Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Declawing in cats linked to long-term nerve pain and sensitivity
By LaChance, Mathieu et al.·Published in Scientific reports·2025·Groupe de recherche en pharmacologie animale du Qué, Canada·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Declawing in Cat is associated with neuroplastic sensitization and long-term painful afflictions.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A study found that declawed cats often experience long-term pain and sensitivity in their paws, which can lead to ongoing discomfort and mobility issues. The research compared declawed cats with osteoarthritis (OA) to those with OA who were not declawed. It showed that declawed cats had more severe pain responses and functional problems, regardless of whether they were declawed on one or both front paws. These findings suggest that declawing can cause significant and lasting pain, emphasizing the need for better pain management options for these cats and raising concerns about the practice of declawing itself.
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Abstract
Declawing of pet cats is widely believed to cause chronic pain and negatively impact animal welfare, leading to bans in many jurisdictions. However, little is known on how post-declaw pain develops and affects feline well-being. Existing data often fail to account for other sources of chronic pain, such as osteoarthritis (OA), which affects most aging cats. Here, the aim was to distinguish chronic post-declaw pain from OA-related pain. A secondary analysis of eight studies on feline OA was conducted, comparing somatosensory, biomechanical and functional assessments between healthy control cats, declawed OA (DOA) cats, and non-declawed OA (NDOA) cats. DOA cats exhibited significant somatosensory alterations (hyperalgesia and allodynia) and greater biomechanical (worse in heavier cats) and functional impairments, compared to NDOA cats. The alterations were not dependent on the number of declawed paws (two forelimbs vs. four paws). This alarming phenotype was associated with objective nervous conduction abnormalities indicative of worsened axonopathy in DOA cats. Our findings highlight the impact of chronic post-declaw pain and support the need to develop therapeutic strategies to alleviate chronic pain in DOA cats and highlights the pertinence of establishing a global ban of this elective procedure.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40819111/