Sean I wasn't meaning to come off that way, really and you know I can't write for crap so people understand & you know that. But I wish you would have come to me and asked me or talked with me about it before flying off the hook.
I wasn't really trying to say that i am completely right because of my education and experience but when people who have little or no experience try to "educate" a crowd with a personal opinion instead of actual facts and there is someone with substantial experience then that person should speak up(just as you do all the time). In my case I felt like i was being told "your education and experience doesn't matter and you surely must be wrong because it doesn't align with my opinions" (not speaking of you). I don't think either you read all of my wording or I didn't explain it well enough, when you are talking about my mixed messages as you seem to think I am all for it and I am not. Like I said on an adult it will cause behavioral issues and will be more painful but a neuter would do the same thing so I can't justify one over the other. Believe me I HAVE done declaws where I felt god awful and sick about it but all those were adults but I still did everything I could to make it as easy on them as possible or took extra care of them afterwards. I started working in vet clinics in 1989 and even then this was a hot topic and it is now almost 20 years later and the side that claims all the wrongs still hasn't given much but opinions and as much as I would like to agree with them I just haven't seen it enough to really go gung-ho for that side. I can't lie dude... I have seen some butchered up paws but I have seen 99% more well done and happy cats & owners and I do feel that you should have some respect for that because that isn't just my opinion but it was experience but none wants to listen to that. You brought up a good point on no money for real studies to be done and it is true. Everyone who has the money (like peta) is really wasting it. A long-term study like this could be 20-30 million bucks and even then what if the results came back inconclusive? Which I would assume at this point has already happened. Honestly when people talk to me like that without disclosing both sides of full facts it does kinda piss me off because people speak without really knowing and it makes me feel like I am stupid and wrong even though I do know both sides a hell of a lot better than most people who speak out against it and based what the say on here-say or opinions. If you noticed I really wasn't putting a lot of my opinions in there but just trying to add to the point from a strictly medical point of view so that people that read this can have both sides to think about as most people really do rush to conclusions. I think it's pretty agreeable between us that it is something between the owner and the vet and hopefully its a good vet. Most people don't even know that when vets come out of vet school that they have never done a declaw, hell they are lucky to have done a neuter or spay but really they have no surgical experience at all and the bad part is like i said before about how most vets or techs doing the procedure don't take it as seriously as other procedures and that is a big source of the issues.. And you bring up tons of good stuff about really anything that is done can be good or bad. We had this oncologist(cancer dr) at one clinic and 99% of animals she saw were pure breeds and after having a few talks with her I learned that there is so much inbreeding within pure breeds (mostly thanks to "back yard breeders") that their rates of internal defects and especially cancer are sky rocketing and she and a lot of vets I know recommend to clients to get mix breeds because of so much less problems. And I am sure that can be debated. I was so "matter-o-fact" because I also felt like because of my general perception on here that I wasn't being taken seriously and honestly that is kinda of a slap in face because like I also said, you have no idea of the sacrifices I had made in order to help peoples pets. vets & vet techs make huge sacrifices and have to try and keep an even keel through things like this all the time, it's not an easy career and on here where we all make pretty damn good money but everyone seems broke, hell at least when I left the field the average vet made less that $25k a year (unless you owned the practice)... I don't think anyone on here makes that small amount,... ok wait I forgot about Will.. And these people work long hours a lot of times with little or no breaks (my longest shift was 76 hours straight) and a 12 hour shift was like a short day. And like you said there are a lot of vets who don't want to do certain things (like declaws, ear crops, tail docks, tattooing, etc..) but if you don't own the place then you gotta do it. Anyways dude... If you have ?'s or problems then ask me.. don't do what you did. I am glad you wrote that because i figured that it was because of something else. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:249120 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
