5-1 Journal: Article Findings Assignment

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The occurrence of unwanted behavior in cats who have been declawed

Leeza Struwe

University of Southern New Hampshire

Commented [LS1]: Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. APA

recommends that your title be no more than 12 words in

length and that it should not contain abbreviations or words

that serve no purpose. Your title may take up one or two

lines. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper,

should be double-spaced.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Commented [LS2]: The SNHU IHP 525 rubric guidelines do not call for an abstract, so no abstract is to be included

with this paper.

OCCURANCE OF UNWANTED BEHAVIOR IN DECLAWED CATS

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The occurrence of unwanted behavior in cats who have been declawed

Topic

The health question I have developed is “What is the occurrence of unwanted behavior in

cats who have been declawed?”

Table 1. Articles findings

Variable

Martell-Morna, Solano

and Townsend, 2018 Fritscher and Ha, 2016

Unwanted behavior: periuria/perichezia

(inappropriate urination/defecation) Odds ratio: 7.20, p<.001 N/A

Unwanted behavior: biting Odds ratio: 4.51, p<.001 Logistic regression

p=.456

Unwanted behavior: aggression Odds ratio: 3.00, p=.04 N/A

Unwanted behavior: barbering

(excessive licking or chewing of fur) Odds ratio: 3.06, p<.04 N/A

Implications

Taken together these articles present conflicting evidence that declawing is related to

unwanted behaviors, see Table 1. Article findings. Fritscher and Ha (2016) only assessed the

relationship between declawing and biting behavior and found no relationship between the two.

This evidence seems counter to the everyday experiences I witness at the shelter with declawed

cats being turned in for biting and perouria. Martell-Morna, Solano and Townsend (2018) found

a relationship between declawing and four unwanted behaviors of periuria/perichezia

(inappropriate urination/defecation), biting, aggression and barbering (excessive licking or

chewing of fur). Some of these behaviors are seen commonly in declawed cats that are

Commented [LS3]: Each header is a header from the rubric critical area. Please use headers to organize your

paper so you do not accidently leave out a section. Left out

sections receive a ‘0’ in that rubric area.

Commented [LS4]: Clearly state the question or topic you developed.

Commented [LS5]: APA tables https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/19/

Commented [LS6]: APA in text citation for where the material came from. No need for article titles as that is not

how they are identified in the reference page.

Commented [LS7]: Table Checklist

•Is the table necessary?

•Is the entire table single- or double-spaced (including the

title, headings, and notes)?

•Are all comparable tables presented consistently?

•Is the title brief but explanatory?

•Does every column have a column heading?

•Are all abbreviations; special use of italics, parentheses,

and dashes; and special symbols explained?

•Are all probability level values correctly identified, and

are asterisks attached to the appropriate table entries? Is a

probability level assigned the same number of asterisks in

all the tables in the same document?

•Are the notes organized according to the convention of

general, specific, probability?

•Are all vertical rules eliminated?

•If the table or its data are from another source, is the

source properly cited?

•Is the table referred to in the text?

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/19/

Commented [LS8]: Use in text citations throughout the paper, do not use the titles of the articles, they are lengthy

and do not add meaning to your work.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

OCCURANCE OF UNWANTED BEHAVIOR IN DECLAWED CATS

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relinquished at the shelter, however I have never witnesses a cat being relinquished due to

barbering.

Biostatistical Calculations

The biostatistical calculations used by Martell-Morna, Solano and Townsend (2018) were

odds ratios and are interpreted in the context of the two outcomes. For example, the occurrence

of periuria/perichezia was 7.20, meaning it was seen seven times more in declawed cats than

clawed cats. Fritscher and Ha (2016) used logistic regression with the variables biting, length of

stay and risk of euthanasia. The p-value for biting behavior was .456, which means being

declawed was not significantly associated with biting behavior.

Commented [LS9]: Refer to the guide when unsure of how to present statistics.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/22/

When including statistics in written text, be sure to include

enough information for the reader to understand the study.

Although the amount of explanation and data included

depends upon the study, APA style has guidelines for the

representation of statistical information:

•Do not give references for statistics unless the statistic is

uncommon, used unconventionally, or is the focus of the

article

•Do not give formulas for common statistics (i.e. mean, t

test)

•Do not repeat descriptive statistics in the text if they’re

represented in a table or figure

•Use terms like respectively and in order when

enumerating a series of statistics; this illustrates the

relationship between the numbers in the series.

Commented [LS10]: I do not go over all the statistics in my table, but rather chose 2 to show my understanding of the

statistical methods.

OCCURANCE OF UNWANTED BEHAVIOR IN DECLAWED CATS

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References

Fritscher, S. J., & Ha, J. (2016). Declawing has no effect on biting behavior but does affect

adoption outcomes for domestic cats in an animal shelter. Applied Animal Behaviour

Science, 180107-113. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2016.04.023

Martell-Moran, N. K., Solano, M., & Townsend, H. G. (2018). Pain and adverse behavior in

declawed cats. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 20(4), 280-288.

doi:10.1177/1098612X17705044

Commented [LS11]: An APA reference page with APA citations is required.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/

Commented [LS12]: DO NOT include the library link. Only people signed into your library would be able to access

through that link. Provide the doi, which provides everyone

with access to the paper electronic location. If you cannot

find a doi for an older paper, just use a standard APA

reference, no doi or library link.