By Sarah Chew

Soft Claws nail caps. Photo by Laura.

To whomever this may concern…

I used the plastic claw caps to stop my 6 month old kitten from clawing at the furniture. He definitely did not like the application process, I actually believe it caused him trauma. He has developed this anxiety disorder and is afraid of people coming near him. I never noticed this before, but he was a kitten at the time.

I knew they were temporary and most of them fell off and we reapplied them a few times after, except this last week when I went to put a new set of caps on I noticed that one of his toes was red and swollen, looking extremely infected so I opted to not put the caps on, clean his foot and monitor it closely.

When I checked his paws the next day I noticed the infection was spreading to his other toes and are swollen around the pad and nail bed. He doesn’t seem to be in pain but it has to bother him. I am taking him to the vet the day after tomorrow because I believe he may have caught a fungal infection from the litter box.

I am almost positive the cat claw tip were the blame for the original infection of the toe and nail. I would definitely advise against using them. I know declawing is painful and cruel, but I would rather it be surgery and healing vs constant infections and painful nailbeds. I suggest multiple scratching posts and weekly nail trimming.

Thank you for reading this good luck to you.

Sarah Chew

Note from Michael (Admin PoC): Many thanks Sarah for passing on your first hand experience. It is valuable to cat owners. Although declawing is far worse than claw caps in my view because it is 10 amputations carried out at once. The downside from declawing is potentially far worse than for claw caps. Your suggestion for trimming and scratching posts is the answer and an acceptance that some items of furniture are likely to be scratched. If people were more accepting there would be no problems.

I have used claw caps and found them unsatisfactory. My impression is that the majority of cat guardians don’t approve of them. A colleague of mine thought they were little better than declawing but that’s a slightly extreme personal viewpoint, I believe. They do leave the claws unusable, which impinges upon normal behaviour. If they prevent declawing I am for them, however, because declawing is a horror.

Claw Caps Not Really Any Better Than Declawing…

Veterinarian Talks Cat Owner Out of Using Soft Paws and Into Declawing

Bizarre: cat claw caps surgically removed under anaesthetic