[kashumz]

How old does she have to be until she can be declawed? She's 2 and 1/2 months old now

[Rina _4]

How old does she have to be until she can be declawed? She's 2 and 1/2 months old now

I had one of my cats declawed. I don't recommend it due to the following:

1. It is extremely painful for them after the procedure.
2. They need them to climb trees.
3. They used them to protect themselves from other animals.

I would never do that to a cat again.

[kashumz]

She's an indoor cat.

[tigerfeather]

Like rina said, it is a very painful procedure, and it takes a long time for the cat to heal. When a cat gets "declawed," what the vet basically does is cut off the first knuckle on the cat's toe, then stitches or glues the wound closed. The cat must walk on the amputated toes during the healing time. Some cats have litter box problems after they've gotten declawed because it's quite painful to try to dig in litter or cover waste and the cat associates the pain with the box and not the surgery. Some cats have severe psychological trauma afterwards, most at least associate the car and the vet with BAD, and will overly stress if they have to have something done at the vet or if you're transporting them somewhere.

If you're having problems with your cat shredding at home, you can opt for things less painful than the surgery, such as providing a scratch area with cat scratchers (you can buy them in a variety of textures such as cardboard, sisal rope, or carpet to please your cat), or even clipping the cat's nails. I've found that you can just clip the front paw's nails about once a month (it depends on how fast your cat's nails grow though) and that usually ends the shred problem.

Do some research before getting the cat declawed, if only to inform yourself about what will be happening to your cat.

To answer your question, though, it really depends on the health and size of your cat. Most vets won't do elective surgeries on cats younger than four months, some make you wait until six months. You kitten should be going through the vaccination stages right now, so if you haven't gotten that started then you should set an appointment for that and ask your vet when you get there. =)

[Emland]

You can get these great little vinyl covers for your cat's claws now. I wouldn't recommend declawing - my sister did it and the cat was miserable for months.

[AKaeTrue]

You can get these great little vinyl covers for your cat's claws now. I wouldn't recommend declawing - my sister did it and the cat was miserable for months.

They really do work! And they are so much better for the cat!
You have lots of colors to choose from and it makes your cat look like it has painted toenails.
You can by them at your local Petsmart, Petco, and vets offices usually sell them too.
Check it out: Soft Claws at Petsmart

[kashumz]

Thank you for your posts! I'm trying to convince my dad not to declaw her right now. It certainly is a lot cheaper then the surgery!

[Rina _4]

For years, I had bad luck when I had my cat declawed!

[mrscoltweaver]

The answer to the question is anytime after 4 months of age and would best be done in conjunction with the spay-one surgery to get over. The younger they are, the faster they heal. My clinic performed 6 declaws a week and we probably had 1 every 6 months have residual pain after surgery usually due to having large feet. Keep her nails trimmed short, about every 2-3 weeks until she's old enough. Soft paws and other nail covers work about as well as press on nails work for us-an active kitten will have them off in no time.
Declawed cats can still climb trees and still defend themselves due to both actions relying on the back feet more than the front-just a little trivia!

[kashumz]

Do the soft paws stick on? Auni is a very hyperactive kitten, she jumps and runs around for hours at a time every day, attacking anything that moves. Will she be able to pop the soft claws off because of her activness?

[AKaeTrue]

They do happen to be temporary.
You glue them on.
Usually lasting 3 months on a kitten or cat, then you
Either replace them with a new one, sometimes your able to glue the one that popped off back on.

I only use soft paws on one of my cats because it likes to shred my furniture.
The cat is very active and still attempts to shred the furniture -
I trim nails, buff the top and sides of the nail lightly with a fingernail file to give the glue something to adhere to and glue one on as they fall off.

Of course it takes more effort on the owners part.
I personally think the little extra effort is well worth it.

[AKaeTrue]

Declawed cats can still climb trees and still defend themselves due to both actions relying on the back feet more than the front-just a little trivia!

How is this possible?

[mrscoltweaver]

They "hug" the tree with their front legs and shimmy on up. When fighting, they will slap with front paws but the same hugging technique applies here, too. Most of the damage is done with the teeth and back claws.

[Stevienicks1985]

They have to be at least four months old. I had that done to my cat about 2 months ago now. Although it is painful they are coming up with different ways to remove them. I would recommend laser surgery.

[dawnstephenson]

You no I actually thought that was illegal to do now I have 2 kittens so I just trim them x

[kashumz]

My mom tried to trim Auni's claws, but she had screwed up something and the nail split in half
And she couldn't touch it anymore because poor Auni was howling. :( My mom is quite careless.

My dad might not want to spend 20$ every 3 months for the soft claws, we have money issues and he can hardly afford the regular declawing surgery. I highly doubt he'll be able to afford Laser surgery, stevienicks.

My dad does not like cats. I have been saying exactly what you guys keep saying, It hurts the poor animal. But all he does is say: "I don't care, Atta did fine when we got her declawed!" But then I reply saying that Auni is not Atta, plus she will be younger then what Atta was when we had gotten her declawed. It might hurt her more, it might not. My dad only wants to declaw Auni because she runs around so much and always scratches my dad, he wants the claws out because it hurts. Which is what bothers me the most, he only wants them out because it hurts HIM.

[krishva]

I had two declawed cats as a teenager (my mom wouldn't allow them indoors any other way). I would NOT recommend it for any cat owner.

The first one went insane within a few months after the surgery and began biting people viciously without provocation, hard enough to break the skin. She went so far as to jump on my face and bite it in the middle of the night while I was asleep. She became so unhandleable that we had to put her down. We couldn't deal with her vicious behavior and we couldn't think of anyone who would.

The second cat became a frequent biter after the surgery but was never as bad as the first cat. She would only bite with provocation (i.e. excessive petting, holding her in a way she didn't like, trying to bathe her--things cats usually scratch you over rather than biting). However long after the surgery she still flinched if you tried to handle her feet, as if they still hurt.

It's fairly easy to train a cat on a scratching post. There are a lot of websites about the subject. I now own 2 cats who have claws, and they haven't torn apart my apartment yet. Both were adopted from a shelter and one was trained in a previous home to scratch on posts, because I had no trouble getting her to use one exclusively. The second cat is a 5 month old kitten so he's a hellion anyway, but his destructive clawing has been minimal and he's predominantly using the posts already. They both seem a lot happier and healthier than my poor declawed cats were!

Try to talk your folks into getting or making a scratching post (wood or rope, not carpet). You can't really get surgeries on a kitten until she's 4 or 5 months old anyway, so you'll need something for her to scratch until then. If she learns to use the post in that time, you can probably talk your dad out of declawing pretty easily ("Why spend that money if she doesn't scratch things up anyway?").

[bushg]

krishva this post is almost 5 months old. Poor things are probably already declawed. Hopefully your post will help other decide to train their cats to use scratching post rather than have them declawed. I too have known people to have cats declawed and the effects are the same as with your 2 cats. Some of the cats that I know develop strange habits of only walking on furniture or hardwood floors, or just carpets. I really think it does something to their minds and their sensitivity.

[CaptainRich]

I have an indoor cat and she has learned what she can claw and what she can't, with very little coxing. I opted to not get her declawed because the last cat I had was declawed and the first thing I saw was a personality change... for the worse. He was in pain and became angry. He couldn't stand not being able to play like he once did. I hated myself for that, and knew then I'd never put an animal through that trauma again.

[mandolyn]

Softpaws are great but they have to be redone every 6 weeks or so, depending on your cat.
They are put on with superglue, basically like fake nails for person.
Some cats will chew them off at first, but the longer they have them, the more used to it they'll get. Still, it depends on the cat.

My oldest cat is declawed (happened long before I knew what the process was) and he has had no problems.
I have seen cats that do have problems afterwards.
I have helped in the procedure and it is awful. The cat is in a lot of pain after so if you do have it done, make sure and ask for post surgical pain meds.

Cats do have a harder time defending themselves outside and climbing trees, and what is an indoor cat now can end up being an outdoor cat in the future.
They sometimes end up being biters because they can no longer scratch. I have encountered these types... ouch!

Discuss the options with your vet and ask how many of these procedures they do and if they provide pain management.

Good luck to you.