Declawing & behavior changes... let's dig deep!

[frogmanjared]

You'd think that with the millions/billions of declawings that have happened, someone would have summarized findings... like follow ups from vets asking the owner of any behavioral issues. Maybe vets should start handing out a checklist of behaviors, to be filled out before, and a month after surgery and someone could crunch all the numbers... it'd be better than the research out there now. The same type of research has to happen with clawed cats, for comparison purposes. Of course there are too many variables... but something is always better than nothing (not small scale studies, need large scale to really see if a theory is credible).

And to clarify the reason I'm looking for this is that most people don't care about being humane to animals (most people think humans are superior to everything). If you can tell the owner "your cat will have a ___% of developing these types of problems with this procedure" many people will opt out of surgery for their cat. You have to realize that most pet owners don't really care/feel what's best for the animal, just what's convenient to the people in the house.

As for my views on spaying/neutering... evey cat should be, unless you're a licensed breeder. Cats, feral or domestic count for killing untold numbers of wildlife. Just one example... I have seen the grouse population disappear where I grew up because of a large number of ferals.

 

[otto]

The problem with getting any reliable statistics, in my opinion, is most people who have their cats declawed are not going to be willing to admit that the cats developed problems because of it.

So any data is skewed before it even starts.

Those who have done so, and then been horrified by what they did, and won't ever do it again, yes, will be honest, whether they had problems or did not. But those who are going to continue to mutilate any cat they adopt are going to be defensive about their "choices" and perhaps not as forthcoming about subsequent problems.

I hope someday the USA joins the other 26 or more civilized countries around the world who have deemed this practice inhumane.

 

[goldenkitty45]

Keep another thing in mind - the problems may not surface right away - it could be 6 months, a year, or even longer for negative problems to show up.

I feel that if the problems don't show right away and then a year or so later, the cat starts peeing outside the litter box or becomes fearful or overly aggresssive, then those problems will not be connected to the declawing - which more then likely is the reason.

Foot problems and walking funny or balance or early arthritis will not show up in 6 months after declawing either.

 

[icklemiss21]

Originally Posted by otto

The problem with getting any reliable statistics, in my opinion, is most people who have their cats declawed are not going to be willing to admit that the cats developed problems because of it.

So any data is skewed before it even starts.

Those who have done so, and then been horrified by what they did, and won't ever do it again, yes, will be honest, whether they had problems or did not. But those who are going to continue to mutilate any cat they adopt are going to be defensive about their "choices" and perhaps not as forthcoming about subsequent problems.

I disagree, the fact is no one has bothered to collate the data because it is a $26million per year industry for vets across North America and they would need to be the ones who collect the info.

For the vast majority, they wont hide the fact their cat is peeing because they declawed because they were not informed, they dont hide it. We have people who come into the shelter every day who happily tell us about their declawed cats. When we explain to them what declawing is and the possible effects they honestly did not know so they would never equate the problems with the declawing to hide it.

Nevertheless, a vet can tell if a cat is declawed when it is brought in for litterbox issues by simply touching its paw. This info would be easy to collect should they want to collect it

 

[white cat lover]

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

For the vast majority, they wont hide the fact their cat is peeing because they declawed because they were not informed, they dont hide it. We have people who come into the shelter every day who happily tell us about their declawed cats. When we explain to them what declawing is and the possible effects they honestly did not know so they would never equate the problems with the declawing to hide it.

Exactly. 99% of people don't know what declawing is - "it's just what you do for housecats", like it's a good thing, or a bad pet owner wouldn't declaw their housecat.

We've had people surrender cats they've completely declawed that attack them to the point of ER visits - only to want to adopt a kitten with the intent to completely declaw them. They don't look at the front declawed adults, they don't look at the completely declawed adults - they want a cute kitten.

 

[ink]

We had a Maine Coon who was declawed when we got her from the humane society. She was a wonderful cat. She didn't like to use the litter box unless it was raining or she was the first in it after it was cleaned. She insisted onbeing an inside/outside cat. She climbed trees, caught birds and mice and bullied our other cats which all had their claws. I guess she didn't care that she didn't have them and somebody forgot to tell her that she should be afraid of other cats. She did walk different than the rest of them.

I worked at vet clinic about 14 years ago and I have seen a declaw surgery in person and the surgery itself is no more gruesome than any other surgery. Post OP, they definitly hurt more than a cat they has been spayed or nuetered without the additional declawing.

I personally would never declaw simply because I think any unnecessary surgery should be avoided. Spay and neuter are necessary for the health of the animal. A cats tail is a major factor in its ability to balance and I wouldn't have the tail removed to keep the cat from having enough balance to prowl on shelves. The few times I had a cat that was an avid clawer, I let it outside. Most cats would prefer to use a natural object like the bark of tree over the couch.

Sasha will not be getting her claws removed when she goes into get spayed. My husband lost the ends of his fingers in a punch press machine so we know from the human point of view just how painful that can be. Not only recovering but also everytime a cold front moves in his fingers hurt. He can still feel the missing parts of his fingers and sometimes thinks he has hold of a glass when he doesn't. Neither of us want to make Sasha go through what he has been through.

For anybody thinking of declawing just for the convience of it, go talk to someone who has lost their fingers in an accident, then decide if you still want to do it.

 

[mschauer]

The "declaw issue" is always good for a nice long thread!

I'll just say what I've said before. I think it is pointless to use the "It may cause behavior problems in the future" reason to try to convince people not to declaw. The vast majority of people in the US have personal knowledge of declawed cats that exhibit no behavior problems or that may have problems that they don't recognize as being related to declawing. Even if they know of a declawed cat that had a problem they would just call it a rare exception and, as the OP has discovered, there is no convincing evidence to the contrary.

I've been been opposed to declawing my whole life and for reasons that have nothing to do with possible behavior problems caused by it. I didn't even know cats could have behavior problems from declawing until I joined these forums.

IMO, veterinarians should be on the forefront of the battle against declawing. They know it's wrong and yet they still do it. And if I hear one more say "If I don't do it someone else will" I'm going to slap them up side the head! If another vet will do it then the shame is on the other vet and not them.

I know some will say vets continue to do it for the money and I don't doubt that is true in some cases but I don't know of any reason to believe it is true of the majority of them.