De-clawing cats

[gaya]

Is it really bad to de-claw cats? I’ve heard mixed opinions about it. If I were to do it I would only have the laser surgery done not the chop the whole knuckle off scenario. It’s also not something I’m thinking of doing anytime soon (well it depends on his behavior and my ability to defend myself lol). Just thinking about it makes me feel guilty.

 

[The-Wolf]

totally barbaric and un-nessicary IMNSHO
I'm surprised that a Buddhist would even consider this.

 

[gaya]

Normally I wouldn’t consider it. It’s certainly not something I want to do. I guess the kitty and baby threads have thinking about it. My cat is…hmmm… how can I say it? A total psychopath. He attacks everyone. I mean everyone. All of my friends are afraid of him. It’s really pathetic when I have guests over. If you walk past him he’ll lunge at you, biting and clawing the whole time. He’s attacked my face while I’m sleeping. He attacked my poor mommy when she came to visit. I want to have children (and I’m getting up there in years so the decision has to be sooner than later) and there’s really no way for him to be around a baby with those claws. I would never give him away because I love him plus the fact that I wouldn’t lay a creature like this on anyone. Really though I have deep scars on my dam face from this cat. It’s a dilemma.

 

[mm_simb]

Yes, I am too. Also being a peta member. Sorry for bringing that up )
Declawing cats, whichever way you do it, is inhumane. If the cat ever runs away he/she has no way of defending itself. How would you like it if they took your nails off? I know, from volunteering at a shelter, that most of the cats that are turned in are either really agressive or dont use the litter box. I'd really recommend you not to do it.
My cat's evil but I would never consider declawing him.
To add, he also attacks me. I got him a companion and since has stopped attacking me as often. But he's the kind of cat that you cannot wear shorts around. I have scars all over my legs that people think I did something to myself . He also attacks everyone that comes into my house. He loves lunging at the feet. I wouldn't trust him if I ever had a child...but I would also never consider giving him away or de-clawing him. I just wouldn't leave them together.
I would advice you to trim his nails once a week. Then nails would do a lot less damage than teeth.

 

[gaya]

I’ve heard of kitty and dog valume. Is that stuff for real?

 

[The-Wolf]

there are many ways of getting this cat to settle down
you really need to talk to your vet about it.

have you considered alternative treatments, like accupuncture?
do a search in your area for animal accupunturists.

BTW declawing cats is totally illegal here in the UK.

 

[gaya]

I've never heard of cat accupuncture. That's something i will certainly look into. Yes i took him to see a vet. My vet doesn't want to see him again. I'm not fibbing! I swear!

 

[mm_simb]

My vet actually has a terrible time with my cat too. He's a great vet though and I look up to his patience with Simba...he's so evil to him. I know he's scratched/bit him more that three times already . He's done this to all his vets so I know it's not just this one.

 

[gaya]

I would advice you to trim his nails once a week. Then nails would do a lot less damage than teeth.

There’s no way he would let me at his claws. As I posted earlier the last time I had him to the vet (he had a trim then as well as a normal check up) and my vet doesn’t want to be bothered. Come to think of it there’s no way he could go through with acupuncture without being sedated. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with it now but when and if I do have a kid it would be so irresponsible of me to have him around a baby. I've even considered putting off having a child till he passes but that's kind of rediculous.

Please understand that it's far more then getting your legs scratched up. I wish that was the only problem. You can't have him in proximity to your head. About a month ago he almost scratched my eye out. I had a black eye! I mean c'mon! lol I'm sitting here laughing about it and i don't know why. it's late.

 

[The-Wolf]

I have had a psychoitic cat in the past, he was so bad the post office refused to deliver our mail.
anyway after a year or so we saw a different vet and he refered us to an animal psychologist.
the way we delt with Spots "anger" was every time he became naughty we spayed him with water that had a few drops of lemon juice in it.
it took about 6 months but he got the message, being angry ment getting wet and licking the water off tasted nasty.

I'm not saying this will work in your case but it did in Spots.
like I said before there are many kinder ways of dealing with you problem, you just need to find one that fits you.

 

[gaya]

I have had a psychoitic cat in the past, he was so bad the post office refused to deliver our mail.

anyway after a year or so we saw a different vet and he refered us to an animal psychologist.
the way we delt with Spots "anger" was every time he became naughty we spayed him with water that had a few drops of lemon juice in it.
it took about 6 months but he got the message, being angry ment getting wet and licking the water off tasted nasty.

Oh i've been doing that with him for three years now! I have tried the spray bottle method. I've dumped pots of water on him! he doesn't care. It's really amazing. I've tried making my voice real low and dominating. I have a picture of him on this page in another thread. Look at his face, i mean you can see it. I saw it the first time i looked at his eyes.

 

[Bloo]

totally barbaric and un-nessicary IMNSHO

I'm totally with you on that one Wolf ! However........ I can also totally understand that people would consider it (but not condone it). I had one such little psycho cat when it came to clipping nails. I'm a super experienced cat handler (if I can say so myself) but this little bast*rd was beyond me. I could do anything to him as long as I did not try to cut his nails. Oh and I could spray him as much as l liked - he only became incredibly annoyed, meowed non stop at the top of his voice, stomped around and sulked in the end. He completely destroyed my furniture (in my fully furnished luxury rented apartment) and it cost me an absolute fortune to replace it all (we're talking many several hundreds of £££'s here) He was also a little terrorist in the neighbourhood, so in the end I decided to do the best I could for him, and flew him out to my mom in South Africa where I knew there weren't many neighbours to harass and wide open fields for him to roam. And before anyone gets on their high horse, he was neutered. (Ps: it's the little "butter could not melt" devil in my avatar).

My current indoor cat completely ignores furniture and very nicely keeps to his scratching post only. His nails also gets clipped once a week, so no problems there.
In fact, he loves his nails being clipped and just about holds out each individual one - as he also knows full well that there are treats waiting for him as soon as they are done

I'd just like to highlight this extract from www.declawing.com

Declawing is not like a manicure. It is serious surgery. Your cat's claw is not a toenail. It is actually closely adhered to the bone. So closely adhered that to remove the claw, the last bone of  the cat's claw has to be removed. Declawing is actually an amputation of the last joint of your cat's "toes". When you envision that, it becomes clear why declawing is not a humane act. It is a painful surgery, with a painful recovery period. And remember that during the time of recuperation from the surgery your cat would still have to use its feet to walk, jump, and scratch in its litter box regardless of the pain it is experiencing. Wheelchairs and bedpans are not an option for a cat.

It's a good website with some suggestions as to how to tackle such problems.

 

[mm_simb]

Oh, don't think that my cat enjoys his weekly trimming...
I have to wrap him up in a very thick blanket and praise him and pet him in between nails . When he was little I only wore a sweater, then came the sweater being put on him, then I wore a thicker sweater and rolled the other sweater on him, now he's moved on to the bed spread. He's given me bruises and he scratched my face once and bit it many times. He's so bad that I cannot sleep with a thin sheet even when it's over 90 degrees out. One time our AC broke and it was not a good week. I hated going to bed.

 

[gaya]

Like i said in my original post i would never give my cat that kind of surgery. My vet is the one who originally recommended the pricy laser surgery and he said there is no bone trimming in that procedure but who knows.

if i started thinking about all of my stuff that has been ruined I'll just be depressed. If i forget to close my closet door both my cats think they are tarzan. They've ruined clothing i never even got to wear. But i new when i took them in that's how it goes. My house is a big scratching post. so am i for that matter

I'm off to my last final exam of the semester.blah

 

[Angry_Platy]

I was at the vet with my cat the other day and since they are always really slow I tend to walk around the surgery reading stuff attached to walls and pamphlets etc. Interestingly, I came across a wall pamphlet advertising gel nail caps for cats (I think thats what they were called).....what they do is put a soft gel cap over the tips of your cats claws hence making them non-sharp. Obviously they would need replacing once the cats nail grew back but it advertised them as being pain free and of no disadvantage to the cat. So I asked about it (since the cat manages to scratch our furntiture too much for my liking). The lady said that yes, it is pain free requires no surgery and the cat is not adversely affected in any way. The surgery I go to would have charged me $3 per claw to do it.

Something you might want to look into gaya.....as a humane alternative