From: colette@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Colette Goodyear)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: Soft Paws (tm?)
Keywords: declawing,surgery,furniture
Date: 13 Nov 92 17:41:57 GMT
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland

In article <1df9tfINNrqo@gap.caltech.edu> ssr@cco.caltech.edu (Steve Scott Roy) writes:
>
>Now, I know that the FAQ lists declawing as one of the quickest ways
>to start a flame war,  but I heard something recently that I thought
>I'd get a net.opinion on.
>
>A friend mentioned something called Soft Paws (tm?) which was supposed
>to be a much more humae way to keep a cat from being able to destroy
>furniture than the standard declawing.  

Let me set the scene for this first:

The players:  Willow:  DSH smoke grey, stand-offish kitty who loves
her mom and hates "him".  "Him":  Mom's husband who dislikes cats
but agreed to one on the premises (before the wedding may I add)
providing that "it" not scratch or bite.

The setting:  Mom and "Him" 's brand-new house with old furniture.

We used soft paws on Willow for several months.  They are small
plastic caps that are glued onto a cat's claws. I like to
compare them to a sheath for a knife.  Based on my cat's
experience they are painless, allow her to continue on as normal
(digging in her litterbox, catching paper balls etc.) and have
no effect on her ability to retract and flex her claws (which
surprised me to tell the truth).  After a few hours, she ignored
these things on her claws.  She did worry one paw a bit and bit
off one of the nail caps.  The vet had never put on a set of these
before and when I asked, he confirmed that the one she
bit off was the first one he put on.  By the way, my wonderful
angel of a vet put these on for me for free as a trial--he had
never used them before and when I asked about them because
Willow was scratching furniture and upsetting "Him", he saw
an opportunity to test them.  All I had to do was observe and
report back to him.

These things are best used, in my opinion only, as a temporary
measure.  I used them to keep Willow from doing any damage _while
I trained her not to scratch furniture and such and to use her
post instead_.  I stress that last part.  I don't know what would happen
if you were to use them for extended periods of time.  What I liked
is that they don't "punish" (i.e. annoy) the cat. They also don't
stop scratching behaviour, by the way.
Willow would still reach up on the side of the chesterfield
to try and scratch--she just couldn't do any damage.

When she finally began using her scratching post, I didn't
need to use the soft paws anymore.  I don't have to listen
to complaints from my husband and I can begin buying that nice furniture
I've been eying for a while (not that it would have made that much
of a difference to me but there's "Him" to consider).

That's just my experience with them.  They don't need a surgical operation,
just a vet visit for the first time until both you and the kitty
get used to them.  After that, you can put them on yourself,
depending on how co-operative your cat is (mine doesn't mind it if
I touch her paws).  They last about 6-8 weeks, less if your cat
is a digger or goes outdoors.  Try them in conjunction with
the training techniques listed in the FAQ (which is what I did)
and see if it works!

Hope this helps

Colette and Willow
Memorial University of Newfoundland