Many people don’t realize that the declawing of cats is much more than removing their claws. It is the amputation of the last joints of the cat’s toes. The claws are firmly embedded into bone and that bone contains claw cells, if the bone is not removed, the claws grow back painfully and crookedly.
Pain Medication
The strength of pain medication required to dull the pain of the amputations is the same strength doctors give to people terminally ill with cancer. Cats are kept overnight with pressure bandages on their paws to stop the bleeding.
Some cats throw themselves around the recovery cage with the pain and shock and some more stoic hunch in the corner.
Cats hide their pain if they can because to a cat, showing pain is a sign of weakness; many cats suffer in silence from problems from the declawing which can occur days, months, even years after the operation. Claw regrowth can be well advanced before anyone notices the cat is in pain.
Complications
A complication which can happen at any time is a sliver of bone left behind can move and cause pain and infection. In both those cases it means another operation for the cat. Sadly some cats have lost their paws this way.
The most common immediate problems from declawing are litter box avoidance, because digging hurts the cats wounded paws – some use soft furnishings instead. The second most common is biting; this is because the cat’s first defenses, the claws, have been taken from him.
Other complications are change of personality, depression, and stress illnesses (such as cystitis and eczema) and almost always, painful arthritis which develops because the cat cannot walk as cats should, they are digitigrades and walk on their toes. Also they cannot exercise as cats need to by digging in their claws to stretch their leg, shoulder, stomach and back muscles. Scratching is not bad behavior, it is necessary behavior.
Excuses
Sadly Veterinarians who declaw cats don’t explain all this to their clients and this supposed to be according to the AVMA, last resort procedure for serious scratching problems is advertised in neuter/declaw packages or discounts on declawing, by many Veterinarians.
Their excuse is that more cats would be abandoned if declawing was not available. This is wrong! Many declawed cats are abandoned when problems start, many are relinquished to Rescue Shelters but not all of them make the adoption lists.
At kill Shelters, the unadoptable declawed cats are killed on admission. At no kill Shelters they are caged for life. Some Veterinarians are pushing laser declawing as more humane.
The only difference in this method is less bleeding and quicker healing, but the outcome is exactly the same as declawing by guillotine, the last toe joints are amputated and the cat is disabled for life.
Other excuses for declawing a cat are a baby in the home, a dog, an immune-compromised person, but most of all people have their cats declawed because of their furniture!
It is very wrong to be able to arrange to have a kitten declawed before even giving him the chance to show he will not scratch where he shouldn’t.
Alternatives
In countries where declawing is banned we manage with our cats with claws by watching over babies and vulnerable people and by providing a scratching post for our cats. Cats claws can also be easily trimmed if necessary, just like we do our own, our children’s and our dog’s claws.
A cat needs a tall strong scratching post which will not topple over. It is very easy to teach him to use it. Just like a child, a cat is best taught by kindness, patience and distraction. Show him how to use the scratching post by dragging your own nails down while he watches. Then gently lift up his front legs until he digs his claws in and praise him when he scratches.
After that, if he goes to scratch where he shouldn’t, simply gently lift him to his post and praise him when he uses it. You should never punish a cat, they don’t understand punishment, it doesn’t solve any problems and the cat becomes nervous of you.
Cats are very intelligent and soon learn. Some cats prefer flat scratching pads, there is lots of ’cat furniture’ to choose from until you find the one which suits your cat best.
Cats come with claws because they need claws and hopefully soon declawing will be banned worldwide before many more cats suffer from this cruel and unnecessary operation.
You can find plenty of cheap, high-quality cat scratching posts at Amazon.
Post by Ruth
I'm a retired vet nurse living in England with my widowed sister Barbara (Babz) and our 2 beautiful cats Walter and Jozef. All our adult lives we have campaigned peacefully for animal welfare.We are vegetarian and never use anything tested on animals nor wear anything made from any animal parts.For 2 years,along with others, we have been educating people as to the cruelty of declawing and have saved well over 150 cats claws because many people do not know how painful the operation is nor that it causes cats many lifelong problems.Our aim is to see declawing made illegal as it is in our country and many others.Most recent The Daily Cat
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Thank you for this article, it explains in an easy to read common sense way why no one should want or allow their cat to be declawed, cats are made the way they are for a very good reason and it is not for owners to adapt a cat to their own specifications. The simple truth is that it is not a secret that cats come with claws and if one is not prepared to have a clawed animal in the home then they should look further for a type of pet that will fit their lifestyle.
Thank you for the comment Petra, well said : )
Having researched veterinary school curricula and mainstream feline/small animal veterinary practices in North America, I know that techniques for amputating feline toes (popularly called "declawing") is taught as "state of the (alleged) art." How to train a cat to direct feline scratching behavior onto a suitable scratcher, post, or other objecr is NOT PRESENTED. I have called so-called "top veterinarians" in the field with my query: "What do I do to get a cat declawed?" ALL past presidents of the American Veterinary Medical Association told me that, if the cat proved healthy enough to withstand the surgery, I could set up a appointment. One past-president, Joseph Howell, didn't require an appointment, and I was advised: "Just bring the cat in." NONE of these "experts/clinicians" would provide me with information on training a cat to use an appropriate scratcher. I will always remember the response I got when I asked the receptionist in Dr. Ostrich's office if they would provide me with tips on training a cat to use a scratcher.I called Dr. Ostrich's office because he won an ethics award! The receptionist's reply: Oh, we don't do nothin' like that! (Bad grammar is not hurtfu, unlike the cruelty inflicted by the "ethics award winner!")
In the Directory of the American Veterinary Medical Association, published annually, are listed DVDs on how to declaw that are available for borrowing. There are NO materials on training a cat to use a suitable scratcher nor, of course, qualities of a suitable scratching object! Who doesn't see something extremely WRONG with this scenario?
Anyone interested can make their own calls to the "creme of the crop" vets, as I have done,, peruse the AVMA Direcotry, as I have done, and/or research the contents of the curricula at the veterinary colleges!
Anyone can also visit animal shelters and/or query staff at animal shelters to find shameful information on numbers of relinquished/abandoned declawed cats, a large percentage of which present with behavioral problems that render them unadoptable, WITHOUT A CHANCE at a new home/life.
I ask all concerned to contact presidents of universities that house veterinary schools, and present the scenario that I have here outlined. Deans of veterinary schools and other "leaders of the veterinary industry" are not interested in changing the fast cash flow and becoming low level instructors of the helpful, simple truth.
Thank you for the astonishing comment Harriet!
That definitely opens the eyes and mind to wonder… why not provide alternative training material? Even if it was a less-debated, less-heated topic than declawing, providing standard training material like scratching habits should seem manditory.
Thank you for this article. What stuns me is the way that people take their cat for a 10 amputations (or 18!) requiring general anaesthetic with all of the known risks, causing so much pain to them that seriously strong pain relief is needed post op and for days afterwards, an overnight stay is needed, pressure bandages are needed and yet they do this by choice! Not because the cat needs a life saving operation but BY CHOICE just because they can't be bothered to provide the cat with scratching equipment and a bit of training. How ever did this casual mutilation of cats get to be so commonplace that people have lost sight of how devastating it is to a cat? One theory I suppose is because of the dishonesty of vets and their technicians who hide the full horrors of the post op suffering, keeping the cat in overnight, cleaning up the paws, re-glueing the wounds, replacing the bandages, keeping quiet about the crying and thrashing around of the cat as they come out of the anaesthetic and the pain kicks in. "Declawing" doesn't come anywhere near describing what is actually done does it, so maybe some owners are guillible enough to believe the "taking the claws out" rubbish.
But also some cat caretakers KNOW all this but consider it worth it to get rid of the claws, I've read comments such as "oh the pain only lasts a few days" as though those few days are nothing, but I'll bet those same owners wouldn't voluntarily subject themselves to a "few days" of intense pain for a non medical reason!
And finally, there are the ones, vets and owners, who choose not to even give pain relief, either to reduce costs or to ensure that the cat stays still, lying down and putting less pressure on the wounds/stumps to allow quicker healing. Yes, the cat dare not move because of the pain that standing on the paws causes.
And all this is done to animals that have been taken into a family supposedly as a pet?
Thank you for your comment Barbara – quite insightful, and a good summary of the situation. Your articulation and writing abilities are quite nice, I must say!
Would you be interested in writing an article for EverCats on perhaps another topic you are passionate about? The community loves guest posts like these, and you can plug any organization or site you'd like.
This goes for anybody actually – if you'd like to be an author here at EverCats, you can do so at http://evercats.com/volunteer-an-article-or-revie….
Thanks John, I might just do that, I'll have a think about what to write.
It can be anything from cat tips, advice, training, cleaning, grooming, behavior, preferences, history, toy reviews, item comparisons – the list goes on : ).
I emailed one in to you, with pics, at the weekend but not sure if it's what you want.
Sent you an email just now : D
Will have it posted in a jiffy!
Great article Ruth and I'm sure it will educate a few more people about how wrong declawing cats is.
Although some folk think it's 'just' pulling out the claws themselves,to me even if it was 'just' that it proves their ignorance as they obviously haven't bothered learning much about cats if they don't know they need claws to stay healthy.
People like that shouldn't be allowed to have a cat.
Ruth I found your article well written and informative. I found out about de-clawing in March this year and I was horrified beyond belief. I told friends and family. They asked 'why do they do that? How awful! Why would you take a cats claws?' When I told them to protect the furniture because they can't be bothered to show the cat how to use a scratching post they were even more incredulous. To be honest I think we all know right from wrong however some of us choose to ignore whats right because it fits in with our lifestyles better.
The attitude seems to be so often that 'cats are our property so we'll do as we want' 'I know whats involved but I don't care, I'll get it done anyway' I hear some very selfish statements.
I also can't believe how vets are getting away with time after time misappropriation of the truth; not furnishing clients with the facts. Why if my vet put my cat through something without telling me the truth I would do everything in my power to sue for malpractise. Why aren't people doing this when they realise the full horror of whats been done to their cat?
At the end of the day this is wrong, wrong, wrong whichever way you look at it. The sooner its outlawed the better.
Fantastic article, Ruth. Thanks so much for all you do for cats in the United States and Canada. One day this cruel and inhumane procedure will be banned in our country. It will take lots of work, but with people like you who are so dedicated to putting an end to this needless and brutal surgery, we will prevail.
This is a wonderful article that I hope will change many people's minds and prevent them from declawing their cas, and learning to use appropriate alternatives which WORK.
Thank you for the comment Jo – well said.