cat with cut paw - What to do

sparkle_23

I noticed my cat Smudge limping this evening. She can't put one of her front paws to the ground at all. I looked at her paw and there's a bit of dried mud or something on it so I tried to clean it with warm water and cotton wool. There was a little bit of blood on the cotton wool. She was meowing loudly whenever i rubbed it gently with the cotton wool. It looks like there's a split one of her toes near her claw. She started hissing at me then so now she's in bed for the night.

I tried to get a couple of pics on my phone... They're a bit blurry but its the toe with all the mud and dried blood mixed.

Sorry I made a mess of trying to explain that! Should I try clean it again or the morning or maybe just bring her to the vet? My poor baby I'm so worried... I thought I was gonna start cryin looking at her limping around :(

ABajaninCork

Keep bathing it with warm salt water. Maybe you could wrap a dressing round it to keep it clean, but you'll have to change it regularly. You may have to go to the vet if it's really bothering her.

SillyMangoX

To be honest if she cannot put any weight at all on the paw I would bring her to the vet as soon as you can. If she was walking with all 4 legs but just limping a bit on one it wouldn't be as bad but not using it at all means a lotta pain She probably got it caught in something or stood on something, have you had a look at her claw on that toe to see if it's damaged? To me it looks quite angry red, it could just be the pics, but yeah if it were me I would be on to the vets in the morning. But cleaning it with lukewarm salty water as much as she can bear is a good first aid measure for now, if she's licking at it a lot it might be no harm to stick on a cone on her if you have one lying around as she could make it worse. Hope everything is okay with poor Smudge!

sparkle_23

Her claw looks a bit odd, i can't tell if she has it in or if its broken or something but it just looks wrong. Definitely bringing her to the vet... She was meowing real loud when I just touched it with the cotton wool so the cleaning didn't go too well!

boomerang

Aw poor baby. All the best at the vets tomorrow.

SillyMangoX

*Sparkle* wrote: »

Her claw looks a bit odd, i can't tell if she has it in or if its broken or something but it just looks wrong. Definitely bringing her to the vet... She was meowing real loud when I just touched it with the cotton wool so the cleaning didn't go too well!

Hope everything turns out okay, I know it's awful having them in pain Kepp us posted!

TheBegotten

Its more than likely nothing to worry about. It could be a stone lodged in her paw or a small laceration. If its not bleeding, and she's not in constant pain there's probably nothing lodged in it. Then again, I'm not a vet.
I love the last picture though - she looks so smug!

sparkle_23

This morning she was limping worse and holding her paw up when she was sitting. So I brought her to the vet this morning. Bring her in to the examination room, he lets her out of the carrier and puts her on the floor... she starts walking round as normal :o:o:o So embarrassing!! He had a look at it and said she had cut it and gave her an antibiotic and a painkiller. Came home and she's limping again! Not as bad now though! Cleaned it with some warm salt water and it looks a bit better. She's asleep now!

Here's a couple of pics after I cleaned it

SillyMangoX

Haha typical cats! I remember having Cream over one day because he had a sore throat and hadn't meowed in over a week (which is extremely unusual for him!) and when we got over into the waiting room, straight away he starts with his MMMEEEEEEWOOOOOOOOW routine! But he was quite hoarse doing it so at least the vet heard and didn't think I was cracked for thinking my cat had a sore throat! :P

Smudge is probably just loving the extra attention, I know Cream will often pretend to have a sore paw to be let it, so maybe Smudge was just playing it up and milking it to get all the attention she could out of you :P The painkillers will definitely help though and the antibiotic will stop anything setting in Glad to know she's doing better!

Lawrence1895

About the cleaning, I use Hibiscrub, diluted with water. None of my Toms like it, but it helps

Lucyn

My lil baby came home one evening with blood on her paw and I was frantic! I didn't want to probe too deeply in case I hurt her but it turned out she had lost a claw/nail. She cleaned up the blood herself by licking it and then a little scab formed on it. I kept a close eye on it and kept her in as much as possible so she couldn't get it infected and thankfully it healed up fine.

Cats are clever little devils. Mine puts in an oscar winning performance at the vets

planetX

SillyMangoX wrote: »

Haha typical cats! I remember having Cream over one day because he had a sore throat and hadn't meowed in over a week (which is extremely unusual for him!) and when we got over into the waiting room, straight away he starts with his MMMEEEEEEWOOOOOOOOW routine! But he was quite hoarse doing it so at least the vet heard and didn't think I was cracked for thinking my cat had a sore throat! :P!

It sounds so familiar - Years ago I brought my first cat to the vet because he had stopped eating. The vet took out some food and the little brat wolfed it down like he was starving. Made me look pretty stupid (the vet said I might want to try a different brand of food:o)