Too late to trim claws

Hi,

I'll keep this short. Basically, we recently lost our cat of 15 years to cancer who was survived by our 5 year old female black cat Sami and we have just recently got a 6 month old kitten JJ. Sami isn't taking to JJ too well (it's only been a couple of weeks but we're taking it slow) but we have high hopes since she has been around our deceased cat her whole life.

JJ is good about getting his paws touched and the foster parent we got him from said he is good with getting his nails trimmed. Unfortunately, we never did this with Sami and I KNOW she wouldn't stand for us to try and trim her claws at this point.

My concern is that, in these early days of getting to know each other, that JJ will be at a disadvantage if I trim his claws. Should I take Sami to the vet (which she hates anyway) and have them trim her claws to balance the playing field?

Any advice helps.

Thanks,
D

Yes take her to the vet this time to get the nails trimmed. And then work on handling her feet so that you can do it at home. Even if it means one foot a day, it CAN be done.

I've trimmed nails on many cats - mostly adults who never had regular nail trimming and had little problems in getting them on my lap and trimming at least the front nails.

Do you have someone who can help you with the cat? My DH and I have to both do nail trimming. He restrains the cat while I clip. Sometimes we can only get one paw done at a time, but one is better than none! Sometimes I can only get the fronts or backs done, so we stop, give a treat and then try again the next day.

I just take it one toe at a time. I mostly worry about Hercules he has some claws if left unattended will grow into the pad of his foot. So I concentrate my time on those claws. If I start playing this his toe hair he will let me mess with them and atleast get one or two claws done but I try and just get the funny growing ones. If you dont have experiance with trimming your cats nails and you think your going to end up bleeding Id play it safe and take it to the vet to have it done.

Thank you for the replies. I will work on clipping a nail here or there until she is comfortable. Any suggestions on which type of clippers? I saw a variety at the pet store.

We use the large clippers for people - I think they're for toe nails. I've never been able to quickly use those "closed" clippers designed for cat claws.

They way we got our crew used to having their nails trimmed (and they're all feral rescues - one was a year old when brought inside and another two years old) was when petting, we'd touch their feet, and when they're asleep, we'd touch the paw. When they more or less ignored us when sleeping (after a week or so), we progressed to pushing on one toe to make the claw come out. THAT would wake them up. So after about another week or so, when they began more or less ignoring that, hubby would stand ready with a treat, I'd push out the claw and clip one - and he'd immediately put down a treat.

We did one nail every day. By the time you're done with the front, it's time to go 'round again. (We don't bother clipping the back claws). Some kitties took a couple of months before they really didn't mind - others we progressed to doing an entire paw within just another week or two (treat between each claw). I don't remember the shortest or longest - but other than one cat - (the feral that came inside at one year old) - we can just pick 'em up, put 'em on our laps, and clip all the claws. No treats necessary. In fact - most of them purr for it now.

Tuxie's a different story. Gary has to distract him with his FAVORITE baby food treat while I do one claw at a time (put a spoon out - he licks baby food, I clip a claw). We generally get only 2 - 3 done at a time, so it takes a couple of days.

Originally Posted by dalbrect

Any suggestions on which type of clippers? I saw a variety at the pet store.

Click to expand...

After buying & trying two different clippers designed for cats, I finally used regular human nail clippers and they work the best. If you have nail clippers you use for yourself, try those before you spend any money on specially designed ones.