Gerald and His Pointy Claws

I've made the decision to have Gerald's front claws removed at the end of the month. I'm feeling extremely guilty that I've decided to do this, especially since the procedure is usually done on kittens, not four year old cats. The vet will be keeping him over night for three days since he's four years old and a very large cat.

The decision was made last week when a puncture wound caused by Gerald became infected, resulting in a trip to the doctor. Earlier in the week, Gerald climbed into my lap and took a nap. While he was dreaming peacefully  of eating a cheesesteak, fresh tuna, and mozzarella cheese sticks, he was startled by Zonks and Sasha chasing after each other. When he jumped off my lap to hide under the futon, he used my limbs as leverage and his pointy claws caught my arms and legs. He left a small puncture wound on my inner thigh, which I didn't think was that bad since there wasn't much blood.

Over the course of the next few days, the wound became infected. The entire area around the wound became red and inflamed, and of course, the wound started to ooze nasty shades of green stuff. Due to where the wound was, I didn't realize how bad it was until Thursday morning, before I left for school. When I got home, I showed it to Rachel who immediately told me to make a doctor's appointment - ASAP.

After making the doctors appointment for later that day, I called Gerald's vet and explained the situation. The receptionist actually asked me why it took me so long to make the decision since he's labeled as "use extreme caution" in their computer system, after his visit to the vet a few months ago.