Declawing Your Cat or Kitten
There are many myths, misunderstandings, and strong opinions about declawing cats and kittens.  If you are considering having this surgery performed on your cat, please take a few minutes to learn more about this surgical procedure before you make a decision.

We will perform the procedure if: an owner requests that their cat be declawed, or the cat is being destructive, or someone in the household is in an immunocompromised state.  When we do perform this procedure, it is our utmost concern that these cats receive excellent pain management.  They therefore receive a combination protocol to ensure that the pain pathways are being treated through several mechanisms, this allows for the most aggressive type of pain management.

The American Veterinary Medical Association's policy statement (current as of June 2005) regarding declawing is as follows.  "Declawing of domestic cats should be considered only after attempts have been made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively or when its clawing presents a zoonotic risk for its owner(s).  The AVMA believes it is the obligation of veterinarians to provide cat owners with complete education with regard to feline onychectomy.  The following points are the foundation for full understanding and disclosure regarding declawing:
Scratching is a normal feline behavior, is a means for cats to mark their territory both visually and with scent, and is used for claw conditioning (husk removal) and stretching activity.

Owners must provide suitable implements for normal scratching behavior.  Examples are scratching posts, cardboard boxes, lumber or logs, and carpet or fabric remnants affixed to stationary objects.  Implements should be tall or long enough to allow for full stretching, and be firmly anchored to provide necessary resistance to scratching.  Cats should be positively reinforced in the use of these implements.

Appropriate claw care (consisting of trimming the claws every 1-2 weeks) should be provided to prevent injury or damage to household items.

Surgical declawing is not a medically necessary procedure for the cat in most cases.  While rare in occurrence, there are inherent risks and complications with any surgical procedure including, but not limited to, anesthetic complications, hemorrhage, infection, and pain.  If onychectomy is performed, appropriate use of safe and effective anesthetic agents and the use of safe peri-operative analgesics for an appropriate length of time are imperative.  The surgical alternative of tendonectomy is not recommended.

Declawed cats should be housed indoors!

Scientific data do indicate that cats that have destructive clawing behavior are more likely to be euthanized, or more readily relinquished, released, or abandoned, thereby contributing to the homeless cat population.  Where scratching behavior is an issue as to whether or not a particular cat can remain as an acceptable household pet in a particular home, surgical onychectomy may be considered.

There is no scientific evidence that declawing leads to behavioral abnormalities when the behavior of declawed cats is compared with that of cats in control groups.

The actual surgical procedure of declawing is an amputation of the last bone of the digit.  The cat's claw is not a nail like a human finger nail.  It arises from the last bone (distal phalange) of the digit.  In order to acheive the goal of preventing nail regrowth the entire phalange is removed.

Complications of this amputation can be pain (acute post-surgical and chronically after surgery), damage to the radial nerve, hemorrhage, sloughing of the tissue over the toes from microthrombi, bone remanents, painful regrowth of deformed claws inside the paw not necessarily visible to the eye, infection, and chronic back and joint pain from tendon contracture.