scraping off the claws?

[milu]

My friend, who is pretty much responsible for us now having 2 cats ourselves because she used to let us petsit her bunch, had the claws of her cats removed. Not in the traditional sense, mind you, all the digits are still intact.

She explained to me that the vet, who runs a cats-only clinic, basically scraped the nails off in a way that they don't grow back.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like that? I'm still not convinced this is much less cruel. A bit maybe, but she said they were still in pain for a short while after the procedure.

The dilemma for me is that my cats go to the same vet and now I don't know if I want to go back.

 

[Willowy]

That's still a de-claw, just a different method. Just as painful and just as permanent as any de-claw, although there is a higher chace of the claws growing back (but they don't grow back correctly, and it causes a lot of pain) when they do it that way. Most vets do de-claws. You have to decide if you want to go to the trouble of finding a vet who doesn't do de-claws.

 

[milu]

Thank you, Willowy, for basically confirming my feelings. I just couldn't believe that this would be just as painful. It is sad, but I've been looking at my friend differently since I found out. As for the vet...I'll make a few calls to see if I can find another good one who doesn't de-claw.

 

[ducman69]

Correct, this is another form of declaw, as its much simpler surgery. The risk though is that if any of the germinal tissue remains on the dystal phalanx, the claw can regrow which would hurt and require a second surgery.

Vet clinics are often occupied by multiple veterinarians though, and the majority will offer the procedure even if they don't support it on a routine basis and it is absolutely medically necessary for the cat's welfare in some cases, so it does not make sense to completely dismiss a clinic for that reason alone IMO. My sister's boxer for example had a dew declaw on one foot after he damaged it.

 

[Willowy]

If a vet only did medically necessary de-claws I'd be OK with that. I mean, if something's medically necessary, then it's medically necessary--not a lot of choices there. There are lots of nasty things that sometimes have to be done, like leg amputations and eye removals, that almost any vet would refuse to do electively.

It's when the vets offer de-claws as add-ons like french fries with any procedure that involves anesthetic that it REALLY bothers me. Purely elective, no reason for it at all. That's the kind of vet I'd boycott, IF I could find even one who didn't!

 

[nekochan]

I love my vet and I was a bit surprised when I found out she does do declaws. I was working there and I found out because someone brought a cat in for it and I watched her do the procedure (that was the only time she did it while I worked there.) She will do them but she will offer the owner other options first and try to work with them to avoid it. For example she will apply Soft Claws as a service, she has a few people who bring their cats in regularly and have her put the Soft Claws on their cats.

 

[milu]

Maybe I'm a bit cynical, but I do think for may vets their clinic's financial bottom line is their primary concern, not the wellbeing of the pets they treat. Kind of understandable, but disappointing.

 

[mystik spiral]

When I took Holland in a year and a half ago to fix her teeth, the receptionist who checked us in told me that she had just gotten her cat declawed. A receptionist at a vet office? I was mortified...