Anyone else own a polydactyl cat?

[Galuf the Dwarf]

I was curious.

My family, our little cat Oreo (who we adopted a few months ago) is polydactyl, meaning he's got extra digits on his paws (in this case, only his front paws). He's still quite young, and yet he's got these huge front paws that look like fists!

My biggest concern for my little Oreo, though, is that he also has a nail between his "thumb" and the other sets of toes on his front paws. He once got himself caught on something because of said nail, so once in a while, we have to watch him for getting those stuck on things.

I also know of a cat who roams our neighborhood who has an extra digit on all four of its paws, which is amazing. That one seems to have extra balance on its hind legs due to that, as evidenced by its tendency to rear itself to rub an outstretched hand (which I don't see as often in non-polydactyl cats).


So, anyone else have experiences (hopefully friendly ones) with thumbed felines?

[Curdis]

Both of mine have no 'extra' claws, but that doesn't prevent them from selecting the most valued possession available and using said claws on it. When I first moved due to my 'reduced' circumstances the cats were introduced to all of my stage equipment, including several expensive and carefully maintained vintage guitar amps. I was horrified to find one cat with obvious glee doing the full claw sharpening work out on the speaker grill of one. I can't leave a guitar case open, sans guitar, it will soon contain 100% cat with complimentary cat hair...

Today's crime against my psyche was the 'new' car. Now it already was looking a bit shabby (even though it's less than a fortnight old - I blame the forrest roads) the other cat was seen to be sitting on the bonnet (no problem there). I then heard the most appalling noise. The cat had run up the windscreen skated to the back of the roof turned around skated back, lost control as it fell off the windscreen and then did a series of high speed barrell rolls across the bonnet while 'scrabbling' with it's claws to get traction. Can a cat's claws scrape modern dual pack epoxy paint work back to bare metal? Yes. - Curdis !

[kathycf]

None of my cats currently have double paws (that is what I always call it) but I have had two in the past that were like that. I always think it is so cute, especially when they are kittens.

My cat Milo was not double pawed, but his claws had a bad tendency to grow right around and burrow in to the pads of his front feet. We used to clip him (albeit very carefully for his safety AND ours) but finally had to have the claws in the front feet removed because the problem was out of control.

While this may seem like drastic measures for your cat at such a young age, you may want to speak to your vet about clipping that claw short to keep him from getting caught on things. If he was badly stuck and he struggled hard enough it could cause an injury.