Would you patronize a vet who does declaws?

If you liked the veterinarian otherwise and s/he cared for your animals well, would you patronize him/her even though s/he performs declaw surgeries?

I post this knowing that most everyone here, like me, is anti-declaw. Just interested in what people think.

Originally Posted by Vibiana

If you liked the veterinarian otherwise and s/he cared for your animals well, would you patronize him/her even though s/he performs declaw surgeries?

I post this knowing that most everyone here, like me, is anti-declaw. Just interested in what people think.

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Good question. My answer would be yes. Reason being is that Vets are under pressure to perform this procedure, even if they advise against it.
A good Vet will do their best to talk the owner out of it and if that fails, do their best to perform the surgery as correctly as possible to keep mutilation to a minimum.
I really hate that people de-claw their cats, but I won't hold it against a Vet who at least tries to convince otherwise.
There are some cat owners who need to have options on de-claw....such as people with diabetes. Others as well I assume.
In a perfect world no one would deprive their cats of their claws.

The vet I picked ( not having any references at the time) offered declawing w/spaying like would you like fries with that? My husband had brought Zakk in and I told him NO WAY! We continued with that vet due to convenience but I was happy to switch when we moved. I don't know if my current vet declaws, but they have a great reputation in this area. Additionally, when I brought the kittens in they gave me a bunch of pamphlets, including one from softpaws marketed as an alternative to declawing.

I had actually thought about having Blaze de-clawed.That was BEFORE I joined here.OurVet does offer that, but I told her that I am NOT interested in it as it removes part of their fingers.She understands and has never brought it up again.

Yes. My vet does de-clawing. I asked her about it before I knew better b/c when Tiger was a kitten, he tore up my daughter something fierce (just playing). She told me she does do the procedure but she wanted to make sure I knew that it was amputation - I didn't know that and immediately changed my mind. Then she offered the "tip" alternative if her behavior modification techniques we talked about didn't work. I ended up not even needing the tips.

No, I would not go to a vet who declaws. It's true that people with diabetes, hemophilia, or compromised immune systems can't risk having cats with claws, but the shelters are full of homeless cats who have already been mutilated this way by previous owners. A responsible vet should explain all this and recommend a shelter kitty first.

However: if a vet puts out a sign, for example, saying "We do not declaw," then he never gets the opportunity to discuss the question with owners who are considering it. Best to stay silent on the issue and have a chance at some friendly persuasion.

(By the way, that little Moses kitten above looks so much like my Clyde when he was a baby! Precious!)

I wouldn't necessarily stop going to a vet who declaws if in every other way they were a good vet and were obliged to do so because it's their job. But it's not really an issue here because declawing is illegal in Australia, anyway.

Originally Posted by KitEKats4Eva!

I wouldn't necessarily stop going to a vet who declaws if in every other way they were a good vet and were obliged to do so because it's their job. But it's not really an issue here because declawing is illegal in Australia, anyway.

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I had no idea that declawing was illegal in Australia. Good for you guys!
Maybe someday the USA will follow that lead.

My vet does declaws, but tries to talk the owners out of it by providing information and alternatives and absolutely will not declaw any cat over 1 year (as kittens rebound from any surgery better than adults). This was one of the questions I asked when I "interviewed" him, and his answer satsfied me. He isn't a "do you want fries with that" kind of vet. The people who are dead set to do it will get it done regardless, so I guess it's better to get it done right with proper pain management than a hack job by someone more interested in profits than the animal's wellbeing.

Originally Posted by valanhb

My vet does declaws, but tries to talk the owners out of it by providing information and alternatives and absolutely will not declaw any cat over 1 year (as kittens rebound from any surgery better than adults). This was one of the questions I asked when I "interviewed" him, and his answer satsfied me. He isn't a "do you want fries with that" kind of vet. The people who are dead set to do it will get it done regardless, so I guess it's better to get it done right with proper pain management than a hack job by someone more interested in profits than the animal's wellbeing.

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Just a shame that anyone thought of that horrible surgery in the first place

And yes, Kai Bengals, in Australia declawing and debarking are listed under the RSPCA's Cruelty To Animals Act - and a good thing, too!

I would never even consider declawing my cats and I am completely against it. BUT I would rather a kitten go to a home that declaws it then grow up in a shelter waiting til someone comes along that won't delcaw it. I can argue with myself against that how ever and say the cat can wait until someone comes along that won't declaw it because there are plenty of people that don't believe in declawing also. So while I AM against it, I would rather a cat have an otherwise great home and be given great vet care and great food and lots of love and be declawed then be unwanted and homeless on the streets or living in a shelter forever, or a shelter that will euthanize.

We do do declaws at our clinic, but do not openly offer them, the client has to ask about it and then we make sure they understand that it is an amputaion, we also will not delcaw over a year in age . I am always looking for new pain management protocols for any surgery we do to make it more comfortable on the patient, declaws included. I would also rather see a cat in a loving caring home and declawed than thrown outside, euthanized or dumped at a shelter because the cat is destroying the furniture. Our society is (at least in the USA) is a throw away one and animals are included in that unfortunately, so if it means a cat gets to keep its home then I have no problem with it.

I'm okay with it as long as it is under the circumstances that some have described above - where the vet explains the procedure and tries to talk the client out of it, etc. Besides the obvious regarding the poor cat, it's also important to me because it shows that the cat's welfare is more important to the vet than making money. Declawing is a very high profit margin procedure (usually around $300 for a 10-15 minute surgery) so it shows integrity if a vet will discourage such a high margin procedure on ethical grounds.

Any vet who offers a declaw as if it were, as someone else said, a "do you want fries with that" kind of thing, is not a vet I would ever use unless I didn't have a choice for some reason.

It's a complicated issue for vets, especially since there are so many vets who will declaw on demand. The vet I have used for years used to refuse to declaw. But what happened was that her clients were going elsewhere for declaws and the procedures were often done so poorly that the cats required additional surgery to fix the botched declaw. She finally got fed up with the whole thing and started declawing again if attempts at education failed and she knew the cat was going to be declawed no matter what she did. Her reasoning was that at least if she did it herself, she would do a very good job and the cat would at least only have to have the surgery done once.

I can respect that reasoning. I am not sure if I could do the same thing, but that's okay.

There is only one vet in my town. I have no idea whether or not he declaws; I imagine he probably does. I would have to drive 20 miles (about 40 minutes each way) over hilly, curving roads with cats that either get carsick or, in the case of Red Cat, is highly anxious to the point of licking his belly raw to go to a different vet in a neighboring town. Consequently, I would not go to another vet unless I felt the local vet was not giving proper care to my own cats. Whether or not he offers declawing is just not part of the decision-making process.

i have no idea if my vet declaws, but as long as she is a responsible vet that wouldn't recommend it or even bring up the subject unless the owner has full knowledge of what will happen, i'm fine with going to her.

i'd never have my cat declawed, though. i never saw the point. trimming claws is good enough- it keeps me and my family from getting cuts from her claws, and that's the main point, isn't it? my mother is completely against it as well; you should hear her on the subject of declawing cats ("THAT'S AGAINST NATURE! THE POOR THING! CUTTING OFF HER ONLY MEANS OF DEFENSE, NOT TO MENTION THE HORRID PAIN!"). it's one of the only things we agree on...

Originally Posted by Vibiana

If you liked the veterinarian otherwise and s/he cared for your animals well, would you patronize him/her even though s/he performs declaw surgeries?

I post this knowing that most everyone here, like me, is anti-declaw. Just interested in what people think.

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If she did everything else well then I think I would.

Initially when I read the title to this thread I thought you meant, actually patronise - like, go into a vet clinic where they do declaws and give them a hard time about it....lol.

Twit...

Declawing is illegal here in the UK, but if it wasn't i'd try an educate my vet

Originally Posted by KitEKats4Eva!

Initially when I read the title to this thread I thought you meant, actually patronise - like, go into a vet clinic where they do declaws and give them a hard time about it....lol.

Twit...

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Don't feel bad... I thought the same thing.

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea if my vet's office offers declawing, as it wasn't something I wanted done to my cats. However, I go to a cat clinic where the vets are feline specialists, so I'm fairly confident that if they do offer declawing, it's only after a great deal of education and attempts to persuade the cat's owners to re-think their decision. Otherwise, it is very, very clear to me that my vet (and really, everyone at that clinic) puts the welfare of the cat first, so they might be in the "do the declaw myself so that at least the operation isn't horribly botched and there's reasonable pain management" camp. I can respect that.

My parents had their cat declawed. I've never really forgiven them for it, as she was seven years old at the time and it was because they didn't want her scratching up the furniture--such a frivolous reason! That being said, though, this was over ten years ago, and I don't remember there being as much effort to educate the owners on what declawing actually means. I think, if my parents had known then what I know now about declawing, they wouldn't have had it done. I wish I knew where their vet (at the time) stood on the matter, whether or not he had tried to dissuade them or if he was another one of those "do you want fries with that?" kind of vets.