The declawed cat we had when I was kid had a permanent limp, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were from being declawed (this was ages ago and I was kid, but I cannot recall her having other issues that would’ve caused it).
100% of my declawed cats had no limp, frequently engaged in zoomies, and exhibited no negative aftereffects. One lived to be 18 and one almost 17.
Did anyone ever take the cat to a vet to find out why it was limping?
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So because your cats managed to live with part of their toes missing that makes it ok to have mutilated them for your benefit? I’m not seeing why you keep defending a horrible practice.
Isn’t there a saying of “when we know better we do better”?
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Clearly you missed where I wrote that they were both rescues who came to me already declawed. I have not defended declawing, but I am disputing that declawing necessarily leads to a life of pain and misery for cats that are declawed.
I have had more than a dozen cats in my long life, and these are the only ones that were declawed. So you can retract your claws now.
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Meow to you to pussycat.
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What a GREAT comeback. Surely, you can do better. Or maybe not.
< will this one do or should I waste my morning trying to one up a faceless person on social media?
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I remember that they didn’t find anything, and “that’s the way she is” but later when the cat was much older (she lived to be 17) she was diagnosed with arthritis in her front limbs and was put on something for that. So I’m assuming initially there might have been nothing, and it was from the declawing, and later arthritis developed. You have to remember this isn’t exactly recent so don’t rake me over the coals, but I do know that my family was always good about bringing animals to the vet.
What chaps my arse is that my parents didn’t realize how bad declawing was because they got this cat as a stray, brought it to the vet to be spayed, and the vet OFFERED declawing since it was to be an indoor cat. Yeah, parents could’ve done more research (this was before interwebz), but the vet failed on customer education, IMO.
I’d never declaw a cat.
Idk that the cat was in pain or something was just “off”, because she was active, normal, and whatnot. She sort of walked like one leg was shorter than the other.
I feel bad about it now, but what was 5 year old me to do or know?
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Also, this is a sample size of 2. So while it’s appreciated, it’s a very small sample.
Declawing CAN cause permanent lameness, arthritis, and other long term issues. That is proven. Great if it doesn’t, but it can.
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You did join this forum to get off your pot shot, so yes, you are here wasting your morning.
Adopting a cat from a shelter that has already been declawed is not a bad thing.
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So happy I still have claws. Makes it easy to climb a tree to escape the big puddy-tats.
And with this I leave the thread to continue its wandering ways. 
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COTH can be an interesting place, and it’s natural for discussion to meander a bit, but it’s been getting a bit weird lately!
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This isn’t an airport. There’s no need to announce your departure
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i hope nosebands go away, seems like legally requiring them to be loose enough to get two fingers under doesn’t work, so i wish they would be banned from the sport. Nothing about them benefits the horse…only the rider.
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Ditto!
My New Guy came to me @ 10yo, from a shelter, declawed by previous owner.
So far he’s fine, no issues w/litter used or anything else.
FWIW:
My KnowsEVERYTHINGaboutcats 
friend admitted to declawing her first cats before she knew it meant amputation.
A little research first, maybe? 
I haven’t read all replies, but had this thought:
Could pony have bitten it’s own tongue requiring the amputation?
I know it’s a rare occurrence, but…
The only problem I see would be litterbox use.
Cats can be very opinionated about where & when box is used.
If you had a REALLY BIG crate area, then maybe litterbox could be placed far enough so cat would use it while “crated”.
There could very well be cats who’d adjust, but there’d also be those who could object & show that by not using a box in or out of the crate.
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I have.
I had a cat who had a congenital kidney issue. He was trust worthy enough during the day but leaving him out overnight risked pee in weird spots. We got him a multi level cat tower and put him to bed every night. He got a treat at bedtime and would come running. If we were up too early for him, he’d hang out in his house despite the door being open, until he was ready to get up.
I had another cat that was trapped as a feral stray. While we were looking for a home for her, she lived in another multi level cat tower, and was let out while the other cats ate. She got her dinner when it was time for her to go back, and happily obliged.
I crate my cats for meals, so they each eat their own.
I’ve also had barn cats live in crates for several weeks to reset their cat gps.
Cats can be trained like any other animal. While I’m sure there are some that just aren’t able to be okay in a confined space (just like how some dogs don’t tolerate it, or some horses aren’t able to be stalled) the vast majority do fine.
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My cat lived in a crate 24/7 for ~2wks after a major surgery to restrict movement. It was, by necessity, smaller than I would keep a cat in if the goal was something other than limiting movement, but she did ok all things considered. Used the litterbox fine, even though it took up almost half the crate. Poor kid.
I could see some kind of enclosure situation working well for many destructive cats, but I’d want it WAY bigger than she had, just from a humane standpoint.
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I would not go so far as banning them – just enforce the rule for looseness that already exists. Except “just” is tough because it will undoubtedly rile up dressage riders and trainers if they have to loosen their nosebands.
That said, I like that Lola’s trainer is 100% fine with no nosebands and in fact does not use them on a lot of her horses until they go into a double bridle. (They do wear them a bit before showing, just to get used to them.) And in her opinion, a full-cheek snaffle - with keepers - is completely appropriate for a young, green, noodle of a pony.
Quite a difference from a barn where I had Feronia, where the trainer immediately said she had to go in a flash, and use a loose ring snaffle. Many years later, I ditched the flash, either used no noseband or fastened it loosely, and used an eggbutt snaffle instead. The loose ring was too “noisy” and it was hard to get a flash to fit properly because of her head shape. And eventually I ditched all that and switched to a Little S hackamore.
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If you ban nosebands, you would make my gelding who wants an extremely stable bit very unhappy. He even, gasps, likes a flash.
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