blackened claws

Hi,
We have three cats. The oldest female is 14. When clipping her claws they seem to be quite painful for her in holding her paw and sliding the claw out. There also seems to be some blackening of the claw.
Any thoughts on this. I plan to take her to a vet.
thanks
J

are they bleeding when you cut the nails - are you possibly cutting to close to the or into the quick and the black is old dry blood??

No matter you are right for taking your kitty to the VET for a look see..

it may be possible somthing fell on her extended nails and ruptured the blood vessle. Its like when us humans get a bruise under the nail.... hurts like hell, but you can't do anything about it.

Are you meaning the actual nails are black? or just some blackish build up on them. My cats get the blackish build up, from the litter tray.

Thanks for the responses. My wife is quite worried mainly because she really screams when you go to extend her claws. But she seems to walk fine or at least how she always walked before.
The black seems to be along the edge, so maybe buildup is a better description. I was wondering about the litter box, but something my wife showed me about the claw dissuaded me from that idea. I can't quite remember what that was.
I noticed in another thread that nutrition could be a factor too.
There is no bleeding as we are conservative about clipping.
Anyway, we'll take her to the vet.

They chew the outer layers off sometimes and can do damage themselves. I go with with Sibohan said. My fiance came home one day to blood on the floor. When he looked at Autumns paws there was some blood from the claw. It was a self-inflicted injury.