cats clawing furniture and carpets

caela_2

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I love it! Your cat is too cute! Very handsome little man there, he thinks he's driving too

Mind HATES the car with a vengance lol cos he gets car sick but he's fine once he gets somewhere and gets used to it. I might try taking him camping, I'm just worried if people have dogs at the site too. I really want to go camping this year, I think he'd love it too. Plus, he kinda doesn't get along with strangers too well, so if we left someone to look after him when we're away he'd probably shred them lol.

I'm a complete cat lady too, so I totally get how you are with your cats. Cats aren't how people think they are, mine actually loves rough housing around and play attacking my hand (ouch) lol. Wouldn't recommend this to everyone though lol.

rita-rabbit

"I know that they do this for older cats whose claws no longer retract - a nightmare for them as they catch on carpets, etc when they walk."

how old is this then? My Lucy lived to 21 & her's still worked.

Gloomendoom

rita-rabbit wrote: »

"I know that they do this for older cats whose claws no longer retract - a nightmare for them as they catch on carpets, etc when they walk."

how old is this then? My Lucy lived to 21 & her's still worked.

I don't think she was saying that all older cats' claws don't retract, just that those older cats whose claws no longer retract properly will benefit from the treatment.

madget_2

rita-rabbit wrote: »

"I know that they do this for older cats whose claws no longer retract - a nightmare for them as they catch on carpets, etc when they walk."

how old is this then? My Lucy lived to 21 & her's still worked.

As Gloomendoom wrote, this doesn't necessarily happen to all older cats, but it does to many. My last cat lived to over 18 years old and her claws stopped retracting when she was around 15. My friend's last 2 older cats both had claws which didn't retract - both were in their mid to late teens when their claws stopped retracting, so I would reckon that's probably the usual age if it's going to happen.

As with my friend's cats, my cat had problems with her claws catching in the carpet when she walked. It also meant that she had difficulty when she jumped up onto chairs - her arthritic back legs meant that she had to scrabble a little to jump up high and unretractable claws make this difficult.

Here's some helpful information for you from the Feline Advisory Bureau site: http://www.fabcats.org/owners/elderly/info.html

This bit gives more details on older cats who experience problems with claws not retracting:

"Particular attention should be paid to the older cat's nails. These are less able to retract and therefore more likely to get trapped in the carpet, or if overgrown, actually to stick painfully into the pad. Your veterinary surgeon will be able to advise you on how and when to clip claws safely."

Sequeena

I haven't read the other posts so this may have already been suggested...

Get a water pistol. When you catch them scratching give them a quick squirt. They will learn to associate scratching your furniture with a punishment.

My cat did the same and since doing this she now sticks to her scratching post

Fire_Fox

We have two corrugated cardboard scratch boxes (£5 Pets at Home) which are well used, highly recommended if your cat doesn't don't go for scratching posts.