declwing kitty?

Question

i know im going to get alot of **** for this one but it has to be done, im yet im worried. I have a 6 month old neutered male (he was netured at 1 month before i even got him) and we had trained him to use his scratching posts and he was doing really well for the first few months, now its like we never trained him. We just had to replace our boxspring because he tore through the lining and into the wood, it finally broke! I want to get him declawed. We are renting so if he starts at the carpets or walls we'll be paying double what is would usually cost to have things fixed. I want to hear from people who have had there cats declawed. Like whats the down time, about how much did you pay, did they seem "mad", anything helpful you could tell me

im not all for declawing either...but im not giving him up either!

i clip his nails twice a week, but it still does major damage, and like i said he uses his posts most of the time, but who knows what he does when we arent home or are asleep

Answer 1

My friends took in a declawed cat from someone they knew because after the cat was declawed it started biting.

The aunt declawed the cat because it had scratched up her walls in her condo. Her cat was a couple of years old.

After the declawing (a couple of weeks???) it would bite if it got nervous or startled....or who knows. It seemed nervous and it hadn't seemed that way before.

My friends took the cat after the aunt waited for 6 months for the cat to relax. It never did. In fact it bit her through the fleshy part of her hand between the index finger and thumb and the bite got infected which was the last straw.

They had the cat for maybe 9 years. Until the day it died you whether or not it would bite you was an iffy proposition.

My friends had other cats and it got along okay with them, but seemed to spend a lot of time on the exposed wood beam that crossed over their living room (he could reach it via the stairs). The beam was huge---more of a two foot wide plank--- and he would sit a few feet out from the stairs. It was big enough for him to lay on and sometimes they wouldn't know where he was and then they would go up the stairs and spot him.

One of my friends thought the cat was more comfortable there because no one could reach it. They had to stay in another house for a short time while work was being done on their house and the cat was a mess---maybe just the relocation but my friends swear it was because it missed the plank. He tried getting to high surfaces in the temp house but couldn't climb up the way the other cats would. Sometimes he would fall trying to follow them.

Like I said, he loved the easy-to-reach beam.

Overall I would say declawing the cat changed its personality quite a bit. I know this doesn't happen to all cats, but that's what I experienced...and I do mean experienced because the cat bit me suddenly when I was petting it.

I felt bad for the cat because he went from being a treasured pet to a cat that my friends kept only because they didn't think anybody else would want him

Answer 2

The office that does the declaw should keep him for at least 48 hours to make sure that the wounds don't open. Once you get him home you're going to have to watch him carefully and keep him confined so that he doesn't do a lot of running around. Cost wise you're looking at at least $200.

Not to give you ****, but have you tried trimming his nails once a month? There is also the soft paws option, which are little plastic caps that you glue onto the tips of his nails. (Easier than it sounds once you get the hang of it.) Either are going to be far less expensive than a declaw with fewer potential problems. Declaws can go bad, they can become infected and if the surgeon doesn't glue the wounds just right they can do permanent damage to the paws. And even if everything goes well they are extremely painful. You're basically cutting off the cats fingers up to the first knuckle. Some of them come through it just fine, but I have heard of some cats "never being the same" after the procedure.

(I'm not trying to make you feel bad becuase I understand how tough it is when your cat is destroying the house. I used to work at a vet's office that was cats only, so I saw a lot of declaws. In the end it's up to you, but if I were you I'd exhaust every other option before getting him declawed.)

Answer 3

Well I disagree with have a cat declawed, but I think you are going to need to have him declawed. It is normally a one day thing, overnight at the vet, and depending on the vet anywhere from 50 to 100 dollars or more. When he comes home you will have to use shreaded paper for the littler box as anything else may cause an infection. You most likely will need to get all 4 legs done as it sounds like he is being very naughty. This will up the price of course. I would also talk the vet first, maybe he/she will have a better idea.

Answer 4

A declawed cat should be confined indoors, since its claws are its primary means of defense.
After declawing my cat, he was really slow, & tender, and lost his playful spunkiness. The cat may baby one or both paws for awhile. The hurt wears off but keep him from excercising or jumping as much as possible for 2 weeks to avoid splitting open the wounds, and about 7-8 months later my cats spunk was back all of a sudden. It sucks to have to see your baby like that but the fact that you dont have replace your furniture really justifies it. Be careful he doesnt get outside after the declawing.
I paid a little less then $100

Answer 5

ok well it seems you already know about the fact that declawing cats disfigures them. ie, cutting off part of thier bone. i promise not to lace into you on this one. i have had declawed cats before and it gets rid of thier self defense and impairs thier balance. when we got our kittens, we did not declaw them. what we do is cut thier nails with a clipper just for cats. we do this every weekend. it only takes 5 minutes and keeps them from ruining our furniture. now since you do this, i would talk to a vet or an animal behaviorist too see if this behavior is due to some change. perhaps he is bored or anxious and that is what causes his behavior. he might even be lonely. in a nutshell, i would make sure its not something enviormental before i go to the extreme.