Soft Paws -- "Yeast Infection"

moriah

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Okay... my dear Chloe had a rather long round of antibiotics a little over a month ago to get over a sinus infection (oh, and for those who remember, her tail was fine, I just felt really guilty -- she was sneezing from the sinus infection when it happened, and since I already had a vet appointment for the next day we told the vet about the tail, she felt on it and said it was fine). We'd been late on her spay, so she went into heat while she was on antibiotics, but they didn't want to do surgery until they were sure the entirety of the infection was gone.

Over the last week I had noticed that around a few of her Soft Paws she'd had redness on the claw sheath, and it didn't look fun. I stopped applying them so a few have fallen off -- wanted to give her time to recover and see what was wrong. Since she had her spay appointment today, I asked the vet if she could look at her paws as well.

When the vet called me to say that our little one came through surgery okay, she said Chloe had a yeast infection of the claw sheaths on most of her claws.

I'm thinking that the round of antibiotics may have allowed yeast to get out of control, but I want to prevent it from happening again. The vet said she's going to need Nystatin cream applied to the claws for the next two weeks, and then after that we can likely apply them again.

I love Soft Paws -- they really have saved our furniture and allowed her to "be a cat" (also saves my belly when she's being lovey and kneading me). Has *anyone* else had this problem? Heard of it? Know what I can do to keep it from happening again?

I feel awful, she must have been in a lot of pain, but she was walking and running just fine, and not overgrooming them....
 

cearbhaill

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Any time antibiotics are given good intestinal flora are destroyed along with the bad bacteria.
After the full course of antibiotics has been completed I supplement with a high quality active culture yogurt to get the intestinal bacterial population back into a proper ratio. You can use any number of probiotic products- just make sure it is a good quality product that has not had all the active goodness processed out of it. If you use yogurt avoid commercial suger laden brands. I get goats milk yogurt from my health food store.

Commonly available probiotics include Fastrack, Wysong Innoculant, Animal Essentials, etc. There are a million of 'em, and most human products will work as well.
 

yosemite

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I would think that clipping your kittie's nails would be easier than applying soft paws and there would be less chance of infection.
 

arlyn

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Even with soft paws, the claws need to be clipped between applications.
If you are going to continue with soft paws after the infection has cleared, I would suggest that they be changed twice as frequently, and the claws be cleaned with an alcohol swab before each application.
This really isn't much different than preventing fungal infections on your fingernails due to extended use of acryllic nails.
 
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moriah

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

Even with soft paws, the claws need to be clipped between applications.
If you are going to continue with soft paws after the infection has cleared, I would suggest that they be changed twice as frequently, and the claws be cleaned with an alcohol swab before each application.
This really isn't much different than preventing fungal infections on your fingernails due to extended use of acryllic nails.
Cleaning with an alcohol swab is no problem, can easily do that.

But, for those of you who have used SoftPaws, are you telling me you've figured out a way to get them off of the nail after you've glued them on like you're supposed to, but before the layer of the nail that it is glued to is ready to shed? That's what causes them to "fall off" -- the outside layer sheds.

Because that's what "changing them twice as frequently" is going to add up to -- either I'll be soaking Chloe's paw in acetone, or someone has figured out another way to do it.

BTW: the vet has said that the infection is not under the nail cap itself, like it generally is with acrylic nails (which I have used many times in the past). The claw sheath is what is infected.

The antibiotics are over, thank goodness, and the Nystatin is just a cream that kills the yeast/fungal overgrowth.

I appreciate your help, I'm just trying to figure out how to implement the suggestions.
 

arlyn

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You can get them to fall off earlier by snipping the tips off and breaking the 'vacuum' as it were.
Just snip until there is a decent sized air hole in the tip, they usually fall off 1-3 days later.
 

semiferal

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I think the best thing is to prevent the claws from getting wet. Moisture can cause all sorts of overgrowths. A bit of alcohol or acetone will dry up anything.

Also, it would probably be wise to avoid using Soft Paws while she is on antibiotics in the future. I think there is probably a direct correlation between the antibiotics and the infection. Once she's done with the antibiotics then there shouldn't be any problem with putting the Soft Paws back on.
 
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