Hi all! i have a question i am a little worried
my kitty is 17 years old
1 year ago i took her to vet (to cut her hair) , then my mom told vet to cut her nails too (not remove em just cut)
That was a first time we did that to her in her then 16 years. Now i noticed that she has much longer claws , i can hear them when she is going downstairs and many times she embroils? into my clothes. can i cut her nails myself and how? btw. she dont like to be touched by any1 else except of me and especially she let no1 touch her front legs... so i dont think its possible to take her to vet again. last time she was narcoisis so it was ok for vet to do it...but now i dont know how to do it?
how do vets do it? they give her narcois for that? or how?? she dont like to be touched by vet so there is no way she´ll stay still while they are doing it. please help and give me some advice what to do. Thank you !

I cut (trim) my kitties nails approx every 3-4 weeks, they are all completly indoor cats so they grow quite quickly. I am also daily cutting the cats nails at work too, especially the elderly cats as they grow quickly also, if they are not trimmed regularly they can grow around into the cats paw (walking for them & trimming the nails when they get to that stage is alot harder to do and probably painful for the cat too)so it´s best to do it regularly. Two of my cats are fine to cut their nails by myself they just sit there, (sometimes their not very happy though, but I always win!),my other cat Mack my 12 year old daughter Aimee has to hold him while I cut his nails though.
Cat nail trimmers are the best to use (you should be able to get some at pet shops or vets), if you don´t have those I sometimes use on my cats human toe nail cutters, as they are easy to handle.
If you find it a bit tricky to do on your own, maybe get a friend or relative to hold your kitty or maybe you could hold while they trim the nails (try not to ever cut the quik too, you should be able to see it through the nail).
Help all this helps!!!

ahh
thanks for the answer i appreciate it
but trust me its imposible to touch my kitties front legs
even if...im afraid to do something wrong
and i dont wanna take her to vet
ah i dont know
i´ll try with cat nail trimmers ,thank you. in fact i go shopping now and find em hehe
but i doubt my kitty will let me do it, but i´ll do my best to help her
thank you

I cut Mugger´s claws when I brought him home from the shelter, as they were very long. But when they grew back, they were still long - until he treated himself to a set of good scratches on his scratching post (and the rug, of course). It took a while, but now his claws are what I would consider a "reasonable" length.

LadyDi, maybe what your cat needs is a place to scratch - you can get a small piece of heavy-duty carpet for her to use, or even a piece of cardboard. To make it more attractive to her, put some catnip on it.

my kitty already has a place to scratch
i bought her some thing for kitties to scratch but she prefers my carpet and sofa
i dont care about the sofa or carpet...she is doing it in my room and i let her do it
she doesnt touch my parents furniture thats all that matters.
in my room she is free to do what ever she wants. the thing is her claws was fine till vet cut them 1 year ago (maybe lil bit less than 1 year) since then they grown faster and bigger
i dont know what to do but i cant take her to vet again...cant watch how they treat her
i´ll see .. but thanks for advice anyway

Ladydi, we (husband and myself) cut Turbo´s nails together. I hold the little guy, and my husband uses a special sort of scissors and cuts the nails. He finds it very easy to do (´don´t touch the pink´) and we do it (the cutting) every 3 weeks.

I asked my friend about this: she has cats, kittens, rabbits, hamsters, in fact: a little farm) and she does the same. Somebody holds the animal (we hold Turbo on the table), I stroke him and hold his paws while hubby cuts the nails.
It´s a very easy job.

Do you have a friend with a lot of animals? A vet is not even necessary.
A person that is very ´handy´ and not afraid (and I don´t mean afraid in the "scary" kind of way sense) you just might be helped.
I hope so.

Ladydi, do you have a friend with animals: cats, rabbits, whatever?
I´m asking this because I have a friend and she is very ´easy´ cutting nails.

yes i have friends with animals...they all have dogs or cats
but their cats dont live inside of house so i guess their cats do that nail problem outside
none of my friends cuts their kitties nails so i cant learn it from them. but if i deside to do it myself i´ll ask my dad to hold my kitty...he can help
but im just afraid i´ll do something wrong
i dont wanna hurt my kitty

hi Di, my Phoebe is also living inside and we don´t trim her nails, we did that when she was around a year, and she just stop letting us to do that... she has many scratching places (from pet-shop) but she prefere hard paperboard boxes ... so we always bring her some "fresh" material and she does it with lots of passion
I hope your kittys nails will be ok soon

love

Ladydi, my kitty is also 17 and he ls living inside. I never cut his nails and they are O.K. Simply give your kitty a lot of things to scratch, maybe something harder.

ok thank you i´ll try everything i can
as i said she already has many places to scratch but i´ll search for something harder
thanks for advices

I cut Oliver´s nails on his front paws myself, too. From the start, it was not nearly as difficult or troublesome as I had imagined, if I caught him at a right moment. It must be when he is totally relaxed, just waking up from his nap or similar moment, not when he is feeling hyper and playful, as the main issue with him is not that he is afraid but he wants to play with the nail clipper! I check like once every week, as his claw sheds quite often and expose the sharp ends, and clip as needed.
Perhaps I am lucky in this operation as Oliver is very docile and doesn´t fight back too much when we have to do something less than pleasant. It would indeed help to have a second person to hold her still but need to be someone she knows well, and make sure that she won´t be frightened or stressed being held. You may try to clip quickly the most accessible/visible claw while she is not looking or not aware, so she will realise this op wouldn´t hurt her, this may also help to calm her attitude. Whatever you do, take the utmost care not to cut too deep, watch out for the pink vein inside the claw half way up, and that is an off limit!!

ok thank you Li i´ll try it even if im afraid to do it.
i mean im afraid i wont notice pink vein... i´ll see if i can do it or not
and yes i´ll ask my dad to help me cos she loves him too a lot so she shouldnt get frightened.
i´ll try your tricks too (do it while shes tired)
thank you

Yes I was nervous about the same thing first, too... before you actually cut, observe her paw, gently squeezing the pad and extract the claw and see how far the vein reaches inside the claw, and get the good idea of how much you should clip in advance, that will give you some confidence. You can do this while she is sleeping, if she doesn´t like having her paws messed with too much.
Try not to force her too much at the beginning, if she gets totally scared or irritated and gets cross with you guys, the future attempt will look quite grim!!
Good luck!!

Thank you Li
i will try

I cut my cats back nails every month, my older cats nails doesn´t grow out that much but my younger cats does. You can use regular human nail clippers and turn them on the side. My younger cat is so used to that she justs sits there!

It could be that as the cat is aging she simply isn´t scratching stuff as much...has that been something you´ve noticed? I hope it does go well with you because untrimmed toenails can cause foot problems in cats and doggies. As an aside, I´m not trying to be too nosy, but if you´re uncomfortable with the way your cat is being treated at the vet, could you find another vet?

A professional groomer may be another option...ask around for references...and good luck with your kitty!

As an aside, my cats are all indoor, and I trim their nails once a month, even though they have plenty of scratching posts. The quick is VERY easy to see in their clear nails.

We dont trim our mimi´s claws as she is an outdoor cat. But for indoors cat like Maomao n mewmew, I trim it every few weeks. Its better to trim, especially the back leg as they could get caught in string and get pulled off when the kitty struggles..that happened to mewmew..awfully painful...

Those kitty cutter are pretty good... I wont recommend using human´s nail cutter though...Kittie cutter are good, its sharp... Get another person to coax the cat when cutting to distract them..that worked for my fussy maomao..

We trim DEEjays and Charlottes claws every 2 to 3 weeks,my husband holds a cat and i clip them with small nail clippers that we also use ourselves,you only need to take off the points of the claw,when you hold the paw place your finger underneath the paw this will extend each of the claws,just remove the"tips" untill you are more confident about doing them,a little at a time is far better than too much.....otherwise you can make the claw bleed....just take your time..iff you are not confident about clipping them then a pet shop "Manager" are usually quite good and will do them for "Free"....it is important to clip claws for many reasons..one being that the cat gets their claws caught up in various ways,it also hinders play,etc,...Good Luck! p.s iff you do go to a pet shop,make sure it is the "MANAGER" of the store,not an employee.....also assist him by holding your cat and distracting your cat from what is going on!

I cut my cats back nails every month, my older cats nails doesn´t grow out that much but my younger cats does. You can use regular human nail clippers and turn them on the side. My younger cat is so used to that she justs sits there!
oh lucky you

six bad cats hehe well no my kitty is 17 yes but she still scratch stuffs every day i see her doing it on my carpet and sofa and in those 17 years my kitty was at vet only 2 times (to cut her hair) and last time my mom asked them to cut her nails too (1 year ago,maybe lil bit less). Its not that im not satisfied with their work i just dont know how are they doing it but my kitty is with me for 17 years she sleeps with me she eat when i eat shes with my when im taking a shower (shes always with me ) and i know she loves me as much as i love her but she never lets me touch her front legs (she just dont like it) thats why this might be a problem for me and for vet. i cant do it cos she dont allow me and i cant push her do something she dont want (i cant watch her suffer ). Last time when vet did that she was under narcosis cos of hair cut so it was easy to cut her nails and vet told me shes old now and its possible she dont wake up anymore but i had to leave her there.
i was crying outside for 3 hours until they called me and said shes fine shes awake and ready to go home.(anyway thats other story now) So i dont want get through that again ever again.

my kitty still scrathses stuffs and from time to time i find her nails on floor but still...its not the same as before vet cut her nails (before that she never stumbles on my shirt or carpet,now sometimes she does)
hmm...dont know i´ll see and thanks for wishing me a good luck

and brummy thanks for answering too and yea im afraid of what you said...i dont wanna make her claw bleed thats why im so afraid to do it myself
and i dont care if vet will ask me money for that i´ll give all money i have just to do it right and without pain

thanks all for advices...i´ll think of something

When doing this just b careful that u don´t hit the nerves!!! If u don´t like the idea of doing it yourself u can always invest in some sort of scratching device. Mish uses wooden posts and small trees as well. I think the natural option is better if it is not threatening the cats quality of life.