Cat Care: Nail caps

Video Transcript

"One of the methods that has been used for generations is to de-claw cats to prevent them from scratching. As time has gone by there is some controversy about whether de-clawing is appropriate in cats. It's a surgical procedure and it's actually an amputation of their first digit. So we try to do a lot of other things before we resort to de-clawing, and one of these things that we can try is to apply nail caps to your cat's nails. So these small little soft, flexible nail caps fit right over your cat's nail, sort of like a fake nail in people. These are red just so they'll show up, but they come in all different colors, including clear, so they're almost invisible when they're on your cat. And how they're applied is that you clip your cat's nails, not too short but slightly shorter than normal, and then you put a little bit of adhesive inside the nail cap, and then fit it right over your cat's normal nail. And it has a soft, blunted edge, so even if your cat scratches it can't do any damage to your furniture or your walls. These nail caps usually last four to six weeks, and once your cat gets used to them they act completely normal with them on."