FR
EN
This guide is a home-care support tool. It does not replace personalized advice from your veterinarian. For any questions, contact us at 514 223-1197.
What is in this guide
What does not wait
This page is about normal behavior, so the list below is short on purpose. But a damaged claw hurts a great deal, and an infected scratch on your own hand is not us, it is your doctor. Any single one of these is enough: you do not have to tick several.
- A claw that is broken, torn off, or still bleeding despite a few minutes of firm pressure. Our guide on a bleeding claw gives you the exact steps, using cornstarch from your own kitchen. If the bleeding will not stop despite the powder and the pressure, or if you notice bleeding elsewhere at the same time (gums, urine, stool), call without waiting.
- A claw that has grown into the pad. He is limping, licking one single toe without stopping, and the toe is swollen, red, or leaking fluid and smelling bad. It hurts, it gets infected, and it is not something to pull out at home. It happens most often on the dewclaw, the small claw higher up the front leg that never touches the ground and so never wears down, and in an older or unwell cat who has stopped scratching.
- He is holding a paw up, flatly refuses to let you touch it, or he no longer jumps onto what he was climbing last week.
- He was declawed, and he is limping, chewing at his toes, biting when he never used to, or he has stopped using his litter box. This is not an old cat being difficult, and it is worth looking at.
- He started scratching everywhere all at once, when he never did before, especially if at the same time he is licking himself thin, straining in the litter box, or hiding. What needs looking at then is not the furniture, it is the cat.
- Your own hand. A scratch that turns red, swells, gets warm or more painful over the following days, a red streak running up the arm, a fever, or a swollen gland under the arm: that is your doctor or Info-Santé at 811, not the veterinary clinic. Do not wait if you are immunosuppressed, or if the scratch reached an eye or a joint.
None of that?
Then you are in the right place, and the rest is a matter of setup, not medicine. If you are unsure, call anyway: triage is our job, not yours. Outside our hours, a 24/7 emergency centre answers.
Why cats scratch, and why we do not take it away
A cat who scratches is not being difficult and is not getting back at you for leaving him alone. He is doing four things at once, and all four matter to him. As long as you think of it as a bad habit, you keep trying to stop it. Once you know what it is, you stop trying to stop it and start moving it instead. That is the difference between two years of frustration and three weeks of adjustments.
Four things at once
He is maintaining his claws
A cat's claw grows in layers, and the worn outer husk eventually works loose. Pulling against a rough surface peels that old layer off and uncovers the fresh point underneath. Those little crescent shells you find at the foot of the post are not broken claws: that is a completely normal shed, and it is a good sign.
He is stretching
A cat scratching upright sinks his claws in high and pulls down with his whole body weight. That is a full stretch through the back, the shoulders and the front legs, and it is why he so often does it in the seconds after waking, right after the yawn.
He is leaving a message
Scratch marks are a signature, and a double one: the visible damage in the material, plus scent left by glands between his paw pads. It is a signpost, not vandalism. That idea is the key to the section on placement, because a signpost goes where it will be seen.
He is bleeding off tension
Excitement, frustration, a cat spotted through the window, visitors leaving: scratching discharges it. A cat who scratches hard after something happens is doing exactly the right thing.
What that means for you
None of those four functions disappears if you ban the couch. The need stays whole, it simply moves to another piece of furniture, often a worse-chosen one. Which is why the only strategy that holds up over years fits in one sentence: make the right spot more appealing than the wrong one, then pay your cat for going there.
Declawing in Quebec
Since February 10, 2024, declawing a cat has been prohibited in Quebec, and the prohibition also covers its surgical variants, such as digital tenectomy and tenotomy. It comes from a Quebec government regulation, the Regulation respecting the welfare and safety of domestic companion animals and equines (CQLR, chapter B-3.1, r. 0.1). It applies to the veterinarian who would perform the procedure, and also to the cat's owner and the person who has custody of the cat: the regulation prohibits performing or having performed the surgery. In its application guide, MAPAQ, the ministry that enforces it, states that this covers traveling to another province or another country to have a cat declawed.
The one opening, and it is narrow
The regulation provides for one exception: a therapeutic medical indication recommended by a veterinarian, meaning to treat an illness or an injury in the animal. One point comes up often, and MAPAQ answers it plainly: a medical note about a person's health does not open that door, the indication has to concern the cat. We do not perform declawing, and we do not refer anyone elsewhere to have it done.
One clarification, because it explains the decision and it still surprises a lot of people: declawing is not a nail trim. It is the amputation of the last small bone in each toe, the one the claw grows from. The claw is not removed; the bone that carries it is. That is where lasting pain and the problems described further down come from, and that is where the decision comes from.
If that is what you were looking for
If you landed here searching for declawing, you were not looking for a way to hurt your cat. You were looking for a way to keep your cat: your apartment, your couch, your scratched forearm, peace in the house. That is exactly what the rest of this page is trying to do, by another route. And if you already have a declawed cat, the section "An already-declawed cat" is written for you, with no blame in it.
Choosing a post he will actually use
The most common complaint is not "my cat scratches," it is "I bought a post and he ignores it." Most of the time the cat is not being fussy: the post simply has none of the qualities the arm of the couch already has. Look at what your cat picked on his own and you have the specification. The couch arm is tall, it does not shift a millimeter, it grips well, and it is in the room where you are. A thirty-centimeter post that wobbles in the basement loses that contest before it starts.
Height: measure your cat, not the store shelf
- When your cat rears up on his hind legs and reaches his front paws upward, note how high his claws land.
- The vertical post has to clear that height. Take the measurement once and it will serve you for years.
- If the post is shorter, your cat cannot stretch out fully while he pulls: he only gets part of what he is after, and he goes back to the door frame, which is tall enough for him.
- A post an adult cat cannot fully extend on is not a small post: it is a useless one.
Stability: the hand test
- Push the post from the top with the flat of your hand, as if you meant to tip it over.
- If it rocks, wobbles, or slides on the floor, it is disqualified.
- A cat pulls on it with his whole weight: a post that has toppled once is a post he will never trust again, and he will not come back to it even after you steady it.
- Look for a wide, heavy base, screw it to the wall, wedge it against furniture, or choose a cat tree heavy enough to do the job on its own.
Material: give him the choice
- Sisal rope is the safe bet for a vertical post: it grips, it frays cleanly, it lasts.
- Corrugated cardboard is excellent flat or angled, it is easy to replace, and a lot of cats clearly prefer it. The mess of little cardboard bits is part of the deal.
- Bare wood, an unvarnished plank or a log with the bark on, works very well and blends into a living room better.
- Carpet is the weakest choice, for a very practical reason: it is exactly the material you are trying to protect everywhere else. Do not ask a cat to tell allowed carpet from forbidden carpet.
Orientation: he has already told you
- Some cats scratch upright, pulling downward. Others scratch flat, pushing away from themselves. Others prefer a slope.
- You do not have to guess: look at where the existing marks are.
- A shredded door frame means a vertical cat. A frayed carpet corner or a plowed-up sofa underside means a horizontal one.
- Buy the one he already chose, not the one you like. And if both marks exist in your home, offer both.
The real advice is not to pick the right material, it is to offer two and let him vote. That saves you a third post bought blind.
How many, and where they do not count
At least one in every room your cat actually lives in, and one more if there is more than one cat. As with litter boxes, two posts in the same corner count as one: your cat sees them as a single place, and one of the two will never get used. Spread them out, so that no cat can hold the access against another.
Do not throw it out because it looks bad
A shredded post is a post that works. It is the classic second-year mistake: you replace the worn old post with a clean new one, and the cat goes back to the couch. The old one carried his scent and his marks, so it carried his message. If you do have to replace it, set the new one beside the old one for a few weeks, and remove the old one only once the new one is in use.
Where to put it, and why that matters more than the model
If you take only one thing from this page, take this one: the best post in the wrong place does nothing, and an average post in the right place often changes everything within days. The spot that looks sensible to you, discreet, out of the way, out of sight of visitors, is precisely the one that does not work, because a cat who scratches is putting up a signpost, and a hidden signpost is pointless.
At the scene
Put the post against the furniture he scratches, right up against it, tonight. Not in the corner of the room, not across the living room: against the arm of the chair, in the doorway with the shredded frame. This is tonight's move, it requires no purchase, and it is the one that changes the most. Once he uses it reliably for a few weeks, you can move it, a few centimeters at a time, toward a spot that suits you better. If the scratching resumes on the furniture, you went too fast or too far: back up one step.
Where he sleeps
Many cats scratch within seconds of waking, right after the stretch. A post next to his favorite nap spot often gets used the same day, with nothing more required of you. It is the placement that gets the fastest result, and it is also the one nobody thinks of.
At the crossroads, not in the closet
Because a scratch mark is a message, your cat wants to leave it where it will be seen: the entrance to the living room, the passage between two rooms, near the door you come home through, beside the window where he watches the street. A post in the room where the family sits gets used. The same post in the basement does not. This is not a question of decorating taste, it is a question of address.
Never in a dead end
As with the litter box, your cat does not want to be cornered while he is busy. Avoid the back of a closet, the space behind furniture, the nook he could only leave from one side, and above all the path of a dog or a child who will interrupt him halfway through.
In a multi-cat home
Spread the posts the way you spread boxes, bowls and beds: in different places, never all grouped together. In a multi-cat household, one cat can quietly hold a resource without ever fighting over it, and the other simply stops going there. Our guide on introducing a new cat sets out this separated-resources logic.
A special case: he scratches the window or the patio door
A cat raking a window frame while staring outside is not talking about furniture: he is talking about a cat he can see out there. One more post will fix nothing while the view remains. Block the low view (window film, a blind, closing off the room) and give him another window to watch. Our guide on introducing a new cat explains why neighborhood cats raise the tension indoors so much.
You moved the post and nothing has changed after two or three weeks? Let us talk it through, there is often something else going on.
Book an appointment (opens in a new tab)Redirecting, without ever punishing
You are going to catch him in the act, and you are going to want to shout. That is human, and nobody is going to hold it against you. But punishment does not do what you think it does, and it is worth understanding why before choosing what to do instead.
What we never do
- Shouting, tapping the nose, scruffing, forcing his paws against the post.
- The water spray bottle, the can of coins, the shock mat, the loud noise triggered from across the room.
- Picking him up to carry him away from the furniture, every time he scratches.
Why it backfires
Your cat does not learn "I must not scratch." He learns "I must not scratch while they are watching." So the couch keeps taking it, just at three in the morning, and you have spent some of the trust you will need next week to trim his claws. In cats, punishment also feeds anxiety, and anxiety is one of the drivers of excessive scratching in the first place: round and round. It is the same rule as for the litter box, and our litter guide puts it in three words: never punish.
Make the right spot better
Choosing the post and placing it are the real treatment. The post goes against the coveted furniture, taller than his stretch, immovable.
Make the wrong spot boring, temporarily
On the targeted corner: a strip of double-sided tape, a smooth cover pulled tight, a protective plastic panel, a thick blanket pinned snug. This is not punishment, it is a texture with nothing interesting left in it. All of it comes off once the new habit is established, usually after a few weeks.
Pay him for the right answer
The second he touches the post, a treat, right then, not five seconds later. End every play session on the post: run the wand toy up the post, let him catch it there, then reward. Three days of that little ritual beat three months of saying no.
Make the post appealing
Catnip rubbed into the rope, refreshed when the effect fades. Not every cat responds; silver vine, also sold as matatabi, interests a share of the cats catnip leaves cold. There are also synthetic feline pheromone sprays made to mark a scratching surface: results vary from cat to cat and it is not a cure on its own.
One change at a time, and give it time
Change one thing, then watch for two to three weeks. If you move the post, change the material and put tape down on the same day, you will never know what worked, or what to do again.
And in the moment, when you catch him at it?
Say nothing. Get up, fetch his favorite toy, and draw him toward the post without touching him and without saying his name in an angry voice. You are not interrupting to punish, you are interrupting to redirect, and he finishes the movement in the right place. Then you pay him.
When it is no longer about furniture
- Scratching that appeared all at once in a cat who never did it, especially alongside excessive licking, lost litter-box habits or withdrawal. Look at the cat, not the furniture: our litter guide and our page on anxiety in cats are the right doors.
- He scratches people, in play or otherwise, and it is escalating. That is a different problem and a sisal post will not solve it. We start with an exam, because pain makes a cat irritable, and then, for complex cases, the support of a veterinarian who specializes in behavior, whom we refer to.
- A kitten who nips and claws at hands in play is a kitten who had no littermates to teach him how to hold back. Our kitten guide covers this.
Nothing has changed after three weeks, or the scratching appeared all at once? An exam is worth it before you buy a fourth post.
Book an appointment (opens in a new tab)Keeping claws short, and the question of nail caps
Trimming the claws does not remove the need to scratch and will not stop the behavior. That is not the point. What it removes is the little hook at the tip, the one that catches fabric, pulls threads out of the couch and opens up your forearm. The post handles the behavior, the trim handles the damage. You do both.
How often
Get in the habit of looking at his claws every couple of weeks, in a calm moment, and cutting back what sticks out. Some cats need a trim once a month, others more often: growth decides, not the calendar. The front claws are the ones that damage furniture. Do not forget the back claws, especially in an older cat, and above all the dewclaw, the small claw higher up the front leg: it never touches the ground, so it never wears down, and it is the one that ends up growing into the pad.
The technique, in two lines
A little, often. On a pale claw, find the pink area in the centre and cut well short of it. On a dark claw, take off small segments at a time. A cat's claws are retractable: press gently on the toe, above and below, to bring the claw out. If you cut too short and it bleeds, it is not a disaster, and our dedicated guide gives you the exact steps, with cornstarch from your own kitchen cupboard.
You do not have to do it yourself
Many people give up after one bad experience, and end up with a cat whose claws are too long and a relationship that took damage. There is a simple answer: a nail trim is a technician appointment. It takes a few minutes, and if you like, we will show you the technique on your own cat while we do it, so the next one is easier at home. If your cat makes it difficult, say so when you book: it is a situation we know well and one we prepare for. It is neither a failure nor a luxury: it is an appointment made for exactly this.
A nail trim is booked as a technician appointment, and we show you the move if you want to learn it.
Book a technician appointment (opens in a new tab)Nail caps: what they do, and what they do not
Nail caps are small soft covers glued onto each front claw, trimmed beforehand. They do not stop your cat from scratching, stretching or marking: the movement stays whole, it is the point that no longer catches. They are an honest option for some households and a waste of time in others. Here are both versions, without the gloss.
- The claw gets trimmed first. A cap fitted over a claw that is too long will not hold and presses on the toe.
- Cap size matters. Too big and it comes off the same day; too small and it pinches. The glue goes inside the cap and on the claw, never on skin or fur.
- You need a cat who will let you hold each paw for a while, ten toes in a row, and stay still while the glue sets. If fitting turns into a wrestling match, stop: the answer is no for this cat, and pushing will do more damage than the couch.
- They come off on their own, with the claw's natural shed, after a few weeks. You then replace them, and check: a missing cap means one intact claw among nine blunted ones.
- Check the paws every week. A toe that is red, swollen, held up or licked constantly, or a cap that has grown out with the claw and now points toward the pad: take it off straight away and do not redo that toe.
- A cat who chews at them can swallow one. It usually passes on its own, but call us if he coughs, gags, vomits repeatedly, becomes listless, or stops eating.
- Never for a cat who goes outdoors. He needs his claws to climb and to defend himself.
- They are not a substitute for the post. Caps buy time while the setup does its work. If the caps are the whole plan, the plan collapses the day they fall off.
We fit them here
We fit nail caps by appointment, on the two front paws or on all four. The caps themselves are not supplied: you bring them, and we install them. Talk to us before you buy, and we will tell you whether your cat is a good candidate and which size to get.
Our honest position
For some households, nail caps are exactly what makes it possible to keep the cat, and they are well worth it. For others, it is two hours of struggle on Saturday and a cap found in the litter box the following Thursday. Both outcomes are normal, and neither says anything about you or about your cat.
Never give a home medication
This page mentions pain in several places: a broken claw, an infected toe, a declawed cat who has been limping for years. The urge to relieve it yourself, tonight, with what is in the cupboard, is human. It is also the fastest way to turn a problem into an emergency. Cats are a species apart: their liver does not detoxify the way ours does, or a dog's, and several perfectly ordinary products kill them.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Fatal to a cat, even a single tablet. There is no safe dose. If your cat has swallowed any, it is an immediate emergency.
Ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen (Aleve), aspirin
Toxic: stomach ulcers, kidney damage. Never a human anti-inflammatory, for any reason, and above all not to ease a cat who is limping or licking his toes.
Dog flea products
Many contain permethrin, a violent poison for cats (tremors, seizures). Never a product made "for dogs" on a cat, even a small amount, and watch out for a cat who rubs against a freshly treated dog.
A human cream, ointment or antiseptic on a paw
A cat licks off whatever you put on his paws, so he swallows the product, and you will not know how much. Nothing on a pad, a toe or a claw unless we have told you to.
Leftover prescriptions, yours or his
A painkiller prescribed last year for something else is no longer a prescription: it is a bet on a dose, a duration and a diagnosis. And a medication prescribed to another animal does not count either: what eases a dog can kill a cat.
If you think he is in pain
Do not medicate him yourself: call us. There are options for pain in cats, and they get chosen in a consultation, never out of a kitchen cupboard. That is as true for a declawed cat who has limped for a long time as it is for a claw broken tonight.
A cat who was already declawed
If your cat was declawed, somewhere else, or here fifteen years ago, this page is not written against you. At the time the procedure was presented as an ordinary one, often offered alongside spaying or neutering, and you made the decision you were offered with the information you were given. What has changed is not your decision back then: it is what we know now. What is useful today is knowing what to watch for and how to make daily life gentler for him.
And this has to be said right away, because what follows is a list and lists are worrying: many declawed cats do very well and will never show any of it. This section is here so nothing gets missed, not to announce a problem.
What is worth an appointment
- He limps, shifts his weight from one paw to the other, hesitates before jumping, or no longer climbs onto what he used to.
- He licks or chews at his toes, always the same ones.
- He no longer likes his front paws being touched, when he used to tolerate it easily.
- A swollen toe, a small hard lump at the end of a toe, or a wound that keeps coming back in the same spot. A bone fragment left behind, or a claw regrowing under the skin, does happen, it hurts, and it shows on a radiograph.
- He has started going outside the litter box. Digging in coarse litter can be painful for him.
- He bites more than he used to. It is one of the changes most often reported in declawed cats, and the usual explanation is that he has lost the middle warning between "stop" and "I bite."
- His back is sensitive, he dips away when you stroke him near the hips, or he no longer accepts being picked up.
What you can change at home, this week
The litter
Fine and soft rather than coarse, in a low-sided box, within easy reach and on the same floor as where he spends his time. Our litter guide already carries this advice.
Heights
A step, a stool, a firm cushion, so he climbs instead of jumping, and above all so he no longer has to absorb the landing on front paws that hurt.
Surfaces
Soft bedding, and no jumping from the top of the fridge onto tile.
Indoors, permanently
A declawed cat has lost one of his main means of defense, and climbing to escape is much harder for him. This is not a deprivation: our kitten guide is a reminder that a well-occupied indoor cat lives very well, and often longer in the city.
A post anyway
Most declawed cats still make the movement, because the need itself is still there. Give him a soft surface, soft cardboard laid flat rather than rough sisal rope.
What we can do
An exam focused on the front paws and the back, taking the time to palpate each toe. Radiographs if we suspect a bone fragment or a claw regrowing under the skin. And if there is pain, a plan to relieve it: the options get chosen in a consultation, never at home, and never with a human medication, for the reasons in the previous section. Chronic pain in cats is quiet by nature: it looks like a cat getting older, sleeping more, playing less, and that is exactly why it gets missed.
And to finish
What you have just read is precisely why Quebec prohibited the procedure. It is not a retrospective judgment on the people who made that choice when it was being offered to them: it is what you do with new information. You, today, can still do something for your cat, and that is where your energy is worth putting.
Your cat was declawed and something has changed in him? Let us take the time to look at his paws and his back.
Book an appointment (opens in a new tab)What people ask us most
The questions are ordered by what you need first, not by theme.
Is it illegal to have a cat declawed in Quebec?
My landlord requires a declawed cat. What do I do?
I had him declawed years ago. Did I hurt him?
My cat completely ignores his scratching post. What is wrong with it?
Can I trim his claws myself?
Do nail caps actually work?
He started scratching everywhere all of a sudden. Why now?
Also worth reading
The need stays, the address changes
A cat never stops scratching, and that is exactly as it should be: it is a healthy need, and the movement does four jobs for him at once. What is in your hands is the place. A post taller than his stretch, immovable, in the material he likes, set where he already scratches, plus claws kept short, changes the great majority of situations within a few weeks. And if that is not enough, or if the scratching appeared all at once, call us: more often than not it is the cat who has something to say, not the furniture.
Claws, a couch, and a solution to find
Whether it is for a nail trim, for a cat who has been scratching everywhere lately, or for a declawed cat who has changed, our team can help.