Being declawed is more than your cat getting their nails trimmed. A cat's claws are actually attached to their tendons and ligaments, which means that being declawed is actually a major surgery for your cat.

Keep Your Cat in a Small Space

The first thing you need to do is keep your cat in a small space, for about a week to a week and a half. Keeping your cat in a small space will ensure that your cat doesn't do too much exploring while their paws are healing. This will also help prevent any other pets you have from licking your pet's paws, which can be painful and counterproductive.

A great small space to put your cat in is a bathroom or a laundry room. If you don't have a small space you can confine your cat to, then get your cat a large crate and keep your cat in the crate for most of the time.

Make sure that you set up the space for your cat, moving your cat's food, water, and litter box into the space.

Keep Your Cat Inside

While your cat is healing, do not let your cat outside. You don't want contaminants to get into the surgery site on your cat's paws. You also don't want your cat to be unable to defend themselves. Plus, there are lots of things to jump on outside, which you also want your cat to avoid while they are healing. It is going to take your cat some time to learn how to defend themselves without claws, so keep them inside as they heal.

If your cat is an outside cat, you are going to have to be careful when opening the door outside, so your cat doesn't dart past you.

Use Soft Litter

Your cat's paws are going to be really sore for a while, so you are not going to want to irritate the surgery site with regular litter. You are going to need to purchase some special litter for a week or two. Consider using either clumping litter or newspaper litter — both of these will be soft on your cat's feet.

Don't be surprised if your cat avoids their litter box for a while. Cats don't like change, even when it is good for them, and your cat may take a day or two to become comfortable with the new litter. You may want to get an extra litter box and set it right next to your cat for ease of use as your cat heals. 

If you have to declaw your cat, talk to a local veterinarian for more tips.