In general, younger and smaller cats respond better to declawing than larger and heavier cats. They tend to recover more quickly, whereas larger or heavier cats may limp or have trouble bearing weight for as much as 6 months after declawing. During declawing surgery, the claw or third bone in the toe is removed and skin is closed over the incision so that the claw will not grow back. There are other options to declawing, such as retraining the cat to use a scratching post or having your veterinarian apply Soft Paws, plastic covers which are glued onto the nails and usually last for 4 to 6 weeks.