Declawing = De-Toeing : An Emotional Scar For Life

It’s something we will never do, of course. But it’s good to know so that we can share.

Cats walk on their toes. They use their claws for balance, exercise, and stretching and toning the muscles of their legs, back, shoulders and paws. They also use them to hunt and capture prey, to escape or defend against predators, and as part of their marking behavior when they live outdoors.

Scratching is a normal behavior for your cat.

Declawing = De-toeing. It is cruel and emotional scars your cat for life.

The full article is here.

Why Cats Have Claws

Cats are digitigrades, meaning they walk on their toes. Most other mammals, including humans, walk on the soles of their feet.

Cats use their claws for balance, exercise, and stretching and toning the muscles of their legs, back, shoulders and paws. They also use them to hunt and capture prey, to escape or defend against predators, and as part of their marking behavior when they live outdoors.

Scratching is a normal behavior for your cat. It conditions and sharpens his claws, allows him to get in a good back stretch, and it’s also how he marks his territory — which is why cats return to the same place again and again to do their scratching.

Since scratching is a natural instinct, if you haven’t provided your cat with his own scratching surface and convinced him to use it, telling him “no” will not put a stop to the behavior.

What Is Declawing, Exactly?

Declawing isn’t a nail trim, as many people believe, or even nail removal. It’s not even declawing – it’s “de-toeing.” The procedure removes not only the claws, but also the bones, nerves, joint capsule, collateral ligaments and the extensor or flexor tendons.

Cats have three bones in each of their toes, just as we have three bones in each of our fingers – two joints and three bones. A kitty’s claw actually grows out of the last bone. This is very different from human fingernails, which grow out of flesh.

Since a cat’s nail grows from the bone, it is the bone that must be amputated to prevent the claw from growing back.

The declawing procedure involves cutting between the second and third bones, and amputating the last bone that contains the claw. This severs everything in the way – nerves, tendons, and blood vessels.

A front-paw declaw requires 10 separate amputations. If the hind paws are also done, that’s 8 more separate amputations. Thankfully, hind paw declawing is much less common, but also much more painful for the cat.

Declawing drastically alters the conformation of a kitty’s feet, which can lead to a whole host of physical complications such as chronic small bone arthritis,degenerative joint disease, and neuralgia.

Trim your cats’ nails frequently. For me, I only trim the Inside Cats’ nails, and only the nails on the front paws. I don’t do it for the PatioCats since they free-roam and require their nails for defense and protection.

Provide at least two scratching surfaces. I provide two scratching pads inside and one tree trunk in Bunny’s Garden. For the outside cats, they have a tree trunk to scratch on and one can see happy scratch marks on it!

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2016/03/24/declawing-de-toeing-an-e..

Tweet

AnimalCare

AnimalCare is a registered society that promotes caregiving to street animals and helps in their neutering and medical needs. AnimalCare has a Medical Fund, Food Fund and Education Fund.

More Articles   |   Pets For Adoption   |   Website