Loosing patience with my kitten

[freezebyte]

Just got back from the cat only vet. She was really nice and helpful. He tested negative for Leukemia so thats good and she went ahead and gave him his second booster shot, so one more left plus rabies. I'm switching him to Royal Canin growth formula as we speak and because he was neutered early, she said to switch him to Adult food starting after the 1st of the new year.

I asked her about the whole wet vs dry debate and she states all she feeds is Royal Canin to her cats with wet as a treat. I asked about self dry feeding all day and then a nice wet meal for dinner and she stated that would be fine, so im gonna feed him Nutro Kitten wet packets at dinner time, he sure gobbles them up!

Also, she also pro declawing and states the whole cat changing behavior thing is over hyped and talked about. Her cats are declawed and has seen no behavior changes as a result. According to her, the medical procedures we develop for cats are for our benefit and the cats, neuter/spaying declawing falls into the same category as far as she's concerned, it results in more happy cats in more happy homes. She did state the few cautions about the procedure but stated they are rare and the earlier we do it when he's young, the better.

Her patients are 50/50 on their viewpoint.Some perfer to have claws for outdoor cats, some don't. Some have claws for indoor only, some don't etiher.

My girlfriend also firmly reminded me last night that she has sensative skin that scars easily so she would prefer him declawed when his old enough. She also has had clawed and declawed cats and over her life and stated no changes in her cats behavior.

So, sorry guys, you have your opinion and entitled to it for your cats well being and I have mine. But the vets a professional experience with cats of clients and of her own to back up her claim a bit more vs annonomous people posting on a forum stating their "opinion" in a cat forum.

For our sake and opinion, Shadow will be declawed next year.

 

[k.j.]

Why can't you use Softpaws? From my understanding, they're much better. Personally, and I don't mean to be rude, if you're going to declaw your cat you should just give it up now and save it a LOT of pain.

 

[brokenheart]

One thing about cats is they can be in a lot of pain and not let on. That's why so often an illness isn't caught till it's too late. So your "declawed" cat may be in pain, even chronic pain, and you won't know.

I apologize if I'm misinterpreting, but your last post seems to be phrased somewhat rudely to everyone who answered your question and offered help-- that you requested.

To tell you the truth, I don't feel good at all about a vet who cooperates with clients declawing their outdoor cats, putting them at great risk. That doesn't sound to me a like a vet who puts the animal's best interests first and foremost. I don't interpret that as very sound judgement.

It's so easy to clip their claws on a regular basis, especially when you have them from a kitten. For anything, surgery should be the final option; isn't that standard medical practice?

Originally Posted by Freezebyte

Just got back from the cat only vet. She was really nice and helpful. He tested negative for Leukemia so thats good and she went ahead and gave him his second booster shot, so one more left plus rabies. I'm switching him to Royal Canin growth formula as we speak and because he was neutered early, she said to switch him to Adult food starting after the 1st of the new year.

I asked her about the whole wet vs dry debate and she states all she feeds is Royal Canin to her cats with wet as a treat. I asked about self dry feeding all day and then a nice wet meal for dinner and she stated that would be fine, so im gonna feed him Nutro Kitten wet packets at dinner time, he sure gobbles them up!

Also, she also pro declawing and states the whole cat changing behavior thing is over hyped and talked about. Her cats are declawed and has seen no behavior changes as a result. According to her, the medical procedures we develop for cats are for our benefit and the cats, neuter/spaying declawing falls into the same category as far as she's concerned, it results in more happy cats in more happy homes. She did state the few cautions about the procedure but stated they are rare and the earlier we do it when he's young, the better.

Her patients are 50/50 on their viewpoint.Some perfer to have claws for outdoor cats, some don't. Some have claws for indoor only, some don't etiher.

My girlfriend also firmly reminded me last night that she has sensative skin that scars easily so she would prefer him declawed when his old enough. She also has had clawed and declawed cats and over her life and stated no changes in her cats behavior.

So, sorry guys, you have your opinion and entitled to it for your cats well being and I have mine. But the vets a professional experience with cats of clients and of her own to back up her claim a bit more vs annonomous people posting on a forum stating their "opinion" in a cat forum.

For our sake and opinion, Shadow will be declawed next year.

 

[siggav]

Please try out softpaws first before you go ahead and mutilate your cat. It has to tell you something that the prodecure is illegal in most of the western world. That's not just random internet people talking on a forum.

Cats walk on their toes so when the tips of the toes are amputated (declawing doesn't just take the claws away it takes the first knuckle of the cats finger away so it's basically 10 amputations he has to go through) this changes how the cats walk which is one of the reason it is easier for them if it's done when they're young.

I.e a young animal is quicker at learning a new way to walk and adjusting to that new handicap. Anyway because of that declawed cats are more likely to get arthritis and other skeletal problems when they get older. This is also because they can't stretch properly if they don't have the claws to hook into a scratching post to really stretch.

There is also the possibility of a cat develping litterbox problems and other bad behavour like that if they've had the tips of their toes amputated.

Anyway if you do go ahead with it, please have him only declawed in the front, if you take away all his claws he won't be able to scratch himself, which is really not ok to do to a cat.

Also if you do go ahead with it you have to commit to the cat 100%. If he starts biting, becomes fearful, starts pooing and peeing outside of the litterbox, it happened almost certainly because of the prodecure you put him through. So it's your fault not the cats and you need to work with him and give him as good a life as he possibly can. Rather than take a perfectly healthy cat, "ruin" him and give him behavioural problems and then dump him in a shelter where no one will want him.

The bad things aren't quaranteed to happen and there are plenty of people with happy declawed cats, but why take the risk? Atleast give him the benefit of the doubt and not go through with it until it has shown to be a problem. Try out softclaws, use scratching posts, use toys to play with him rather than your hands etc.

I know you don't have to listen to me but please for the welfare of your cat consider the alternatives to declawing.

 

[yosemite]

Originally Posted by Freezebyte

Just got back from the cat only vet. She was really nice and helpful. He tested negative for Leukemia so thats good and she went ahead and gave him his second booster shot, so one more left plus rabies. I'm switching him to Royal Canin growth formula as we speak and because he was neutered early, she said to switch him to Adult food starting after the 1st of the new year.

I asked her about the whole wet vs dry debate and she states all she feeds is Royal Canin to her cats with wet as a treat. I asked about self dry feeding all day and then a nice wet meal for dinner and she stated that would be fine, so im gonna feed him Nutro Kitten wet packets at dinner time, he sure gobbles them up!

Also, she also pro declawing and states the whole cat changing behavior thing is over hyped and talked about. Her cats are declawed and has seen no behavior changes as a result. According to her, the medical procedures we develop for cats are for our benefit and the cats, neuter/spaying declawing falls into the same category as far as she's concerned, it results in more happy cats in more happy homes. She did state the few cautions about the procedure but stated they are rare and the earlier we do it when he's young, the better.

Her patients are 50/50 on their viewpoint.Some perfer to have claws for outdoor cats, some don't. Some have claws for indoor only, some don't etiher.

My girlfriend also firmly reminded me last night that she has sensative skin that scars easily so she would prefer him declawed when his old enough. She also has had clawed and declawed cats and over her life and stated no changes in her cats behavior.

So, sorry guys, you have your opinion and entitled to it for your cats well being and I have mine. But the vets a professional experience with cats of clients and of her own to back up her claim a bit more vs annonomous people posting on a forum stating their "opinion" in a cat forum.

For our sake and opinion, Shadow will be declawed next year.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents. At the shelter last night was a beautiful cat. She had been adopted from this shelter as a kitten and the folks had signed the form agreeing not to de-claw (it's a no-declaw shelter). Well, they went ahead and had her de-clawed anyway. Now she is back at the shelter - reason? She won't use her litterbox anymore and her peeing on their dining room table was the last straw for them so they brought her back to the shelter. Now the shelter is trying to re-teach her to use the litterbox but have their doubts that she will now be adoptable and will probably live the rest of her life out at this shelter. I'm only thankful that the shelter took this kitty back even after these people did not honor their contract.

Then there is the sweet-faced little female who will rub against me and purr while I'm trying to clean her litter and then suddenly turn on me and bite. Yes, she also was de-clawed by her owner and now they don't want her because with her claws gone she has turned into a biter and the shelter doubts if she will ever be able to be adopted out.

Those are 2 perfect examples of what can happen with de-clawed cats.

All kittens can be rough and cause scratches until they are taught and learn not to. Bijou certainly left more than a few scratches on me. I started trimming his nails every week to make life easier for both of us. Now we have an adult Bijou who is extremely laid-back, gentle, and NEVER scratches or bites.

As for your vet, if she believes dry food is better with a wet food treat, then she is very lacking in knowledge so that would IMO account for her ignorance of the whole de-clawing issue as well.

You are right - it is your cat and you will do what you want to do. All we can do here is try to educate people on what can happen, what we've all learned through experience and time to be best for our cats. If you wish to accept that information, that's wonderful. If not, that is your choice.

AND, this is not just anonymous opinions - these are true experiences. Yes, there are those who have been lucky and not experienced problems with de-claws, but as the above poster says, if you do de-claw and your cat DOES develop problems, I hope you will honour your commitment to care for it for it's natural life and not dump it off at a shelter due to behaviour problems.

 

[siggav]

I want to add in also that neutering and spaying has benefits for the cats. They have less danger of certain cancers if neutered/spayed and the females can get uterus infections which can be fatal if left unspayed and going in and out of heat.

Declawing has no medical benefits whatsoever for the cat, it's purely for a humans benefit, so it really isn't right to equal the different surgeries.

 

[emmylou]

You're not alone in being overwhelmed... pretty much every time you bring a new pet into a home, the first weeks are a rough adjustment period and it's common to have doubts. Things settle down after that. And there is the kitten factor... the kitten energy level can drive you insane, but it only lasts a year or two.

I'm really surprised to hear that any vet would recommend declawing for no reason. I suspect that your vet is looking to make the extra money that the procedure would entail.

Because the American Veterinary Medicine Association's position is that declawing "should be considered only after attempts have been made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively or when its clawing presents a zoonotic risk for its owner(s)." Also, "Surgical declawing is not a medically necessary procedure for the cat in most cases."

See statement here:
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/apr03/030415c.asp

So it's not just posters on a Web site (of which you are one). Vets as a whole are ambivalent about the procedure, as you can tell from the statement. They don't generally volunteer to do it for no reason.

 

[freezebyte]

Ok well, it seems this topic brings the debate to the level of abortion and needless to say, i've never seen anything good come out of internet debates of that scale other then huge flame wars. So with that said, I will go ahead and make this my final post on this forum and continue to find info on other forums.

Your opinion with your experience is warrantied and understood in regards to declawing, I will not ague with that. But judging from the lack of acceptance to declawing on this forum, I feel I could not flourish in this community with such a "biased" viewpoint.

I will simply take my viewpoint and leave you to raising of your cats your way, and raising mine my way.

Thank you and take care.


End of Line---------------

 

[gingersmom]

Poor kitten!

So much for trying to be helpful.

 

[jack31]

I definitely feel called to post about declawing--not on a soap box at all.

My husband was dead set on declawing Jack and had convinced me it was the best thing. We don't have much money and work hard for the things we own. Keeping them nice was something we wanted.

Then I realized that I have a 13 week old kitten who is a "blank slate" if you will. We have a benefit compared to someone with an adopted 6 year old cat on teaching proper behavior. We can mold this kitten before it learns the improper behavior

Last night I said to my husband lets talk about Jack and his behavior. He has been unbelieveably good. He has scratched the end of the couch a few times but the majority of his scratching is now done on the trunk of the christmas tree. He has only scratched my husband--and well what do you expect when you never have a shirt on to protect you from accidents. My husband agreed to first trying all of our options. In two weeks Jack will be neutered--but NOT declawed. We are promising to trim nails every two weeks without fail.

I ask that you try the same--dont' set it in your mind that he will be declawed--first agree to try teach him to do it in appropriate places.

Take advantage of his youth--that is what we are doing.

Leslie

 

[yosemite]

Originally Posted by Freezebyte

Ok well, it seems this topic brings the debate to the level of abortion and needless to say, i've never seen anything good come out of internet debates of that scale other then huge flame wars. So with that said, I will go ahead and make this my final post on this forum and continue to find info on other forums.

Your opinion with your experience is warrantied and understood in regards to declawing, I will not ague with that. But judging from the lack of acceptance to declawing on this forum, I feel I could not flourish in this community with such a "biased" viewpoint.

I will simply take my viewpoint and leave you to raising of your cats your way, and raising mine my way.

Thank you and take care.


End of Line---------------

TCS is anti-de-clawing (which you probably noted when you read the rules upon joining). The experience and knowledge brought to this forum support that policy and we don't consider it to be a "biased" opinion - more an educated one and it saddens us when we fail to educate just one more person on the inhumane procedure of de-clawing. Hopefully one day North America will catch up with the rest of the world and make de-clawing illegal - until then we'll try to help one cat at a time. Fortunately a few of the states have caught up with the rest of the world and we hope it's just a matter of time for the rest of the States and Canada to get on board.

I'm truly sorry you do not agree with our TCS policy and we all feel bad for your sweet kitty. I sincerely hope you have no behavioural issues after you have this unnecessary and deforming procedure done on your cat and that your cat will have a long and hopefully pain-free life.

I'm going to close this thread now, we've done all we can.