Best Method for Declawing a Cat?

Looking for a clue.

If none of the stories on here have given you a *clue* by now, then I
will depart and give you a final one or two.
1:Have the wife declawed whilst your at it!

2:Learn to read like I did.....

Seriously, I mean it-If your wife is all for it, then make sure she has
it done before the cat's, then if she still feels it is the best
option, then I would to conceed to you.Somehow, I think that you will
find the problem will disappear
S.

I really think that the OP is a troll. If not, the obvious solution is
a heavy plastic cover for the couch.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

"eDog" wrote in message
. ..
Although I am against it, a new and rather expensive leather sofa has
raised the possibility of declawing my 3 cats.

If I have to get them declawed what is the best way to do it?

What kinds of questions should I ask the vet? What kind of equipment
should
he have/use?

Simply declawing their front paws may not accomplish much with regard to
protecting the furniture.


Also, I am going to ask in a separate thread:

If I keep my cats nails trimmed short will they still be able to
(unintentionally) damage my leather sofa?

--
Looking for a clue.

Best method is not to.

Get a heavy throw to place over the couch and use soft paws. I'd also
complain to the couch manufacturer that the leather is too easily marked and
perhaps isn't the same quality that you saw in the store as you said you
tried scratching it there and couldn't

W

Now that you mention it, I am reminded of a cat that my mother had which
developed issues with the litter box later in life. The problem seemed to
start when another cat was brought into the house. This cat bullied my
mothers cat and would attack her when she was in the litter box.

But now that I think about it, even when the cats were finally separated
"Cassandra" would still bolt out of the litter box in a sort of panic
without burying her business. Perhaps it was an issue of pain in the
claws. But in her case I think it was more likely an exagerated fear of
being caught making feces by a predator or bully.

I know my cats will miss their claws if they are declawed. They have a 30
inch scratching post which they love to climb upon and man handle with
all fours. It will break my heart every time I see that they are no
longer able to do this.

As I said in another post in this thread, I tried to find leather that
would hold up under minor scratching much as another piece of leather
furniture I own does. Unfortunately I failed in this. I also was unable
to steer the missus to a cheaper sofa.

Now I am faced with the delemma that if my wife feels she can never have
anything nice because of the cats, she will become UNHAPPY.

If I am to save the cats claws I am going to have to find a way to touch
up the surface scratches, make a visible effort with the soft paws and
convince my wife that she is not going to have to live with a sofa that
is under a blanket 24/7/365.

It feels like a long shot.



"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in
:

Yes, I realized after I sent the message that I should have asked you
not to let your wife (not your "husband") talk you into declawing.
Please, though,




--
Looking for a clue.

eDog wrote:
Now that you mention it, I am reminded of a cat that my mother had which
developed issues with the litter box later in life. The problem seemed to
start when another cat was brought into the house. This cat bullied my
mothers cat and would attack her when she was in the litter box.

But now that I think about it, even when the cats were finally separated
"Cassandra" would still bolt out of the litter box in a sort of panic
without burying her business. Perhaps it was an issue of pain in the
claws. But in her case I think it was more likely an exagerated fear of
being caught making feces by a predator or bully.

I know my cats will miss their claws if they are declawed.

It's not a matter of them "missing" their claws - it's a matter of them
becoming maimed. Declawing removes the last section of the toe - not
just the claw. 4-paw declawing is so cruel most vets won't even do it.
Also, your cats are likely to become biters and urinate
inappropriately once they are declawed. Those are the two most common
after effects of declawing. If wifey doesn't like scratched furniture
you can be assured she won't like pee-soaked furniture any better.

Here are some reports of problems assocated with declawing (from one of
my old posts):

1. "Four percent of the cats began to defecate out of box and
12% began to bite after onychectomy."
ref: Bennett M, Houpt KA, Erb HN. Effects of declawing on feline
behavior. Comp Anim Pract 1988;2:7-12.

2. Retrospective survey of 887 cat owners from private practices.
Clients were asked to fill out a survey on the incidence of aggressive
behaviors in their cats. "Twenty three percent of declawed cats
bit family members; 2.3% of each seriously enough for medical
attention."
ref: Borchelt PL, Voith VL. Aggressive behavior in cats. Compend
Contin Educ Pract Vet 1987;9:49-57.

3. "Twenty four percent of the cats had short-term postoperative
complications including, two hemorrhage, one infection, and one change
in behavior. Mean and median days until walking normally were 6.3 and
7 days, respectively, range 1-21 days. One cat did not walk
normally for 180 days."
ref: Jankowski AJ, Brown DC, Duval J, et al. Comparison of effects of
elective tenectomy or onychectomy in cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc
1998;213:370-373.

4. Retrospective written survey of private practice clients. Owners
reported that "34% had discomfort post-surgically, primarily
tenderness (78%). Cats done 1 yr had more post-surgical discomfort;
41% were still allowed outdoors. 4% reported a possible increase in
biting or harder biting."
ref: Landsberg GM. Cat owners'; attitudes toward declawing.
Anthrozoos 1991;4:192-197

5. Retrospective mail survey of veterinarians. 320/400 returned
questionnaires. "78.4% of the vets did not advocate declawing. 47%
veterinarians' recollections indicated no problems, 53% reported
complications; 24.9% reported nail regrowth, 9.9% reported
additional long term problems."
ref: Landsberg GM. Declawing is controversial but saves pets. A
veterinarian survey. Vet Forum 1991;8:66-67.

6. Assessment of complications seven days and six months post-surgery,
in a clinical setting. Two techniques for onychectomy and two
adhesives for wound closure were compared. "66% of the cats returned
for both one week and six-month clinician rechecks. Lameness occurred
in 21% of all cats. Dehiscence (opening of the wound) occurred in 34%
of all cats."
ref: Martinez SA, Hauptmann J, Walshaw R. Comparing two techniques for
onychectomy in cats and two adhesives for wound closure. Vet Med 1993;
88:516-525.

7. Cross sectional internet survey. "19.6% cats in the study were
declawed. Complication rates after declawing were not reported.
Declawed cats showed more house soiling (25%)."
ref: Morgan M, Houpt KA. Feline behavior problems: the influence of
declawing. Anthrozoos 1989;3:50-53.

8. Case-control study of owned and relinquished cats involving a
random digit dial (phone) survey of cat owners. "Prevalence of
declawing was 45%(476/1056) in the owned cat population. Among 218
cats relinquished to a shelter, more (52.4%) declawed cats than
non-declawed cats (29.1%) were reported by owners to have
inappropriate elimination".
ref: Patronek, GJ, Glickman LT, Beck AM, et al. Risk factors for
relinquishment of cats to an animal shelter. J Am Vet Med Assoc
1996;209:582-588.

9. Retrospective phone follow-up of clients. "39/98 owners whose cats
underwent elective onychectomy or tendonectomy were contacted two
months to five years (median 11.5 months) after surgery. 80% had more
than one medical complication. 33% developed at least one behavior
problem; 15.4% would not use the litter box and 17.9% had an increase
in biting habits or intensity".
ref: Yeon SC, Flanders JA, Scarlett JM, et al. Attitudes of owners
regarding tendonectomy and onychectomy in cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc
2001;218:43-47.

And mo

1. Veterinary Surgery Journal:
50% post surgical complication rate (Vet Surg 1994
Jul-Aug;23(4):274-80)

2. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association:
19.8% long-term complication rate (J Am Vet Med Assoc 1998 Aug
1;213(3):370-3)
"high complication rate for [declawing]" (J Am Vet Med Assoc 1998
Aug 1;213(3):370-3)

Declawing is 100% preventable. "The most common reason for considering
declawing is to avoid damage caused by the cat scratching household
materials", which can be dealth with by less invasive measures (J Am
Vet Med Assoc 2001 Jan 1;218(1):43-7)

3. World Small Animal Veterinary Association - 2001:
Greater incidence of inappropriate elimination problems: More
"(52.4%) declawed cats than non-declawed cats (29.1%) were reported by
owners to have inappropriate elimination problems."

Greater incidence of long-term behavior problems :
"(33%) developed at least one behavior problem."
"(17.9%) had an increase in biting habits or intensity."
"(15.4%) would not use the litter box"
"Where possible legislation should be enacted to prohibit the
performance of non-therapeutic surgical procedures for purely cosmetic
purposes,
in particular; d. Declawing and defanging."

4. Canadian Veterinary Journal:
Declawing puts cats at risk for leg fracture (Can Vet J 1998
Jun;39(6):337-8)

And, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Furthermore, The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, a
group of over *60,000* veterinarians are completely against declawing
unless there is a medical issue (avulsued nail, etc.). In addition,
there are many, many lisenced veterinarians who have spoken out
against declawing in public forums and published journals. The Cat
Fancier's assosciation is against declawing. I can provide references
for unsubstantiated statements in this paragraph, if anyone is
interested.

We (multiple posters) have posted numerous ways to curb scratching
behavior and redirect it to appropriate scratching surfaces. The links
provided in this thread provide multiple
soultions. If you have not found them yet, you either don't care or
don't read very carefully. So, I'll give you the benefit of the
doubt, and list a few here (off the top of my head):

1. Sticky Paws
2. Frequent nail trims
3. SoftPaws
4. Feliaway
5. Large, substantial cat trees/posts that have multiple scratching
surfaces available
6. Catnip on the trees, above
7. Throw rugs turned inside-out, and rolled up and secured, which
serve as scratching toys
8. Turbo mouse scratching pad

The scenarios/solutions are endless.

http://www.stopdeclaw.com, http://www.catscratching.com/, and
http://www.maxshouse.com have many solutions.

Declawing is the lazy person's way of dealing with scratching
"problems". With a little effort on the part of the owner, cats can
be trained to scratch appropriately, and/or scratching can be made
into a non-issue. But one must be motivated to make these methods
work, and not simply say "he won't use the post, I'll declaw him".
That is the coward's solution.

They have a 30
inch scratching post which they love to climb upon and man handle with
all fours. It will break my heart every time I see that they are no
longer able to do this.

Well then tell your wife to get over her fixation on the material.
Sheesh!
A 30 inch scratching post isn't sufficient. Multiple cats in a
househole require a cat TREE with multiple, different scratching
surfaces.



As I said in another post in this thread, I tried to find leather that
would hold up under minor scratching much as another piece of leather
furniture I own does. Unfortunately I failed in this. I also was unable
to steer the missus to a cheaper sofa.

So you knowingly bought a piece of furniture that the cats would
damage, and now you are whining that the cats are damaging it. Not
real bright. Put your foot down and stand up to your wife. Declawing
is NOT a solution.


Now I am faced with the delemma that if my wife feels she can never have
anything nice because of the cats, she will become UNHAPPY.

Too bad. You should have put your foot down when wifey insisted on
furniture that the cats could ruin.


If I am to save the cats claws I am going to have to find a way to touch
up the surface scratches, make a visible effort with the soft paws and
convince my wife that she is not going to have to live with a sofa that
is under a blanket 24/7/365.

It feels like a long shot.

Buy a cat TREE, and some Sticky Paws, trim the cat's nails, follow the
links I provided and find a solution. Do not declaw your cats - it's
barbaric and inhumane. And if that fails (which it won't if you are
persistent) tell wifey to get over it. Maiming another being for
aesthetics is unconscionable - a fact you already know but won't admit.

-L.

I had an Ethan Allen piece that is normall covered in fabric covered
with one of their available selections of leather. It's a burgundy
color.


Scratching the hell out of it with my own nails did little to reveal how
it would fare under the cats nails.

I would suggest two things about leather:

(1) Black is the easiest color to match as far as inexpensive
touchup techniques. A magic marker might do, but they make polishes
for restoring the color to leather and black is black.

(2) If you look at the underside of the leather you can get a feel
for whether or not the suede absorbed the dye as well. If the
underside is light like untreated suede the scratches will reveal the
suede underbelly.

It's still a mystery why my old cheaper sofa has held up so well.
If I knew what kind of leather it was I would recommend that to the
group.



Lynne wrote in
:


I plan on buying a new set of leather furniture when my basement is
finished. What brand and what type and color of finish did you buy so
I can avoid it?




--
Looking for a clue.

I have heard there is a new form of declawing, although I am not for
declawing unless it is an absolute need but it is done by laser and the
recovery time is almost immediate, a day or so.

eDog wrote:
Although I am against it, a new and rather expensive leather sofa has
raised the possibility of declawing my 3 cats.

If I have to get them declawed what is the best way to do it?

What kinds of questions should I ask the vet? What kind of equipment should
he have/use?

Simply declawing their front paws may not accomplish much with regard to
protecting the furniture.

Also, I am going to ask in a separate thread:

If I keep my cats nails trimmed short will they still be able to
(unintentionally) damage my leather sofa?

Thank you. This is helpful.

"Wendy" wrote in
:

complain to the couch manufacturer that the leather is too easily
marked and perhaps isn't the same quality that you saw in the store as
you said you tried scratching it there and couldn't

Yup, that's alrady not allowed.


What happens when the cat wants to sleep next you in bed?

At least it's not allowed when she's in the bed.

I regularly get to nap with all three of them in the bed. We have different
schedules and that works out pretty well.

I can see her point at night. There is always some kind of antics going on
between the 3 of them at 3 in the morning. We lock them out of the bedroom
at night.

When I used to live alone and had a different pair of cats (deceased now)
they frequently woke meup at night. If I tried locking them out of the room
they would cry at the door and tear up the linoleum in the hallway.

It was less trouble to allow them into my bed and just send them packing
when they started to misbehave.

The three cats I have now do a pretty good job of keeping each other
company at night, but they do love those daytime naps with daddy when they
get a chance.

If I were *personally* in favor of declawing my cats, I would have
already done so.

I have been doing nothing but reading websites about cats and their claws
for the last three days. I trust very few of the sites. They are all
reading off the exact same set of "quotes" like the talking points on
Sunday morning TV.

I am leaning against declawing the cats because I think that even if I
assumed a front declaw was something they would "get over", and it
probably is, a four paw declaw is really tempting fate that something
will go wrong.

I didn't get these cats so I could hurt them. I got them so I could
pamper them and make them the happiest luckiest cats I know of.

By simply owning a cat in an apartment which you never let outside of the
house (like I can't) you are asking an awful lot from it. Over time the
cat will become less active and give up hunting for luxuriating around
the house. It will trade darwinian stresses for security and boredom.."a
walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage" so to speak.

Nobody ever asked them if that's the choice they wanted to make.

At least we humans can blame Pink Floyd.

And I do hope you are a vegan and that your cats are vegans too.

There is probably more animal cruelty in every chicken breast than there
is in a typical declawing operation on a cat.


"-L." wrote in news:1169233234.073470.286300@
11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com:

Declawing removes the last section of the toe - not
just the claw.



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