In the last few decades, the go to way to put destructive behaviors to an end was to declaw your cat. This is happens today, but it is becoming less common as people have learned how a cat is declawed and what the short term and long term affects are on our feline friends. More and more veterinarians have stopped offering the procedure, due the research that has taken place. In many cases, the only time veterinarians are will to do the declawing procedure is if there is a medical reason like a tumor. There is also more humane options that you can use in place of declawing. Here are some of the reasons that you should rethink declawing your feline.
It’s Not Just the Removal of the Claws
Most pet owners that declaw their pets do not fully know what the declawing procedure entails. The name is very misleading, as it is not just the claws being removed. Sadly, due the way that cat claws grow in, when a cat is declawed, they have an amputation to the bone that the claw would normally grow from. In humans, this would be amputating all of your fingers to the first knuckle, as our nails grow in from the bone.
Clawing is Natural and a Healthy Behavior
Some cats will continue to do the clawing motion after they have been declawed. It’s not…show more content… Many cats after being declawed, have extreme pain in their paws when they are digging in their box. When their paws heal, there is no pain, but they can think that digging or standing in their litter box is going to be painful, so they start to avoid their box. While you know that it was the declawing that caused the pain, your cat is going to have a mental block of litter box is what cause the pain and to stay away from it. You are going to have to do a lot of work to have them trust their litter box again, and may continue have issues later
