There seems to be an alarming trend for cats to have their nails removed … whether it’s for personal convenience, apartment house rules and regulations, or a simple lack of knowledge on the part of responsible pet owners.

There are many good vets who actively discourage clawing, but there are also many who perform this surgery on a regular basis without ever fully informing the pet owner of what this really entails or explaining the possible dangers of the procedure.
If people were more informed, perhaps this trend would be reversed.

Nail removal from a cat is an important surgical procedure performed under general anesthesia. In reality, it is the amputation of the last joint of each toe, not a simple extraction of the claw as many believe. The following article explains the procedure for removing the claws.

Cats walk on tiptoe, unlike most mammals that walk on the soles of their feet. Your muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments are designed to distribute your body weight to your toes.

The claw is not a nail like human fingernails or toenails. It is actually part of the last toe bone of a cat. If you were to “remove nails” from a human in the same way that nails are removed from a cat, you would be amputating all 10 toes at the last joint!

I found this description of the surgery in a veterinary textbook: “The claw is extended by pushing up under the pad of the foot or by grasping it with Allis tissue forceps. A scalpel blade is used to precisely dissect between the second and the third phalanx on the upper part of the nail crest The distal interphalangeal joint is disarticulated (disarticulated) and the deep digital flexor tendon is incised (cut) This clinical explanation sounds horrible, doesn’t it?

There is a real possibility of complications after any major surgery, and nail removal is no exception. There is the possibility of bleeding, infection, extreme pain, bone splinters, possible regrowth of deformed claws, back, muscle and joint problems, nerve damage, abscesses, and possible lameness. If the claw grows back, it is often deformed and another surgery must be performed to correct this problem.

In addition to possible physical complications, behavioral problems often arise after this surgery. The cat may become withdrawn, distant, fearful, and / or aggressive and often begin to bite, as this is the only means of defense left to it. Occasionally the cat will stop using the litter box, because immediately after surgery it was painful to scratch in the litter box, and now they associate that pain with the litter box. Due to the amount of stress the animal experiences after this procedure, it may become more prone to other diseases, as stress tends to compromise the immune system.

The animal is in extreme pain after surgery and veterinarians rarely offer any kind of pain reliever for the cat.

There are alternatives to having your cat’s nails removed … such as nail covers, scratching posts, regular claw trimming, and behavior modification.

Many countries have banned nail removal as an abusive practice that causes unnecessary pain and trauma to the animal. A veterinary textbook by Turner and Bateson on the behavioral biology of cats concludes a small section on scratching behavior with the following statement: “Operational claw removal, as is sometimes practiced to protect furniture and curtains, it is an act of abuse and should be prohibited by law in all, not just a few countries. “

Unfortunately, nails are not prohibited in the United States at this time. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) says its policy is “to recommend considering such surgery only if concerted behavior modification efforts have failed and euthanasia is pending.”

Tearing a cat is an abusive practice. Being informed about a procedure and possible complications should be the goal of every responsible pet owner.