Chewing at her toes..

My cat Monkey always chews on her toes. I know that it is a typical cleaning habit, but it is beginning to make me worry.  
Monkey is 2 1/2 years old, and her front paws are declawed (I know I am going to get Flack about that, but you can not change what happen in the past so please do not scold me about my cat being declawed. that is not why I am here, I am concerned about my cats health and do not want to see a debate about the ethics on declawing cats).  Her left foot, that she seems to chew on the most, is beginning to develop scabs on them. Some of her toes are red and irritated and have small scabs. Last year around this exact time I brought her to the vet for this very same problem. both of her feet had had scabs on her toes but her left foot was the worse. They did not give me any answers as to why this was happening, but gave her an antibiotic shot and she got better.  
She does not seemed too thrown off by this, she does not limp, but when she is sitting she will favor her left foot and hold it up. She still goes outside, runs and plays with me every day.

Could this be some sort of seasonal allergy? I only think that because it has only happened one other time exactly one year ago? if so is it normal for an allergy to affect only one area of the body? 
Could she just have some sort of "phantom limb syndrome" going on with her missing claws and is just chewing excessively??  

Any ideas would be helpful. I plan on making a vet visit very soon, but I would like to have some more organized questions befor I go in. 




 

Cynbarrie said:

 

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Hi there,

I think the big question in front of you and that I would want to talk to the vet about is, is this a behavior issue, a medical issue or a combination of the two?

Some cats can get an OCD like syndrome, although usually it shows itself as over grooming, but it may be possible that Monkey's chewing is behavioral, or became so.  Perhaps she had phantom pain, perhaps real pain, or irritation, and she dealt with this my licking, chewing etc.  This is in turn may have caused real injury and infection (sounds like it) and that it has become chronic.

I would definitely address the injury and possible infection, probably another round of antibiotics.  Maybe some pain meds (only vet prescribed!) to see if this helps with the behavior.   If the injury/infection completely resolves, and she continues to go after her toes, then it may be time to discuss a trial of prozac to see if that helps.  If it does, then its diagnostic for a behavior problem.