Tendons cut-an alternative to declawing?

[catnapper]

I've heard of it. Its an alternative that is slightly better because it leaves their skeletal system in tact, but people often forget to trim their cats claws because the cat isn't using them - and the claws can grow too long and into the pads of their foot. This is a serious problem and causes serious infections.

It also still completely takes away their ability to stretch their muscles, since cats use their claws to stretch.

Behavior changes don't always happen over night. It could take weeks to notice. Consider yourself... you have a toothache, but don't say anything about it, just pop aspirin for the pain. The next day you still have the toothache and don't eat breakfast because you can't think of eating.... a week goes by, you're out of aspirin but still have the toothache. You never mentioned the toothache to anybody, but they notice that you're not eating as much and you've lost some weight. But nobody stops to consider why you're looking leaner. More time goes by. Now you're only eating yogurt and drinking Slim Fast shakes because anything else kills your aching tooth. Soon, everyone notices that you've lost weight and aren't eating. But people do not put the weight loss to your tooth since you never told anyone about your tooth.

Same is true for cats. The pain med the vet gave might last a while, then wear off. The cats might start little behavior modification to deal with the pain. Nobody might notice until weeks later when they modify their behavior so much that they no longer use their litterbox, etc. Cats do not show pain -- in the wild, its a sign of weakness and a preditor will eat them. The instinct never went away, even after we domesticated them.

Also, you might never see a side effect, in that they have no reason to protect themselves. But one day might come along where they need to protect themsleves, then realize they have no protection and turn to bite instead of scratch. Biting is a behavioral side effect of a declaw.