and painful recovery. Many people don’t seem to realize how much it all must hurt, because they see that their cat is still going to the litter box or going to the food dish. Well, what else will your cat do? She must walk on those painful feet in order to eat and go to the litter box, and we need to remember that cats are great at hiding their pain or illness.

The drawback to declawing that seems to be obvious to the public is that the cat can no longer swipe a dog across the face with her claws or quickly climb a tree. Everyone I know personally who has taken his/her cat to be declawed proclaims that Kitty will always be an indoor cat!  And maybe that is true.  Maybe they do not have relatives, friends, or workmen who will leave the door open accidentally.   The thing about declawing is, aside from the horrible pain and the danger from other animals if the cat gets outside, cats walk on their toes! They depend on their excellent balance and agility every time they walk and jump, and certainly this amputation throws off that natural balance as the cat has to re-learn how to use every muscle to walk on what is left of her toes.  Scratching comes naturally to your cat, and cats actually exercise their backs and shoulders by digging their claws into something and stretching as f-a-a-a-a-r as they can.   Scratching and claws are just part of what makes a cat a cat!    Declawing surgery, onychectomy, is illegal in many countries but is still going on in North America.  Veterinarians in this country sometimes do onychectomy because the owner of a cat will claim that they will throw their cat out or have her put to sleep if the cat isn’t declawed.   This year, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association has launched an outreach effort focused on the issue of cosmetic and convenience surgeries in companion animals, such as declawing for cats, devocalization in cats and dogs, and ear cropping and tail docking in dogs.  The HSVMA is producing materials to educate the public and also to give tools to veterinarians who are asked for these surgeries. 

What can we do to avoid having to replace our sofas and rugs every couple of years then?  One thing I did as a teenager was to clip my cat’s claws for her with an inexpensive cat nail clipper. Just clip the white tips of the claws off; don’t cut into the “quick.” Cats can learn to sit quietly and let you clip the tips of their claws if you don’t ever cut the quick and hurt them! Other ideas are a sturdy scratching post which is big enough for the cat to really get on and rip into, or if that doesn’t work, Soft Paws / Soft Claws . Remember though, if you decide to go with the Soft Paws, your cat will not be able to use her claws for defense and should stay indoors.

My own cats had not had much of a scratching problem, or so I thought. Then they started a habit of ripping into the back of a soft sofa in the den. The carpeted scratching post I had bought when they were kittens sat totally ignored, so I gave it away. I turned to the Sticky Paws line of products. The Sticky Paws for Furniture mild adhesive strips were simple to apply to the top and side edges of my sofa. The cats touched it ONCE and never returned to that sofa. To give them a place to enjoy their claws, I bought the Scratch This! It comes with a bag of very potent catnip. I sprinkled a little on the Scratch This, and my two cats FOUGHT over it, complete with spitting. Obviously a second Scratch This was in order, so that way they didn’t find some other target for their scratching. I put one Scratch This in the area where my cats do most of their daytime sleeping, and immediately when they awaken they always go straight to it to stretch and scratch!

If you have a great way to keep your cat from destroying your house while keeping her toes intact, please let us know about it in the comments!