Burnt Paw Pads

On Saturday evening my poor cat ran across an exposed burner moments after I took a hot pan off of it. I immediately grabbed him and wrapped his back paw in a cold wash cloth (which was probably just as traumatic as the injury itself). After a few minutes I removed the cloth and inspected the paw, which was bright red and peeling, and made the decision to go to the 24 hour emergency vet clinic across town. The vet cleaned the wound and removed the peeling skin, bandaged him up, and sent us home with strong pain medication and antibiotics. The next day he seemed fine, a little bummed he had to wear the cone of shame and deal with his foot bandaged, but in good enough spirits. On Monday, we went back in for a follow up and a new bandage. On this visit the vet said that the paw was healing nicely, however she also noticed that his other back paw was also burnt, though not as badly as the first one. She decided it was best to wrap both back paws and said that we should come back in two to three days for another check up and bandage change. When we got home from the vet my cat, ozzy, began to go CRAZY. I've never seen an animal thrash around like he was or make the ear piercing howls that he was. I called the vet in tears asking if this behavior was normal and if there was anything else I could do for him. She told me that burns are painful and that I was allowed to give him his pain meds more frequently (once every 6 hours instead of 8) to try and ease his pain. This behavior from him went on all night, and the increased pain meds really didn't seem to help much at all.

My question is, has anyone else has experiences with pad burns on their cat? Does my little guy just hate having his feet wrapped and is more annoyed than in pain? I feel so helpless right now not being able to help him. I've debated taking his wrapping off of the not so badly burnt paw because that's the one he seems to be trying to manically tear off. Maybe it's too tight?

Any feedback from personal experience would be greatly appreciated.

How terribly sad!  I don't have any experience with this but did have a foster kitten get electrocuted and burn the inside of her mouth pretty badly.  They gave her strong pain meds and antibiotics, so I'd say you are doing everything right to have gotten him the vet attention he needed.  These things happen and we feel awful for hurting our babies.  If this continues I would not hesitate to call the vet and ask if the dosage can be increased or the frequency of dosage increased for his comfort.  Bless you.  I know how distressing this must be.

Been there. My Aby jumped onto a HOT glass top stove when he was a kitten I immediately grabbed him and ran cold water over his paw for a couple of minutes. Then I took him to the vet ER for treatment. The vet determined that the burn was very superficial (just red, no blistered or peeling skin) but painful. She prescribed a burn cream. I don't think pain medicine was prescribed as well. The vet didn't feel that the paw needed to be wrapped. My Aby could walk just fine on it. Landing on the paw after jumping was painful and my Aby screamed in pain each time We had a follow up appoiontment with our regular vet a week later. The vet had heard about Leroy's ER visit and was laughing at Leroy being a PITA. The burn was healing but still painful as Leroy helpfully demonstrated by jumping off the exam table and screaming while hold his paw up. I think the paw was only painful for a couple more days after that.

You might be right that the wrapping on the second paw is too tight.  Ozzy didn't start acting like this until the second paw was bandaged, right?  He had the burn the whole time so the only thing that changed was the presence of the bandage.  It might be worth having it rewrapped to see if that helps.  Poor little guy.