Mange on paws? (Pics included) help!!!

Our cat started losing the hair on both front paws a few days ago, and it looks bad. They are not red, itchy or irritated or anything. The has not been licking them or biting them, and I did a google search, and came up that it might be mange? If you know what this might be, please help. Our cat is 17 years old now. Please respond. (picture 3 is the best)
http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik...63bd2d8892f16c
http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik...63bd2d8892f16c
http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik...63bd2d8892f16c

those are the big pictures, here are the small ones:

http://i14.tinypic.com/71o8wsl.jpg
http://i5.tinypic.com/86z9cna.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/7x0lw0z.jpg

Poor baby.... I have always heard that hair loss around their paws was usually a sign of stress or an allergic reaction of some sort. But I have no experience with feline mange. Here are a couple of links that describes it pretty well...maybe someone will be along shortly to offer more advice.

http://www.peteducation.com/article....&articleid=737

http://www.peteducation.com/article....&articleid=730

Have you taken your cat to a vet yet? Were it to actually be mange there would likely be some underlying health problem weakening the immune system.
Have a vet do a skin scraping to check and discuss possible allergies. It could honestly be anything from stress, diet, or even something in the cat litter, so you'll need some help trying to figure this out.