testimonials

Videos of cats walking desperately needed, please help!

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:24:28 +0100

by Jean Hofve, DVM
(Denver, CO)

Hi everyone, I need your help! I need good-quality videos of cats walking, preferably from the side although any angle will still be helpful. I need both *normal* AND *declawed* cats. Cats walking on flat surface with good lighting preferred. Anywhere from moderate (a few feet) distance to close-up -- all will help!

I would like to be able to visually demonstrate the difference in gait between cats with and without their whole paws. I know my friends across the pond will have lots of good video of normal, intact cats! :)

Please include information on the cat's age, whether the cat is declawed or not, and if declawed, how long ago was the declawing done.

If possible, please post your videos to YouTube or other similar site and send the link either here or post it to Little Big Cat's Facebook page. If you want to just send video to me please send me a message via my personal Facebook page and we can make those arrangements. Thanks!

Cheers,
Dr. Jean
Jean Hofve, DVM

Here is the link to Dr. Jean’s page:
http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/videos-of-cats-walking-desperately-needed-please-help.html

Please forward to all your friends, even if they don’t have cats. They may know someone who does. Thanks!

Tazzy, We Love You!

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:23:04 +0100

     "I have done the most horrible thing in my life and I am suffering everyday and everyday I will be haunted for what I have done. My 13 1/2 year old Tazzy was a beautiful cat, my husband and I got her when she was a kitten. She was older than our children and was like a daughter to us. I trimmed her nails every Monday. She scratched things in our house but to me now all those "things" they don't matter. We just moved into a new house last year and got all new furniture. I kept her nails trimmed but for some reason she seemed to get holes in the new couch, so tiny but I saw them, and I then seemed to put my furniture at priority because I called a vet and asked them about declawing. I said she is 13, is she too old? Thinking they would say yes of course but they said no we do this all the time for older people who are taking their cats to a nursing home and have to have the cats declawed. I hung up and called 3 more vets, they said the same thing, one even told me about the new Laser declaw, I had never heard of it, they said it was less painful, fast recovery time,etc. I then talked to my husband and we decided to spend the extra to get the Laser. We took Tazzy in on November 2nd, 2008, left her there to be declawed, I was told to bring her in the morning no food past 6 pm the past day, still by 3:30 pm she still was not in surgery, I was worried she was hungry. They got her in surgery and called to say everything went well and I could pick her up in the morning. She looked the same, was eating as soon as I got her home, no bandages on her feet. I used the special litter in the big litter box that Tazzy and my other cat shared. I thought I would just keep an eye on Tazzy's paws.
     Now fast forward to Nov 20th, at night Tazzy slept in my son's bed, he told me something wet was on her and turned on the lights, her paw was bleeding, I cleaned it and everything up and the next morning called the vet, my husband took her to the vet. He said they cleaned her paw, said we need to use the right litter and never mentioned weight loss or an infection. Also her meow was so low, almost gone, and they said that was from the tube from the surgery being down her throat, this was 19 days after the surgery but I believed them. They bandaged her paw up, she had the bandage off within 1 day. Within the next few days I was questioning if she was eating, I saw her by the water bowl every day and she seemed to be herself, sleeping in the sun, in my son's bed, using the litterbox. My son said he saw her eat the one day but I said I haven't and then I would hear her going down the stairs at night and figured she was eating. Then there was two times my husband and I found her in our bathtubs, she for some reason was laying in them.
     Her breath got really stinky and she looked so bad. We saw that her thumb paw was big, this is the first time I seen the swelling, I had been looking at her paws but the thumb paw I must have not looked at it, just the four fingers, I saw it was big and saw a little hard piece of something and pulled at it (I don't know if was glue or litter) then a big blood rush came out, black blood, I flipped out and then blood clots came out and I was so scared, I kissed her and called the vet and said can I bring her right now, I took her in and they said she had a bad infection,they got the pills and I said can you give her an injection and they said yes and they kept her all day and gave her fluids and force fed her. I picked her up that evening which was Nov 26th Wedensday, They wanted to keep her over night but with Thanksgiving they couldn't. So they told me to force feed her. She looked so much healthier that day and the next. We fed her every 4 hours and on Friday we were taking her in again for a check up. I told them she had diarrhea they gave me a medicine for it and said she looked so much better.
     Then that Friday night it seemed a little harder for us to feed her, by Saturday even harder, I then gave her the meds for diarrhea Saturday. Saturday night she looked so bad again just like before, we knew she was going to die, Sunday morning I got up and checked on her she was sleeping, 10 minutes later I went over and picked her up and called to my husband, my other cat came over sniffed her and then starting howling, within minutes she jerked her body, meowed at me twice while looking into my eyes and then she died.
     It's been over 3 months and I am so much worse off then I was before, I am dreaming of her, I have so much guilt for what I have done. I lost my baby, she would have been 14 this April, she was still playful, she loved us, she counted on us to take care of her and I let her down, over some stupid furniture that now I have been wanting to burn, Material things are nothing, my cat was my life and I took it for granted. Laser Surgery was not better, yes I made mistakes, not seeing the signs, and that is part of my guilt, but the decision to get her declawed is the worst decision I have ever made, it took a life, my Tazzy's life. I will not be able to get past this, what I have done, the torture my baby went through. DON'T EVER DECLAW, I would do anything to have her damaging my couches right now, I would let her tear my house down to have her right now, I hate myself for what I have done. Learn from my story PLEASE REMEMBER MY STORY FOR OTHERS."

http://declawhallofshame.com/

MistaGrant wrote:

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:23:24 +0100

I'd like to meet your ignorant ass. Yell at the damn owners not a man just doing his job. Pretty sure it'd be illegal and not taught at school if it was inhumane. You probably don't believe in spaying or neutering either. You don't deserve a free will.

Save Our Paws says:
     In the United States of America, unlike other countries, it is still legal to perform declawing surgeries as well as debarking and the cropping of ears and tails.
      At veterinary schools, as well as all other medical schools, all surgical procedures are taught, regardless of whether the students and teachers agree with the inhumanity of the procedures. Declawing is the amputation of the last knuckle on each toe on each paw. After the surgery, the cat does not receive any pain medication the way human amputees do, and they still have to use the litter box with bloody stumps.
     A practicing veterinarian knows all the pros and cons of declawing, but chooses to ignore everything because of the amount of money that is to be made at the expense of someone who cannot speak for himself: the cat.
It is definitely the veterinarians fault for not educating the owner thoroughly so that the owner will change his mind about declawing his cat and seek other methods for saving his furniture, like a scratching post, nail covers, etc.
     Spaying and neutering are the most necessary means of preventing unwanted animals that spend their life in shelters waiting to be executed for the crime of being born.
     I prefer to keep my religious views out of this conversation, but thank you for asking.