My Cat's Cut Paw

Around 10PM, I came home to discover my and my gf's one year-old male kitty has cut his right rear paw; more specifically on the pad of one of his toes. it was bleeding for a bit, not too much blood, but enough for him to leave lots of little bloody foot prints. i wiped it down with a wet paper towel, and immersed his paw into warm salty water as suggested on some other forum to help against bacteria.

Finian's paw has stopped bleeding, but i am still worried about infection, what might you suggest to treat his paw that he won't simply lick off? My gf's currently in Florida, and I have to care for him singlehandedly, which is quite difficult as he's squirming and biting... although he is normally a sweet cat. i know it hurt him when i applied a bit of pressure to his paw to clean the wound, but it's for the best.

I was wondering what your take is on this and whether this kind of cut would require a vet visit. please advise. I have attached a picture for you to see how it looks. it hasn't even been 12 hours since this has happened and it's currentlu 5:41 in the morning. so no chance for a vet right this time... it's probably not an emergency, as he isn't limping that much, still has his appetite and is quite playful.. he's chasing a mosquito around right now... Let me know what you think. Thanks and sorry if I posted this in the wrong place as I am new to the forum.

Thumbnail is click-able for enlargement:
http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/deebrooklyn/fins foot/?action=view&current=finscut.jpg

It wasn't an emergency. I can't tell very well from the picture, is it a cut/tear or is that a small puncture wound I see? The later would make a vet visit more necessary. But otherwise it's basic wound care and keeping it clean after litter box use.

If shallow you should be able to handle it yourself, if deeper call the vet.

thanks for your reply. as you said, it's more of a tear/cut. there's a small flap, you might be able to see better if you zoom the image some... i'm concerned mainly about infection. how long on average should the salt bath's last? also, i've been reading from some that neosporin is ok to use? he doesn't limp on the cut, but if i touch it, he pulls his leg a way and makes a little kicking motion like he's trying to shake something off.

I've attached a pic of it from the side. That's not his claw, that's the torn piece of pad skin...

I would probably take him to the vet. They might put him on an antibiotic to prevent infection.

i might just have to do that...

It looks like he did tear it pretty well. The skin flap is a worry. If that skin is dead, and just hanging there, it will only trap the bacteria in. It may need to be snipped off so that the would can get air - if at the vet, ask them about that. (I've only had bad experiences with skin flaps on wounds - cat, dog, and even my own) They might tell you don't worry about it, if so at least keep an eye on it and if you can, smell it.

Instead of regular table salt, use epsom salt. It'll still draw out infection but won't sting as much.

Neosporin could be used, but he'll either lick it off in seconds or leave greasy cat prints across the floor.


Is he 100% indoor? Any ideas what he cut his foot on?

yes, he's one hundred percent indoor, not yet sure what Finny cut his paw on. when i came back home from work today, i noticed that his wound does look somewhat better. my gf suggested we keep him limited to the bathroom along with his bed, food and litter (newspaper).

When I got home, I started to pet him and while I was rubbing his belly, I touched his wound, and he didn't react nearly as strongly as he would earlier in the day. Anyhow, I'm running on no sleep and waiting on some pizza to get here. I'll see if I can upload another pic a little later. I put neosporin (w/o pain relief) on his wound, and he seemed to deal with it pretty well. I even texted my coworker to boast that he wasn't licking it off.

....well he did lick some of it off later on. My friend is supposed to come through to help me handle him. I'll then be able to properly soak his paw in an epsom solution while we hold him down and feed him treats . Well that's my plan for this evening, ladies and gents. Will try to post an updated pic later.

I hope that works.

Do you have carpet? Maybe a carpet tack is poking up if you do. Look for anything on the walls in his reach and anything on furniture - such as upholstery tacks on a couch. He'll not be too likely to cut himself open again, but it would be bad if you found whatever cut him while barefooted.

yeah, good call. just finished mopping up his mess in the bathroom. he was not happy there alone...

my friend came by and we immersed Finny's foot in epsom/water solution.. he was obviously not happy. My gf pointed out I should have just used a cotton ball... I had also reapplied neosporin again... the wound is still pink, doesn't smell funny, and Finny can walk ok, so I guess its ok for now. I'll be monitoring him closely to make sure that his cut paw is healing and that there's no sign of infection.

i remember once having a hanging flap of skin. little chunk of meat knocked right off of my shin by running into a metal sheath over a heater at day camp. that little flap definitely turned black at the edge where there was no longer any circulation. it fell off eventually. still have the scar 15 years later.