? for cat owners

Hey,

Call the vet and see what he says.

I bet he gets questions like this all the time.

By the way, I heard about de-clawing making cats mean, but I also heard getting them fixed makes them mean, so go figure.

As far as other people making comments about Kitty, Remember, you have to live with kitty.......

By the way, I am a dog lover, and I have nothing against cats..........

LOL

Good luck......

 

There are two things you can do:

o Get kitty declawed...I had this done to mine (yeah, yeah, it is cruel, but my furniture is in one piece...and its not like he wasn't warned).
*By the way he is not mean he is actually a very friendly cat....do not do this though if your cat goes outside at all - mine is strictly an indoor cat he has never seen daylight (except through the glass door).

o Today, they also make kitty mittens (your vet would know the actual name of them). They go on their front paws and the cat still scratches, but no tears. I think these are a relatively new product.

Dani

 

Please don't declaw--imagine someone cutting off the tips of all your fingers! Pretty painful thought, right?If you decided to declaw, it is best to do it when your pet is a very young kitten. Older cats have a difficult time adjusting.

Use "Soft Paws". Your vet can put them on--you may be able to get someone to show you how to put them on. You put glue inside the soft paws and put it on your cats nails (they come in all sorts of neat colors). Because your cat is older, he might bite them off initially, but use something non toxic, but nasty tasting to him. I think I used something called Bitter Apple, to keep kitties from biting plants.

I had two cats, ordered the soft paws through the mail, and had a neighbor who was a vet asst. show me how to put them on because it is expensive to have a vet or groomer do it on a regular basis. He may still claw at furniture out of habit, but won't be able to do any damage!

Good luck!

cariba

 

I was at the vet yesterday. He recommends declawing. Said to do it at six months. He knows all the controversy and said he does not think it is cruel.

Cariba: I have never heard of these soft claws. Are they some type of cloth material? If so, don't you run the risk of the cat getting them messy when covering up his "business" in the litter box?

I am willing to consider options to declawing. We have the "cell shades" on our windows. In just a couple hours, kitty wiped out seven of them and they cost over $100 each. Right now we have taped heavy duty plastic over the windows to prevent him from getting at the other shades. Fortunately, we live in the south, so heavy duty plastic taped over the windows in not considered unusal at all. In fact, it is considered upscale. Better than those lowlifes who use aluminum foil on the windows.

How long do the soft claws last?

 

I wish I knew which catalog I had ordered from. Go on the web and check out Fosters and Smith, I think their may be one at Upco.com.

Soft paws are soft plastic. They don't interfere with litterbox usage (for the best flushable, non-smelly cat litter, I used to use Heartland Wheat Litter--gave off a nutty aroma--the best!!). They are like a woman's acrylic nail tip except they fit completely over the nail--and it was a riot to see my female cat with these bright red soft paws.

cariba

 

The younger the cat is when you start using the soft claws, the better.

How long do they last? It depends--initially my male cat would immediately start pulling them off--but he was so focused on that that he was not scratching furniture. I would say several weeks. I will do a search and see what I can pull up as a resource to purchase them on the web.

cariba

 

To answer some of your questions:

www.softpaws.com, search also showed listings under org and .net

maxshouse.com/Claw%20Trimming.htm

cariba

 

Let us know how it works. My cat needs something and I would like to avoid declawing.

 

Yaaay!! If you can trim your cat's nails, you will be able to put soft paws on--I usually did it one paw at a time to not have my cats sitting for too long.

cariba

 

My cat is always on the computer. Can he still do this with these soft paws? The cursor fascinates him. I'm going to get him some of the soft paws and see what he does.

 

Hey all,

I've been a vet tech for 16 years, and have seen both sides of the declawing issue. I have declawed my cats before, though its not something I'm crazy about, however, I disagree with declawing them young. Of all the cats that developed bad dispositions, especially with the vet office after declawing, it was in cats done very young. I prefer to see owners wait until the time of the spay or neuter, and although it seems like alot to put an animal through at one time, the aneasthesia risk is lowered because the cat is older, and is only put under once instead of twice.

Soft paws works well for some cats. but can get quite costly, esp. if you are relying on the veterinary office to put them on for you. If possible learn to do this yourself. The other option is simply trimming the cats nails with toenail trimmers. I do this regularly on my older cat because he digs in when he "makes muffins" and it hurts. The blood supply in cats is easy to see, and if you cut the nail where it curves, it is very unlikely to bleed. If it does bleed, relax. I've never seen a cat or dog bleed to death from a broken nail, and though they can be quite vascular and bleed alot initially, it will stop. If you are the panicky sort, a styptic pencil will stop the bleeding, but it hurst like hell and the cat won't like it.

 

If you decide to use the paw covers, or trim the nails.Try this, get a sock-not too heavy weight,put it over your cat's head -it keeps them quiet, keeps them from struggling, and keeps him from biting.BYT-both my cats were declawed when they were spayed @ 5 months.(front claws only) they are fine,and they still try to claw the furniture, but just wind up patting it.

 

I like the sock idea!..we used towels to wrap the cat up with, or a pillow case for restraint and transportation.