cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/18482947
When cats sharpen their claws on wood it keeps them at the right length.
The only time we needed to clip our cat’s claws was when she was getting old and couldn’t sharpen them herself.
We noticed it when she was getting more and more passive, and on a whim we looked ar her claws, they had grown into her pads on her paws, we started cliping them regularly, but only slightly, and she was soon feeling much better.
This happened after and accident when she was out and we thought she got lost, but after a few days she was back in our garden, she was clearly in pain so we took her to the vet and one of her rear legs had been dislocated, it took weeks to get it to heal, and after that event she started having trouble with her claws.
You can make or buy something like this if you can’t do clips.
I didn’t have this issue with my 4 cat when i do that, i usually have them belly up on my lap, head facing me, and i trim it that way so their paw won’t be in an awkward possition. They will try to get away, but i’ll just grab them back and give em some head scritches to quiet them down. I sometime will grab their paw when giving them pat and ask “lets check your nail. can i trim this?” and then trim it. Usually they let me trim one or two before getting annoyed.
I did it like this on my sister’s cat as well, works just fine.
When my cat was a kitten, I played with her paws and claws regularly to get her used to it. After a few weeks of that I had no problem clipping her nails. I don’t think she likes it but she tolerates it and gets loves when we’re done.
I also glue “soft paws” to her claws because she loves to destroy carpets and furniture despite the cat trees and our efforts to deter her.
I have 4 cats and I handle them all without getting scratched while trimming their nails. There is one cat that will bite the nail scissors, she is tricky to handle because of that. When she catches a finger between the nail scissors and her teeth, she bites full force and that does not make a pleasant experience. I tried burritoing her, but it’s just easier to have her on her back and using sleight of hand to distract her.
