Brownish thing in nailbed on front paw/looks almost like a splinter?

Hi I have a question today about my sort of foster cat/neighbor's cat I am caring for, Amber. She has a sort of weird brown thing on one of her front claws. It looks almost like another claw that is brown but really looks more like a splinter or something. She has a normal white claw right beside it. It almost looks like something embedded in or stuck to the nail bed. (Photos below) She had the same thing in a back paw a few weeks ago, and I tried to remove it, trim it, and soaked it with water but nothing really helped and it eventually went away on its own.

However now I'm seeing it again I'm worrying about it more. It definitely hurts her if I touch or pull on it, and she squirms away and gets a bit defensive understandably. Has anyone seen this before? I haven't and I'm not sure what it is (whether its an old claw that hasn't sort of come off, a fungus or infection, a little splinter, etc.)!

Photos are kind of tricky to get a good angle so I included a couple. Any thoughts?




Edited to add: She does not exhibit apparent pain when walking on her foot or otherwise, she is not licking at it any more than usual, it only appears to be painful when I touch it. Her other claws and paws all look normal.

That's very interesting.  Can you get her to a vet on Monday to have it checked out? 

Isn't it? Yes I should be able to and will give them a call Monday morning. Just curious if anyone had seen this before, I can't seem to find anything similar by googling. I don't want to touch it too much and bother her as she doesn't like it.

Otherwise, I noticed her sneezing last week a number of times one day but haven't seen her do it since. I also noticed a few weeks ago she had a couple of scab-like things that fell off with a couple of strands of hair in them.

Just to update - this was like a sticky pine needle stuck in her fur and it eventually came off with more water and patience.

I'm glad it was nothing more serious!  Thanks for updating us.

Me, too! Unfortunately the got in a fight with another cat yesterday and now has stitches on her tummy wound. She sure is a poster kitten for why you should keep your cat indoors...

Wow! I didn't even make the connection on the other thread.