All Four Paws Declawed
I have a 16 y/o black cat, Zelda, with beautiful green eyes. I adopted her from the local shelter after originally going there to get a kitten. Here was an 8 year old, completely declawed cat, surrounded by dozens of cute kittens.
She’d been brought there by her owner who claimed his 10 yr. old daughter was allergic. Took 8 yrs. to find that out? Zelda can be a little…uhm, bitchy, at times, but if you had a very thick coat and undercoat and had NOTHING to scratch with, wouldn’t you be a little bitchy too?
Her Nirvana is a good, rough daily brushing, esp. round her ears! She’s not the only all-four declaw I’ve had. I adopted a male years ago, Siamese colored but much too fat to be Siamese, about 6 yrs. when he drifted my way from a neighbor’s home. He fell in love with my now-husband, so the neighbor let us keep him.
He too could be a bit grouchy, but once again…The neighbor told us Jingle Bells (later changed to J.B., for the sake of dignity. I mean, neutered, no claws, (why rub salt in the wound with that name?) had been declawed by “some maniacal Italian vet.”
Don’t know if said vet was in Italy, or in the U.S. But how could ANY vet with any type of conscience take off the BACK claws of an animal, as if the front weren’t bad enough.
I hope this type of thing doesn’t happen often, but I know for a fact that it does happen. My vet doesn’t declaw and was appalled by J.B. and Zelda’s condition. CRUEL, CRUEL, CRUEL.
Hi…. I love what you say and the way you say it so I hope you can come back.
And if you have any photographs please email them to me:
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I’d have him checked out for bone shards in his paws to make sure he is not in pain. There are many botched declaw surgeries which leave bones in the wound. I think he could be scared of the vet because a vet badly hurt him when they declawed him. I think he’d be scared of any vet clinic. He may not want to play because his paws hurt. If you use a cat tease and he is disinterested there is something wrong because pretty well all domestic cats respond to a cat tease (stick with feather on end or something similar). His grouchiness points to discomfort too. Although I am guessing so if I am wrong, sorry. Good luck and well done on adopting a cat who was brutally injured by a vet in breach of their oath.
Please read this:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/epidemic-of-botched-cat-declaw-operations.html
We adopted a cat whose previous owners had declawed him on all four paws. I would NEVER have a cat declawed but my bf was worried about the furniture so this was the compromise. George had also been left in a home after his owner was shot to death and was considered “unadoptable”. He has turned into a very sweet and affectionate cat with some grouchiness incidents and an OCD obsession with grooming, but it’s difficult to get him to play. Also, he won’t come in the bedroom or sleep with us and has an extreme hatred of the vet, to the point where they muzzle him and have asked that we sedate him prior to visits. Any suggestions on how to get him to play and/or should I find another vet?