DECLAW SURGERY AND REPARATIVE SURGERY
Declawing is a destructive and unnecessary procedure performed on not only domestic cats, but also their larger, wild cousins, as well. The Paw Project veterinarians have performed reparative surgery on big cats, including lions, tigers, cougars, leopards, and jaguars that were crippled as the result of declaw surgery (onychectomy). To appreciate the necessity and benefits of reparative surgery, it is important to understand how and why declawing is performed in the first place.
Declawing
Big cats are declawed by their owners with the intention of making the animals less dangerous to handle. Typically, the owners are private collectors who are trying to make a household "pet" out of a wild animal that is, by nature, not a suitable pet. It is rare for public zoos to have declawed cats. Unfortunately, the tiger or cougar that was cute and playful as a cub can be dangerous as an adult, whether or not it has claws. A "pet" weighing several hundred pounds and that eats twenty pounds of meat a day may no longer seem like such a good idea. These cats, victims of human ignorance or arrogance, are sometimes killed. The luckier ones find themselves abandoned or confiscated by authorities and become residents of an animal refuge. There are over a hundred such sanctuaries in the U.S. alone, housing thousands of declawed big cats.
Declaw surgery is usually performed when the animal is a cub. While some felines will have immediate complications from the procedure, it may be many months or years before the damaging effects of declawing become obvious. Three basic declawing techniques have been described. The methods differ according to how the terminal bone of each toe (the third phalanx, or p3) is treated. The claw grows directly from nail-forming tissue deep within this bone.
In the first method, the entire third phalanx is removed, severing all of the tendons that normally allow the cat to flex and extend the toes of its paws. In the second, most of the third phalanx is amputated, leaving a tendon (the deep digital flexor tendon) attached to the remaining portion (the flexor tubercle) on the underside of the paw. The third method is less often employed and is described as leaving the flexor and extensor tendons attached to the third phalanx, while removing only the nail-forming tissue from the bone. In actual practice, some of the nail-forming tissue usually remains. Each of the methods has reported advantages, but none is free of problems.
Cats normally walk with the weight of their bodies borne by their toes and each step is cushioned by the pad under the toe. Declawed cats have difficulty maintaining this posture for several reasons. The tendon attached to the retained segment of the third phalanx may pull that bit of bone under the foot where it will act as a painful "pebble-in-the-shoe." This piece of bone may contain remnants of the nail-forming tissue, and the nail may continue to grow deep with the foot, causing infection. The pad is often displaced backwards, toward the rear of the foot, allowing the weight of the cat's body to push the end of the second toe bone (second phalanx, or p2), through the thinned tissue on the underside of the foot. These complications may occur in any combination, but invariably result in great pain.
To avoid the pain, the cats will attempt to put their weight farther back on their feet, in effect walking on their "wrists." The stresses caused by this abnormal stance and gait, take their toll as arthritis develops in the legs of the cats, further crippling them and making worse their suffering. In more severe and particularly heartbreaking cases, the animal will try to move by walking on their "elbows."
Reparative Surgery
Veterinary surgery poses particular challenges generally not encountered in human medicine. Just getting the animal to the operating room can be daunting. The cat is administered tranquilizing medication by means of a dart. When adequately sedated, the cat is taken from its enclosure to the operating room. It requires a crew of several people to carry the cat and position it on the operating table where monitors are attached to check the vital signs of the animal during its long general anesthetic.
After shaving the fur from the feet and scrubbing them with antiseptic soap, the surgeon makes an incision on the underside of the toe at the site of the former claw. The pad is avoided. In cases where part of third phalanx remains, the partially amputated bone is exposed, infected tissue and nail remnants are cleaned out, and the fragment is then grasped with surgical clamps to mobilize the deep digital flexor tendon. The fragment is removed and a heavy suture is placed in the remaining digital flexor tendon and attached into the extensor tendon on the top surface of the toe. Before the suture is secured, any cartilage remaining on the distal end of the second phalanx is removed and the end of the bone is re-contoured. Tightening the suture will reposition the pad nearer to its proper anatomical position. The incision is closed with tissue glue, and pressure wrap bandages are placed over the paws.
In cases where the third phalanx has been completely amputated, the surgical technique is similar except that the tendons may be more difficult to find. The second phalanx is re-contoured and the pad is repositioned as described above.
If the cat has had all four of its feet declawed, which is the usual case, two separate surgical procedures are required. It is considered unsafe to subject a big cat to general anesthesia for the amount of time required to treat all 18 toes (five on each front foot and four on each rear foot). The reparative surgery takes up to 40 minutes per toe, and a six-hour surgery to repair two feet is not uncommon. The front feet are usually repaired first.
Regrettably, the reparative surgery cannot replace what a human has destroyed. These cats will never have the full, normal function of an animal with intact claws, and years of abnormal function may have caused irreversible arthritic changes in their joints.
Reattaching the tendons affords improved extension and flexion of the paws, so the cats can once again grasp objects. Paw Repair surgery enable cats to live free from the pain associated with chronic foot infections and many of the mangling effects of declaw surgery can be reversed. Our veterinarians report that after reparative surgery these magnificent creatures can run and jump where once they could barely hobble.
Dr. Conrad presented a paper describing a reparative technique for declawed big cats at the annual meeting of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians on October 7, 2002, in Madison, Wisconsin.
