A Message From Dr. Toby Wexler

I am a small animal veterinarian with an AAHA certified hospital, which has been providing health care and surgery to furry family members for 33 years. This career choice began with a fascination of science and nature, which grew into my love for animals of all kinds. As I entered college I worked at veterinary clinics, pet shops and even a dairy farm. My goal was to become a veterinarian early in life, and it's a career I highly recommend. Every day in a small animal veterinary clinic is loaded with rewarding challenges. Some involve helping owners with their pets and others involve helping pets live the full and beautiful life God has designed for them.

Declawing is a surgical procedure that involves the amputation of the claw and bones of the end of your cat's toes.

Many people incorrectly believe that declawing is somehow similar to nail trimming. To the contrary, declawing requires general anesthesia and invasive incisions around what would be your first finger joint. Declawing is illegal in Europe and most of the world and is becoming considered by most U.S. veterinarians, "a last resort". The reason surgical procedures such as declawing are losing popularity among pet owners is because of the common complications and pain associated with the invasive procedure. While 30 years ago declawing was very common, pet owners and many veterinarians have become far more reluctant to consider the procedure.

As a veterinarian, one of the most frequent procedures we do is the common nail trim. Nearly two-thirds of our clients, whether coming in for shots, baths or illnesses, will also ask for a nail trim. This is often because of the damage or scratching that the cat or dog is doing at home. As a young veterinarian, I was filled with countless stories from my clients of how the dog was scratching the kids or the doors. Or how their cat had scratched Grandma or the sofa. I felt there had to be a better solution than just trimming the dogs nails or taking every cat, young and old, under the knife so to speak.

One particular client of mine was a senior citizen on blood thinners and had very thin skin. She lived alone with her little rat terrier dog named Twigs. She told me Twigs was cutting her badly each time she held him. She would show me the deep bruised scratches on her arms and would ask me to trim and file her dog’s nails as short as I could. But regardless of how short I trimmed her dog's nails, he continued to scratch and cut her.

One weekend I was building a swing set for our kids. Included in the swing set were little rubber caps to put on the screws. These were used to protect the children as they ran by the posts. I was putting these little rubber caps on the exposed screws when the idea struck me! Why can't we develop claw shaped covers for cats and dogs?

We owned a Boston Terrier named Scooter. I doubt any dog was worse at jumping on people and playfully scratching people than Scooter. Right away, I set out to make some caps for his claws, which, to my wife's delight, worked fantastically! While hand dipping these little covers was time consuming, I quickly started making them for my clients who were the most in need of a safe scratching solution. Naturally, I also called the senior citizen I mentioned earlier. Sadly she told me she was about to give Twigs away on her doctor's advice. I said, "Please wait and let me make some claw covers for Twigs before you give him away!” A few days later she called me back. She told me that my caps worked so well, she was so grateful she could finally snuggle with Twigs again! It was her heartfelt gratitude at saving her relationship with her best friend that convinced me this needed to be available to everyone.

Soft Claws was born!

I set out to develop different sizes for dogs, cats and kittens. It was a two-year project of research and testing of safe and comfortable materials and adhesives. Soft Claws have been on the worldwide market now for 30 years. Trusted and recommended by veterinarians, groomers, pet shop owners and most importantly, pets!

In 1991, Declawing was the Status Quo

When a pet owner acquired a new cat, the standard of care was to neuter, vaccinate and declaw the cat. This was in part because there was simply no alternative. However, it wasn't long before Soft Claws began spreading rapidly into the veterinary medical community. Soft Claws was quickly adopted by U.S. veterinarians because many, many vets felt the same as I did about declawing.

The Changing Attitudes About Soft Claws

As veterinarians who tried Soft Claws began making testimonials about how great Soft Claws worked and how easy they were to apply, acceptance quickly spread to other veterinarians once they tried the product. It's safe to say that USA Soft Claws have the good seal of approval from veterinarians. We then branched out to groomers and pet shops. As use and knowledge of Soft Claws continued to spread, so did early endorsements from Humane Societies and animal shelters. The idea that owners could apply Soft Claws at home became a theme promoted by animal loving organizations everywhere.

The Evolution of Soft Claws

Soft Claws are held in place by a non-toxic, medical grade adhesive. This adhesive is a cool setting, safe adhesive made right here in the USA. We discovered that since the cat's claw is so smooth, the caps would fall off after only a few weeks. For this reason, we began researching ways to increase the surface area for the caps to stick to the claw. After years of testing, we discovered the answer! Putting a tiny cleat inside the nail cap caused the adhesive to set up inside the tiny grooves and lock the cap to the claw.

Soft Claws began lasting twice as long after the improvement. All nail caps other than Soft Claws / Soft Paws are coming from overseas and cannot copy the cleat locking system. They are stuck with the old technology, because of the patents. Additionally, because the adhesives are coming from across the ocean on a slow voyage by ship, they are full of stabilizers, which means the caps don't stick as well, and the glues are thinner and messy. So STICK with USA Cleat Locking Soft Claws and USA super sticky, super safe adhesive!

Many pet owners have experienced the destructive scratching that a dog or cat can do in the home.

Early on as a veterinarian, I witnessed many beloved animals being given away because of scratching. There has been much research on the people/animal bond and how important it is to our well being, as we see now with support animals in malls and airports. Well the truth is that every dog is a support dog to their family, and every cat is a support cat too.

Soft Claws comfortably covers the claws and accomplishes way more than any nail trim could ever do.

For this reason, many owners are knowable to keep their pets when otherwise they couldn't, such as older pet owners who might have thin skin or medical problems, or those with children. And who wants to buy a new sofa every year? When we say Soft Claws keeps families together, it's not a slogan, it's a fact.