Declawed Cats Need Wheelchairs
by Ruth
(England)
Declawing is a major operation which removes the last joint of the cats toes along with the claws.
It is in fact TEN separate amputations (or even EIGHTEEN if the back paws are declawed too) by whichever means the vet does the procedure.
Some cats are sent home with their paws bandaged, some are not. Some are give pain medication, some are not.
But all are expected to immediately walk on their painful feet and to dig in a litter tray too. Some vets even believe that medication to dull the pain when the cat goes home is a bad idea because if the pain is dulled the cat will try to act normally, jumping as cats do, and of course jumping could re-open the wounds. The pain suffered by a cat on no pain medication must be excruciating.

Marmaduke demands a wheelchair
Wheelchairs are not an option for cats, despite Marmaduke above, making his ‘owner’ pay for her ignorance and for not finding out exactly what declawing means.
Imagine a person being forced to walk immediately on feet with new wounds, unthinkable isn’t it? They wouldn’t be able to hide their pain. Cats do hide their pain because to them, showing it is a sign of weakness.
A tiny cut on our finger end hurts us a lot because of the nerve endings in them. How much more agonising for us a wound on every finger stump would be from having them amputated.
A cats toes are just the same as our fingers in that they have nerve endings and that they need their ‘fingers’ to grasp things, just like we do. Laser declawing may seal those nerve endings (IF a properly trained skilled operator uses the laser machine) but the fact remains that laser declawing is not proved to be less painful and after any declawing a cat is disabled and faces a lifetime of possible physical and mental problems, at the very least almost all declawed cats develop painful arthritis.
Why would anyone who professes to love their cat, pay someone to disable him? Why would this someone who was trained to help animals, not to harm them, agree to perform this pre-meditated abuse?
38 countries say it is cruel. The civilised world watches and waits for the USA and Canada to ban declawing too.