I feel horrible after my cat was declawed

I agree with Leah, it did sound as if your poor cat was suffering, the way you described his mangled toes.

So I can understand why she said cats in that state are better PTS rather than suffer with no quality of life.

Such senseless and needless suffering is caused every day by vets who declaw. Your cat is only one of them. Every single cat is important and deserves to live a full and happy life WITH the claws he was born with because he needs.

Please never give up the battle to let everyone know the truth and to ultimately get declawing banned.

Anonymous will you please give us your name next time you comment this is ridiculous.

I said put to sleep because you made us feel that Carl was crippled. You told us that each of his toes had been split in two making us think he was in constant agony.

I’ll say again if an animal is suffering the kindest thing to do is Euthanasia. You made us believe that Carl was suffering however I’m pleased to hear he’s starting to recover.

I hope you get this vet what she deserves and more! I wonder how many cats have suffered in her cruel hands?

It really makes me feel that cats just don’t matter in America though so long as those claws are gone that’s really all that matters no matter how horrific the journey for that perfect clawed cat provided the selfish owner gets their way.

I make no apologies. That’s how I feel.

Thank you for the advice. My current vet is helping me take action…although it IS difficult here, we are trying. Not many here think this is a problem. (and I DID NOT pay the last vet for what she did to Carl, tried hitting her in the pocketbook) And to believe she was a nurse before she bacame a vet. Its sad that she charges $200.00 for this “service”. I’m finding it difficult to get people to listen, which does not mean I have given up…

Like I said,the people of the USA allow it to go on!

Michael organised the demo at St Louis and was prepared to go to the expense and inconvenience to himself of flying over to lead it.
What went wrong?

Over 400 people backed out with various excuses some said they thought it was an internet demo.
Yeh right,after hotels and strategy for a peaceful protest outside a vets conference place had been discussed….pull the other one …..

Guys,as long as YOU allow declawing to go on it WILL!

We don’t hate you, we hate declawing and feel very passionately that it needs to be stopped with all urgency before many more cats suffer.
Cats are so very stoic and brave and people many times think they are fine when in reality they are just accepting their fate because they have no choice. They have to adjust to living as a disabled cat and they do, but it doesn’t make it right.
Problems can arise with declawed cats without people noticing until the cat actually starts to limp, some have lost their entire paws because of suffering in silence !
Because cats don’t howl like dogs do and make a fuss when they hurt, their pain and distress is often overlooked.
You have to understand how helpless we feel in other countries knowing cats are being mutilated in yours daily. The vet and the caretaker of the cat here would face criminal charges for abusing a cat that way. It’s unthinkable to us to do it.
You need to get out on the streets with educational leaflets about the cruelty of declawing, write letters to the press, let it be known far and wide how cruel it is, how cats need their claws. Start petitions against it.
We can only help you so much from other countries ! Our on-line petition to ban declawing gathered over 4,000 signatures but on-line petitions apparently don’t count for much, you need paper ones.
It’s frustrating for us and for the few people there struggling to do something about it.
You need people power and pester power there !

If this was happening in the UK we’d be fighting in our thousands to stop it and we wouldn’t give up until we did.

For all of you who are not, you are condoning this legalised abuse of cats in your country.

When people really care for their cats and other animals, they will express their passion and their feelings in their writing.

To a person who genuinely cares for their cat companion, the simple thought of the declawing operation is revolting. It is very upsetting.

That is why you get passionate comments. I think they are good.

We need less blandness and pap and more firm commitment to do the right thing. How else will things change for the better?

There is much to do in the domestic cat world. In many ways the human has failed in the domestication of the cat process. There are many successes but too many failures taken globally.

Well, our new vet is wonderful and a big part in helping us take action against the old vet. He has taken wonderful care of Carl. Who, by the way, is NOT crippled. He walks and jumps and runs through the house like my other cat. (YES THE OTHER HAS CLAWS AND NO I WILL NOT HAVE THEM REMOVED.) I can not believe Leah England would suggest I have him killed. New vet says he is doing fine,if anyone cares and I’m sure there’s only One who should pass judgment..I feel sorry for those of you who just jump to “hate”.

My cat caught the Calichi virus which attacked his gums.

My vet suggested I have his teeth taken out as I’d already spent a fortune on Interferon which didn’t work.

I was shocked! I was distraught! Surely my cat needs his teeth for defence? to groom his coat and chew his food?

I researched loads and looked at blogs turns out the vet was right extraction with the exception of front fangs and tiny incisors (top and bottom) really was the only way.

Even so I was still uncomfortable with this so I left things for a while until my vet said he would make my cat more comfortable with a dental. I agreed and it was done under general anaesthetic however my vet called me at work to state that she wasn’t comfortable bringing him round and leaving his teeth intact. The reason for this was his roots were exposed and one broken tooth had caused an ulcer I didn’t hesitate and my cat never looked back.

The reason I’m telling you all this?

Because I was shocked at necessary surgery for the cats benefit because it involved removing vital parts so I did my research! Even then I didn’t go ahead straight away I didn’t just ‘believe my vet’

You see I’m making the comparison between surgery for the benefit of the cat and not.

Because I love my cat I did my research for his benefit so why are cats in America mutilated every day because people who are supposed to love them and do right by them not question as I did? They have healthy parts removed that the cat needs to live a happy fulfilled life without question, without research. Why? I ask this time and again. Why aren’t they shocked? A cats claws are part of the cat. I just can’t understand it to do that without a second thought clearly means they don’t care about their cat they only care about themselves.

I am sorry I was hard on you but even though you regret it, feel horrible for doing it and have the courage to say so (good for you), you still actually did it and you explain how it affected your cat.

And your vet appears to have encouraged it. This is the truly horrible bit for me.

I am more concerned for the cat. I find the arrangement that the cat owner and vet make together to mutilate a cat shocking.

A person can’t come on this site and admit to declawing their cat without criticism. We love cats.

As if this isn’t bad enough we literally seem to have someone who doesn’t even have a clue how to do the procedure!! That vet ought to be struck off! Are you just going to leave it there?

Aren’t you going to do anything about this ‘vet’?!!

This is totally beyond me how this can happen and nothing done about it!! For Gods sake someone explain it to me!!

It makes me so bloody angry that a ‘vet’ can do this and then be surprised that the cat was crazy!! Can you imagine the pain that cat was in!?? I’m sure he would have committed suicide if he could in fact after that much damage you should have done the kindest thing and had him put to sleep!! How does he walk?? How could you do this to him?????? I’m shocked, I’m angry, I want the name of the vet!!!!! Why have you done nothing??? Please tell me!!!!

Why do people here care more about cats than members of their own species? That little girl died because needed medical care was withheld when the adults responsible for her did not know two things they had NO excuse not to know: 1) what uncontrolled asthma looks like 2) how dangerous it can be. That’s not fate, that’s neglect and it’s a crime. The lot of us should have been charged, but society had pity on her grieving parents.

This online community shows no pity even though according to the laws currently on the books, no crime was committed. When declawing is made illegal these situations won’t happen anymore. Right now something too horrible to even think about is LEGAL. It’s on the heads of all cat caretakers to realize how bad declawing is and to spot the lies of corrupt vets. That’s a tall order.

People think declawing is like a nail trim?

I don’t get that at all.

DE clawing is so obviously getting rid of the claws, like de stress is getting rid of stress, de clutter getting rid of your clutter.

Come on, surely no one can truly think DE clawing is a simple nail trim!

All life is equally important whether it be human or animal and two wrongs never did make a right!

No one deliberatley killed that little girl with asthma.

That was fate and very sad.

However cats are deliberatley crippled every day because people don’t take the responsibility of finding out what declawing surgery is.

Then when they see just what they have paid to have done to their cat they whine that they didn’t know.

Didn’t know should have found out!

How can anyone professing to love cats enough to have one in their home ever consider having their claws taken away even was it “only” their claws.

Surely they have enough brain cells to know how wrong that is even if they don’t know it’s removing the entire last finger joint.

Feeling horrible after the event is no consolation to the maimed for life cat.

Never got to the gist of your long post montys mom, took one look and couldn’t face wading thru it,short and to the point is best, any road children’s deaths are a completely different topic to declawing cats so can’t see the connection at all. Sad tho it must have been it doesn’t make disabled cats any less sad.

This site is not about humans or religion,it’s about cats and we come to it because we care about all cats,not just our own.

If a person thinks taking a cats claws away is acceptable then they really don’t know enough about cats to own one.

Vets can’t take all the blame!

I confessed that because of a stupid mistake on my part a human child DIED and that’s not as bad as a mistake that caused a cat to suffer? No one visiting this site is shocked by my foolish and thoughtless failure to act in any meaningful way to save a human life? Really? To declaw a cat is worse than to kill a little girl? We all make horrible, stupid mistakes. To say there is no absolution is to condemn us all. Surely, the vet who advocates declawing is more guilty than the client who trusts her. We are ALL guilty of foolish decisions that have harmed others, but we should save our most righteous anger for the unrepentant among us, like vets who know exactly what declawing is but promote it anyway. Most Americans think declawing is like a nail trim. The vets’ own name for it, onychectomy, means “surgical removal of a nail.”

The author of this piece is deeply grieved by her actions. Why is that not enough? I’m sure that little girl’s mother is deeply grieved by her failure to adequately care for her dear daughter. Would you rip her apart too? Why the double standard? I understand that many people arrogantly raise human beings to an importance we don’t deserve. We’re not better than our fellow animals. Humans are collectively the one sheep who wandered, causing the Good Shepherd to leave the other 99 to go look for it. It’s wrong to value humans LESS than animals are valued, because if our Creator felt that way, none of us would be here. He would have let us wandering sheep come to our own destruction without help, and quickly! Our grief for an animal should not cause us to withhold from a fellow human being that forgiveness we all stand in need of at some time or another. If we look at our lives honestly and carefully, I’ll bet we can all find some giant screw up we wish we could forget. If your screw up caused less suffering than a declaw surgery and didn’t cause anybody to die you aren’t better than this author and I– just luckier. Maybe tomorrow you won’t be so lucky. A mistake behind the wheel of a car and your life could be changed forever. Would you want to live then in a world where forgiveness for having caused suffering is not possible?

You talk about your cat’s mangled feet and the pain he was in and how they handled him with welding gloves at the vets and how horrible you feel.

What is anyone to say?

We can’t change what you did and give your cat his toe ends back!

You can’t feel a fraction as horrible as your crippled cat does.

You have the perfect opportunity to stop the same cruelty happening to other cats as long as you feel horrible so why should we try make you feel better and stop you doing so?

All that matters is stopping the suffering of countless cats.

You maybe came for absolution but no one here can give you that.

You said yourself you feel horrible at what you had done to your cat and as far as I can see the comments merely agree with you.

No one can stop you feeling horrible.

Put it this way,no matter how much you trusted a doctor would you hand your child over for anesthetic and surgery without firstly finding out what the surgery entailed and how it would affect the child?

Of course not!

Yet pets are as much dependant on you for their welfare as children are.

It’s the blindly handing over of cats for major life changing surgery we can’t understand nor how anyone can think taking healthy parts from a cat for their own convenience is acceptable.

The very idea of it to cat lovers is horrible and people will go on feeling horrible and guilty and worse still cats will go on suffering until declawing is stopped.

PoC tells the truth.

We all fail at times to rightly care for the good gifts we have received. How many people are advocates for even their own healthcare? Most just trust their doctors, and few really follow their physician’s advice. We fail to care for own bodies. We’re ALL bound to fail when it comes to caring for others. We will all fall short somewhere. To do so makes us no worse than any other flawed human being.

My third year teaching a little girl, about eleven years old, died of asthma. Every day at recess she had to use her rescue inhaler. One Saturday she didn’t have her inhaler with her while at a relative’s house, and she had an asthma attack that took her life. Her death is the fault of every adult involved in that situation– her parents, the adults she was with when it happened who didn’t immediately call 911, every teacher who saw her use that rescue inhaler every day, and her doctor who didn’t spend enough time on patient education. I am as much to blame for her death as anyone else. But I hadn’t studied physical therapy yet and I didn’t know that using your inhaler every day means your asthma is NOT under control. Am I to be held responsible for not acting on knowledge I didn’t have yet? If your answer is no, then you owe an apology to the author of this article, because that is the standard you’ve all held her to.

Unfortunately, I think we are held to account for these kinds of failures to protect those in our care. I lean on Christ’s forgiving love. I also know that those who have made these mistakes aren’t horrible people– they’re just people.

Sometimes bad things are allowed to happen and we don’t know why. What small voice spoke inside of me to save Monty’s claws– to save Monty himself– while all his siblings suffered and have doubtless died by now? Why was he saved? Why do so many other kids have uncontrolled asthma but never perish from it, but that little girl met her end that way? I think sometimes we’re just supposed to learn something from the suffering, and the best we can do is to grow from it and become better people for it– people who will never make that particular mistake again.

Wow…I will definately tell people to steer clear of this site. You sit back and bash someone who actually feels terrible for what has been done!! One wants to trust his/her vet and when you are steered in the wrong direction and something horrible happens..all i can say is wow. My cat was declawed over 2 years ago, though I regret it, he is doing very well thanks to the new Vet. I would encourage anyone that comes here, that has had something bad happen with a Vet, to NOT share it! I cant believe the “judgment” here. I HAVE stopped many friends, family AND strangers from de clawing because of our bad Vet….but that doesnt matter here!Thank You for your time. Sincerely, “I Feel Horrible”

It was a horrible thing to do to your cat. I’m glad you now realise what a traumatic and devastating multi-amputation you subjected your cat to, I hope that knowing what you do now you will put that knowledge to good use and educate other people in the true facts and horrors of declawing. Too many people take the word of vets as though they are almightly messengers, they are not, they are in it for the money, to get rich, to get fat, to drive big flash cars, they don’t care if by declawing cats they cause pain, misery and fear as long as they get well paid for it. It makes me puke! Please take good care of your cat for the rest of his disabled life.

The whole subject of declawing cats is horrible,the vets who do it are horrible and the people who pay them to do it are horrible too.
Cats only have one life like we do and your cat has been cheated of a proper cat’s life.
Yet it goes on and on and on and the people of the USA allow it to go on!

There was a huge anti declaw demo arranged last year,over 400 Americans signed up to go but not a single one went to it!

Come on guys,why aren’t you doing something?

How I wish you had come to PoC before allowing that corrupt vet to mutilate your poor cat.
Your daughter will grow up healthy and whole but your cat was crippled on her behalf and his short life has been ruined.

In your favour you are feeling horrible and guilty about what you had done to him and you have told your story which may prevent someone else from making the same mistake.

It would have been so easy for you to trim his claws and to teach him kindly not to attack your little girl. Squirt bottles do NOT work, gentleness and patience and distraction DO.
In our country and others where declawing is banned we can’t understand how ANYONE could even THINK of handing a cat over for such cruel surgery. Yes it’s a major operation, it is in fact the amputation of the cat’s end toe joint, the equivalent to our last finger joint. That’s why his poor paws look so small, he has to live his life with stumps. PLEASE keep a close eye on his paws as cats suffer in silence and there are many problems which cause declawed cats to suffer. PLEASE change your vet to one who does not break his/her oath to cause no animal suffering. Lastly PLEASE spread the word as to what declawing really means and help us educate everyone and ultimately get it banned worldwide once and for all.

There but for the grace of God go I, as the saying goes. When I caught a little feral kitten by my house and decided to adopt him I was pressured by my husband and his friends to declaw the cat. I was told I “had to.” A couple things saved Monty’s claws. The people at animal control were against it. The vet I took Monty to would have done it, but when I said my husband was insisting all four paws be done, the vet looked so sad, and at least tried to talk me out of doing all four paws. So I came home and researched and what I found out made me cry.

If the professionals had encouraged me to declaw, Monty would almost surely have lost his claws. There are vets that will say anything to make money off declawing. Sometimes it’s what they don’t say that causes the most harm. If not for sites like this one, where would I have found the truth? Your story will likely help save another cat. Ron Gaskin is a vet in Minnesota who does declaw repair surgeries. There is an article about him on this site. Nothing can give back a cat’s claws, but if he’s really lame he can get some of his functional mobility back.

I don’t know what your beliefs are, but I believe that Christ died to save sinners. I look at a crucifix and I see Him suffering the punishment those who abuse animals rightly deserve. God forgives you for what you did to a precious creature loved by Him, because He punished His Son for that deed. Humans may not be able to forgive you, you probably can’t forgive yourself, but God, through Christ, forgives you and loves you. For now you have to do whatever you can to make it better for your kitty, and bear your sorrow for him. But I would take this one in prayer to the One who loves you both. My grandma had a plaque on her wall which read, “Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.” Few beings on this earth have more sorrow than declawed cats, so let us pray that this might be true for them as well.

Thanks for sharing. That was good of you and it may stop someone, somewhere from making the mistake.

On the other hand I dislike you for doing what you did. And I dislike your horrible vet for suggesting it and doing it.

It is the duty of all cat “owners” to be informed about cat health and wellbeing and behavior.

I suppose that your cat was simply wishing to play. Yes, he wanted to play and you had his toes cut off because he wanted to play.

You say you feel horrible. You are horrible. It makes me mad thinking about it.