Claw Clipping

Well I took Corky to the vet for the first time to have her secondary part of her vaccines, unfortuantly for this we had to use the same vets as the shelter had used not my own vets. Whilst we were there I asked the vet if he could clip the nails as I had noticed that were quite long.

He was disgusted with me, I received a long lecture how cats use their claws for protection, climbing ect and that she was so young that her claws would splinter, she's 9 monthes.

What I wanted to know is how accurate is this, as from what I've seen on this board nail clipping is a common practice. I already plan to get Corky registered at my own vets asap as I wasn't thrilled with the vets attitude to me and even worse when he got Corky out her carrier he used her collar and scuff to pull her out and will probably ask my vet for a second opinion

I really hope that it's the vet who may be a bit misguided as after that visit I felt like a horrible pet owner.

Marie

It certainly sounds strange. We encourage people with new kittens to let the babies get used to having their paws handled and their nails trimmed so they're more accepting as adults and have never had any problems with it. In fact most people with kittens request their nails to be trimmed because they're clawing the owners.

If you're going to be letting Corky outside you might want to leave the for those reasons mentioned but trimmed nails work just fine although not as well but if she's going to be staying in there's no reason why she shouldn't be able to have her nails trimmed.

Hi Marie,

Be interested to hear what your vet has had to say about kitten claw clipping. I've always clipped kitten claws for the very reasons mentioned above. Must admit that once my Tatiana had become an adult and was spending most of her days outside adventuring I left her claws unclipped so that she was able to protect herself from dogs. But, I agree, if kittie is spending most of her time indoors then clipping is pretty important. I remember my vet recommending it when I took her to the vet so that she didn't claw him during visits!

Lisa

Ditto to the above posts! I start clipping nails when my cats are kittens-just to get them used to it. (Of course, little kitten claws are like razors, anyway!)

Our kitten is 7 weeks and our vet said it was fine to clip her nails. Infact he did it while I was there. I have always clipped nails at a young age. We have never had a problem.

we clip our cats claws everytime they get to long and start to realy hurt when they jump on you or run across you when you are sleeping.
I've never had any problems with it so I think that vet was out of lkine. Of course, my cats are strictly indoors only so I am not worried about them having to use their claws for anything other then play fighting with the other cats in my house...

I have taken Corky to my normal vet, who is so much nicer and just called her out the box rather than dragging her out,(unlike the other vet ) and commeted on how pretty she is

She said that it was fine to trim down the front claws and did it for me, and as Corky doesn't go beyond my garden then there is no problem having them trimmed on a regular basis. I did ask her why the other vet seemed to have a problem with it and she said that he may have just been more used to dealing with dogs rather than cats. Also my own vet is based at a much smaller practice so she spent more time listening and asking questions about how often she goes out ect, the other vet practice seem more interested in going through as many appointments as they can in one day.

Thanks for all the responses, it was reassuring to know that I wasn't some evil owner.