The vet and declawing?

[luvofallhorses]

I hate declawing more than anything. I cannot believe your vet recommended that.

[mina'smomma]

Originally posted by moosmom
Mina's Mom,



I've never heard of the condition where claws grow back into paws. That IS unless they are left untrimmed for long periods of time. No disrespect intended. Can you enlighten me?? Is there a name for this condition?

Donna,

Here is the thread explaining what happened to Mina. She never developed normal claws.

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...threadid=59337

I hadn't planned on having it done because of what I learned here and because I wanted to make sure she could defend herself in case she deceided to play Houdini and do a door run.

[PJ's Mom]

About defending themselves...

My vet told me yesterday that they are able to defend themselves after being declawed. Of course I got the image of Barclay having to roll on his back to use his back claws and wondered what kind of defense that is. It would be kind of like us not being able to use our hands to defend ourselves. Doesn't make much sense to me.

[mina'smomma]

Originally posted by PJ's Mom
About defending themselves...

My vet told me yesterday that they are able to defend themselves after being declawed. Of course I got the image of Barclay having to roll on his back to use his back claws and wondered what kind of defense that is. It would be kind of like us not being able to use our hands to defend ourselves. Doesn't make much sense to me.

It doesn't make sense at all. First off the back claws (I think anyways could be wrong) are more for help with pushing a cat up when they climb rather than defense. If it hadn't medically necessary to have Mina declawed I wouldn't have done it.

[Randy_K]

I know of one vet recommending declawing but it was for a polydactyl cat with eight toes on each foot. The claws were causing potential health problems. The modern laser scalpel technique is much less painful and the healing time is much shorter. If it has to be done, this is the only way to go.