Are there Alternatives to Declawing your Cat?
Some local veterinarians share their views about declawing cats.
Congratulations, you have just added a kitten to your family. As a responsible pet owner, you have made an appointment with your veterinarian to have your pet spayed or neutered, and maybe you wondered if you should schedule Fluffy to be declawed at the same time?
To help explain the pros and cons of declawing, let's hear from veterinarians Dr. John Moffa of Honeygo Animal Hospital and Dr. Tara Klimovitiz of the Perry Hall Animal Hospital.
Moffa, who has been in practice for about 30 years, said the declawing procedure has changed dramatically, in terms of technique and pain management. He performs one to two surgeries per week.
"What used to be a pretty barbaric procedure is really less so now. Techniques are better, causing less damage and with good post operative care, declawed cats can be kept pretty comfortable through their recovery," Moffa said.
Klimovitz, who does considerably fewer declaw procedures in her clinic, agrees that pain management is the key.
"I counsel pretty heavily about [declawing]. Sometimes, I feel it is the right thing to do and the client is making an informed decision, but often, with a little education, pet owners are willing and even happy to try alternatives. Many come in thinking they have to do it, but are relieved to know they have options," Klimovitz said.
Moffa and Klimovitz agree that the surgery is best performed on younger cats, as recovery tends to be easier. Both feel there are cases where the procedure is warranted in older cats, but neither recommends it unless no other reasonable alternative exists.
Alternatives include a wide variety of scratching posts, poles, cat climbing furniture and simple pieces of heavy card board or carpet. These items can be sprayed or sprinkled with cat nip to encourage their use.
Moffa and Klimovitz both recommend starting early and acclimating a kitten to weekly nail trimming. Soft Paws are another good alternative, but require a commitment to maintain them. These are vinyl sheaths put over the nail, essentially blunting them; they can offer an alternative to declawing when a cat is uninterested in scratching posts.
"Many of the clients who request their kitten to be declawed are families seeking to prevent children from being scratched. In cases like this, I prefer to educate and offer alternatives. When it is a matter of a much loved pet whose owner is seriously ill, sometimes there is no good alternative. In cases like this, the procedure is not really elective, as a treating physician might order a patient to declaw or give up their cat," Klimovitz said.
If you feel you must have a declawed cat, perhaps you could adopt an already declawed cat. Animal shelters are full of cats of every size, age and circumstance, including many that are already declawed.
CAW21227
4:14 pm on Saturday, October 1, 2011
Declawing is barbaric. Anyone who is considering having it done to their cat should think about how it would feel to have their fingernails and toenails ripped out. As for children getting scratched ? cats don't usually go around swiping at people unless they are being mistreated. If your child can't be taught to leave the cat alone perhaps you should find a more suitable home for the cat. I have had cats since before my children were even born and my children were never once scratched by the cats or bitten by the dogs. I taught the children respect for other living things and they never mistreated the animals. Declawing is not the cure for misbehaved children.
Loretta Wietry
7:24 pm on Saturday, October 1, 2011
ok...declawing...it's a no brainer for goodness sake...no.no.no. thanks to our wonderful vets who love to line their pockets and could care less about what the outcome may entail. new techniques that is just a line of BS - just to make the client feel better and justify this horrific procedure they will be performing on your cat. it is obvious many vets do not have a conscience - if they did they would fully understand what they are doing?? hello?? if one must have a declawed cat, get one at the shelter that is in need of a home. a shelter i worked at once put an ad in the paper for a declawed cat - no need to worry about your furniture - cat declawed. well, i saw red and immediately picked up that phone and advised them what they were doing -- allowing this procedure to be ok to protect furniture. they did agree, and no longer have i seen that comment - thank God!! there are no better procedures. i've been to vets offices, have seen the cats coming out of getting declawed let alone being altered at the same time, left another office because a client called the vet and was hysterical because of their cat being in pain and not fully understanding the procedure. so said... so no there are no alternatives whatsoever...never let a vet tell you any different!! trimming nails is the best policy :)
Susan
7:32 pm on Saturday, October 1, 2011
It's a shame that the author nor the 2 vets interviewed felt it important to actually define what declawing is in this article to help educate readers. "De-clawing" is amputation of the weight bearing 3rd Phalanx finger bone digits - the digits cats as digitigrade animals are meant to walk on. In order to remove the claw, the bone, nerve, joint capsule, collateral ligaments, and the extensor and flexor tendons must all be amputated from each finger. This surgery inflicts a lifetime of emotional and physical distress on the now club footed animal so it is very true that shelters have many declawed cats because it actually increases their risk of losing their home. Their pain is often manifested into what humans interpret as "bad behaviors" (aggression & litterbox issues) and the cats are often abandoned, relinquished to shelters, or euthanized. Also, the CDC, NIH, US Public Health Service, and Infectious Diseases Society of America all say declawing isn't necessary to protect people from scratches, so why would a vet recommend a surgery that causes cats to bite more when cat bites are far more dangerous & infectious than scratches? Declawing is now illegal in 8 California cities where it has legally been deemed animal cruelty as well as illegal or considered grossly inhumane is 38 countries worldwide.
Laura Shenk
1:00 am on Sunday, October 2, 2011
Susan, this is actually the second article Tammy did about this, and she described the procedure in great detail last week. Thank you for the refresher, though, for people who missed it. I have to agree w/ you that it is a bad idea, unless it is the only way a cat can stay in it's home, and will end up at the pound, otherwise. People have to remember that a cats claws are it's main defense against predators. How can anyone really be sure the cat won't slip out the door one day, and need those claws to survive?
Tammy Zaluzney
12:12 pm on Sunday, October 2, 2011
Thanks for everyone's comments. As a former shelter director, I saw the heartbreak of animals who were treated as disposable. I saw almost 4000 cats come into our shelter each year. One thing that always really bothered me, was that some vets absolutely did see declawing as a nothing more than a revenue stream. In these clinics, and there were not many, a declaw was almost touted as necessary. We had people who actually thought they HAD to declaw their cats to have them as pets. Further it was common in these same clinics to declaw on all four feet. It is this lack of understanding that I hoped to address by putting the topic out there for discussion and asking two local vets who do not treat declawing as a mere revenue stream to weigh in. In both cases, these vets provide education and recommend alternatives.
In researching this column, I found that AVMA and every other credible veterinary association made a point of saying that there was no evidence declawing changes behaviour in terms of biting or litter pan issues. In my experience that is far from the case, but my experience is just that, it is not a study. While fewer and fewer, people still want declawed cats, whether I like it or not. I also know that shelters are full of cats of every size, shape, colour, age, hair length, you name it. Many of them are declawed, so I advocate and encourage anyone wishing to add a cat to their family, please adopt one from your local shelter.
Lorelei Kathleen Hickman
5:22 pm on Sunday, October 2, 2011
As a former veterinary technician, I have had to assist with many declaw surgeries and with the patient aftercare. I have witnessed the "new techniques" that are supposed to make declawing less traumatic and damaging, and it's not necessarily so. The procedure has a very high rate of short and long term complications regardless of the method used. The lesser of two evils is still evil. What the vets in this article should have explained is that the "new technique" of scalpel disarticulation *only* means that they are using an actual surgical tool to amputate the toes rather than crudely chopping them off with a common nail trimmer, which is what's done in the far more common "Rescoe" or "guillotine" method of declawing. There are at least 100 humane alternatives to declawing; check out the Declaw Intervention Checklist compiled by the Cattress Mattress feline furniture company: http://cattressmattress.com/2011/08/01/the-declaw-intervention-checklist/#more-1146 Declawing is never necessary, and it is never in the best interests of the cat.
Bill Howard
9:44 pm on Sunday, October 2, 2011
I resent people talking like I am some kind of monster for having my cat's front claws removed. How about when she scratched up my kids? Should I let that continue? All were playing nice. Many vets will tell you they deal with a lot of cases of other pets being harmed by cat scratches.Like puppies that lose an eye) My lil Tiger has been declawed for 12 years and is still a happy healthy kitty.
Lorelei Kathleen Hickman
8:16 pm on Monday, October 3, 2011
No one here is suggesting that you allow your children or other pets in the home to be injured. The point is that there are many other more humane ways to prevent this without resorting to a painful and radical surgical procedure. Did you take the time to look at the long list of alternatives? http://cattressmattress.com/2011/08/01/the-declaw-intervention-checklist/#more-1146 And I for one do not feel that cat owners who choose to declaw on the advice of a vet are monsters. Laypersons have no real idea what this procedure is like. I myself used to have no strong opinion on declawing one way or the other. It was not until I was directly involved in it and saw for myself the way many cats come out of anesthesia after the surgery that I began to believe that it's wrong. I would not expect the average cat owner to know that declawing is considered the gold standard by which to measure the effectiveness of pain medications, but I DO expect the average vet to know this, since this is what they are taught in vet school, and my definition of "informed consent" for declawing would most certainly include this information- yet I have never once heard a vet admitting this little fact to a client. In my opinion, any vet that recommends declawing without first recommending at least a few of the over 100 humane alternatives is the monster.