Devastating Way Senior Cat Walks After Being Declawed
A veterinarian shared a heartbreaking video of a senior cat that had its claws removed as a kitten, leading to a lifetime of pain and discomfort.
The viral video was shared by Jessica Thompson on her TikTok account (@theswiftiekittens), showing an 18-year-old cat walking on the back of his feet after being declawed as a kitten. She explained in the post that "his family didn't declaw him, they adopted him that way."
The veterinarian, from Portland, Oregon, saw the senior cat for an examination and was horrified by the discomfort that he was clearly in. Thompson hopes to shine a light on how much suffering a cat can experience as a result of being declawed, telling Newsweek the procedure is "purely done for people's convenience."
Declawing is an elective procedure to remove the cat's claws, primarily to stop any unwanted and destructive scratching. According to PETA, which refers to this as a "barbaric procedure," amputating the claws forces the cat to learn how to walk again as they're no longer able to walk on the front of their paws.
Not only can the procedure affect the cat's mobility but also its balance and climbing abilities. A 2017 study, titled "Pain and adverse behavior in declawed cats," which was published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, assessed the physical impacts of the procedure by using 137 cats with their claws intact and 137 cats that had their claws removed.
The results of the study found that declawed cats had a higher risk of biting, back pain and excessive licking, compared with cats that weren't operated on. Among the cats that were declawed, 63 percent still had residual bone fragments as a result of poor surgical technique. Cats with residual bone fragments had significantly increased rates of back pain and aggression, compared to the declawed cats without fragments.
The American Veterinary Medical Association discourages the elective declawing of any cat, but so far only two states have banned the procedure—New York in 2019 and Maryland in 2022. It is also banned in some cities, including Austin, Beverly Hills, Denver and San Francisco.
Since Thompson posted the video on TikTok on April 27, it has been viewed more than 682,000 times and received more than 57,000 likes. She hopes that showing how much the cat suffered will discourage people from declawing their cats.
"Cats are toe walkers and when they have the declaw procedure it changes how they walk, which causes them to walk on the back of their feet," Thompson told Newsweek. "Over time, this causes pain and discomfort, as a cat's front legs support 60 percent of their body weight. So, changing how they walk causes them to shift their weight onto their hind legs, pelvis and back.
"The response has been great on social media, with many good discussions among my followers. I wanted to bring to light how these cats suffer from a procedure that is purely done for the people's convenience."
The video has received more than 1,500 comments, as many TikTokers have shared their experiences with declawed cats and the discomfort it causes.
One concerned user asked if they were "doing X-rays to determine if there are bone fragments or nail regrowth under the skin?" Thompson responded by saying: "We did actually. No fragments left behind. Just terrible."
Another commenter wrote: "look at the way he's bending his front paws to avoid pressure on the toes, heartbreaking."
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