One of my cat's kittens is limping and his paw is slightly swollen.

Hi! I'm a newbie here and I have a question regarding my 3 month old kitten,
Star.

Last night, Star hurt his rear left paw, but no one knows how. He's been
limping and it appears that it's swollen. Could he have sprained his paw, or
worse, dislocated it? He's been eating and moving around okay, but I'm
worried because he's not his happy little kitten-y self.

Any ideas?

He could have pulled a nail or could have a cut on his foot somewhere.
If so -- he may need antibiotics.

If it's swollen, I would definitely have a vet check it out.

Rhonda

Renee P via CatKB.com wrote:

Hi! I'm a newbie here and I have a question regarding my 3 month old kitten,
Star.

Last night, Star hurt his rear left paw, but no one knows how. He's been
limping and it appears that it's swollen. Could he have sprained his paw, or
worse, dislocated it? He's been eating and moving around okay, but I'm
worried because he's not his happy little kitten-y self.

Any ideas?

Thanks. My husband examined Star's paw and didn't see any blood and his
nails seem to be fine. The swelling is on the inside of his paw. To put in
human terms, the swelling is around the area of where our ankle bone would be.


We're keeping an eye on him and if it doesn't get any better, or seems to get
worse, we plan on taking him to the vet. The only other thing that bothers
me is that his brother, Lucky, and his mom, Midnight, have been ignoring him.
Lucky tried to play with him, but since Star was hurting, he wasn't very
responsive. Should I be worried about that, too?


Rhonda wrote:
He could have pulled a nail or could have a cut on his foot somewhere.
If so -- he may need antibiotics.

If it's swollen, I would definitely have a vet check it out.

Rhonda

Hi! I'm a newbie here and I have a question regarding my 3 month old kitten,
Star.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]

Any ideas?

--
I love my kitties and my kitties love me!


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http://www.catkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...ealth/200509/1

Hmmm, could he have stepped on something and got a puncture that you
can't easily see? Anything sharp/pointy around?

I would be a bit concerned that the bone is broken or cracked. I know
how kittens are hell on wheels. I'm surprised ours didn't end up with
injuries after climbing the drapes to the top and then dropping to the
floor.

I wouldn't worry about the other cats interacting with him, I think they
will work that out when everyone is healthy again. If they are picking
on him while he's feeling bad, I'd separate them.

Let us know what the vet has to say.

Rhonda

Renee P via CatKB.com wrote:

Thanks. My husband examined Star's paw and didn't see any blood and his
nails seem to be fine. The swelling is on the inside of his paw. To put in
human terms, the swelling is around the area of where our ankle bone would be.

We're keeping an eye on him and if it doesn't get any better, or seems to get
worse, we plan on taking him to the vet. The only other thing that bothers
me is that his brother, Lucky, and his mom, Midnight, have been ignoring him.
Lucky tried to play with him, but since Star was hurting, he wasn't very
responsive. Should I be worried about that, too?

The only thing that we can think of is that maybe he caught his paw on our
laundry hamper when he jumped down. We have a (now thoroughly shredded)
laundry hamper in the hallway that the cats use as a scratching post and they
like to jump on top of it so they can go to sleep on it. We think that as he
jumped down, he somehow got his little paw caught.

As for anything sharp/pointy...No, there isn't anything. I had just cleaned
up the area around the hamper. I don't think the bone is broken. My sister,
who works for the Humane Society, told me that if the bone had been broken,
Star wouldn't be moving around.

Lucky and Midnight haven't really picked on Star, but they will walk up to
him, and then walk away. And I swear, he looks hurt. Almost as if he could
cry, if he was human. It's heart-breaking to see a sad kitten....

We don't have drapes, but our cats like to climb up the screen door and the
screens in the windows upstairs...talk about heart attack time...

Rhonda wrote:
Hmmm, could he have stepped on something and got a puncture that you
can't easily see? Anything sharp/pointy around?

I would be a bit concerned that the bone is broken or cracked. I know
how kittens are hell on wheels. I'm surprised ours didn't end up with
injuries after climbing the drapes to the top and then dropping to the
floor.

I wouldn't worry about the other cats interacting with him, I think they
will work that out when everyone is healthy again. If they are picking
on him while he's feeling bad, I'd separate them.

Let us know what the vet has to say.

Rhonda

Thanks. My husband examined Star's paw and didn't see any blood and his
nails seem to be fine. The swelling is on the inside of his paw. To put in
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
Lucky tried to play with him, but since Star was hurting, he wasn't very
responsive. Should I be worried about that, too?

--
I love my kitties and my kitties love me!


Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

"Renee P via CatKB.com" wrote in message
...
Thanks. My husband examined Star's paw and didn't see any blood and his
nails seem to be fine. The swelling is on the inside of his paw. To put
in
human terms, the swelling is around the area of where our ankle bone would
be.


We're keeping an eye on him and if it doesn't get any better, or seems to
get
worse, we plan on taking him to the vet. The only other thing that
bothers
me is that his brother, Lucky, and his mom, Midnight, have been ignoring
him.
Lucky tried to play with him, but since Star was hurting, he wasn't very
responsive. Should I be worried about that, too?



I agree with Rhonda. A visit to the vet is in order. Cats are well-known
for hiding injuries and illness, so your kitten may be in a lot of pain
since his limping is evident. Moreover, you can see swelling; so there is
clearly some sort of injury. I recently had a similar situation with Holly.
She suddenly started limping, and I thought she might have jumped and landed
awkwardly because I couldn't see any injuries. I took her to the vet, and
he found a very smalll cut on the pad (very difficult to see against her
black pads) and prescribed antibiotics. We speculated on the cause and
couldn't come up with anything definite. He said that one of his cats once
got a similar cut from a carpet tack that had worked its way up through the
carpet. The next day, Holly was *mucy* worse and was obviously in a great
deal of pain. This time, TED put her under gas anesthesia so he could probe
more thoroughly. It's a good thing he did because the pad was now swollen,
and he found an absess inside! This means that she had had an injury for
some time but had hidden it so well that I wasn't even aware of it. He also
gave me some pain meds to administer, in addition to the antibiotics. Her
paw healed quickly and completely once the injury was treated, but I hate to
think of what could have happened without treatment.

As to the other cats not playing with him: Duffy loves to play with Holly,
even though Holly sometimes isn't that enthusiatic about it, and Duffy will
often run and "attack" Holly to get her to play. However, Duffy completely
stopped this behavior while Holly's paw was healing -- and then started it
again a few days later after Holly was feeling better. I think Duffy
somehow knew that Holly wasn't feeling well and left her alone. Something
similar might be happening with your kittens.

MaryL

My cats --
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e

This is off topic, but your cats are *beautiful*. My Midnight looks just
like your Holly. Her sons, Star and Lucky, look a bit like Duffy, with Lucky
being just as fluffy as Duffy and Star's fur seems to be a mixture of Lucky's
(fluffy underneath0 and Midnight's (sleek on top).

My cats --
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e

--
I love my kitties and my kitties love me!


Message posted via CatKB.com
http://www.catkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...ealth/200509/1

"Renee P via CatKB.com" wrote in message
...
This is off topic, but your cats are *beautiful*. My Midnight looks just
like your Holly. Her sons, Star and Lucky, look a bit like Duffy, with
Lucky
being just as fluffy as Duffy and Star's fur seems to be a mixture of
Lucky's
(fluffy underneath0 and Midnight's (sleek on top).

My cats --
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e

--
I love my kitties and my kitties love me!


Message posted via CatKB.com
http://www.catkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...ealth/200509/1

Thanks! And it's *never* off-topic to me when you're talking about Holly
and Duffy.

Do you have any pics of your cats posted where we can see them?

MaryL

Yes, I do, though I seriously need to update them. The pictures I'm about to
post links to were taken when Star and Lucky were about 2 weeks old. I think
I'll call my hubby and ask him if he can borrow the digital camera from work.

Anyway, here are the links to my babies...

Midnight:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v312/m...t=P6170014.jpg


Star:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v312/m...t=P6190012.jpg


Lucky:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v312/m...t=P6190014.jpg


You'll probably have to login before you can see the pictures, so my username
is momof4sweeties and my password is camtlnde.

BTW, is Duffy a specific breed of cat? And what about Holly? I ask because
I'm trying to figure out what breed my babies are.


MaryL wrote:
Thanks! And it's *never* off-topic to me when you're talking about Holly
and Duffy.

Do you have any pics of your cats posted where we can see them?

MaryL

--
I love my kitties and my kitties love me!


Message posted via CatKB.com
http://www.catkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...ealth/200509/1

"Renee P via CatKB.com" wrote in message
...
Yes, I do, though I seriously need to update them. The pictures I'm about
to
post links to were taken when Star and Lucky were about 2 weeks old. I
think
I'll call my hubby and ask him if he can borrow the digital camera from
work.

Anyway, here are the links to my babies...

Midnight:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v312/m...t=P6170014.jpg


Star:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v312/m...t=P6190012.jpg


Lucky:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v312/m...t=P6190014.jpg


You'll probably have to login before you can see the pictures, so my
username
is momof4sweeties and my password is camtlnde.

BTW, is Duffy a specific breed of cat? And what about Holly? I ask
because
I'm trying to figure out what breed my babies are.


--
I love my kitties and my kitties love me!


Message posted via CatKB.com
http://www.catkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...ealth/200509/1


What adorable kittens. Thanks for posting, and please be sure to update
them.

Both Holly and Duffy are mixed, although I know more about Holly's
background than Duffy's. Holly supposedly is a cross between an Oriental
Shorthair and a Persian. The story is that a local breeder mixed those two
and wanted a specific combination. Color was one of the desired traits.
The breeder wanted dusty/dusky gray, and Holly is solid black. So, the
breeder planned to "dispose of" her. Fortuantely, a woman who works in a
pet supply store convinced the breeder to let her foster Holly and find a
home for her. I don't know who the breeder is, but I did ask my vet if
Holly's characteristics seem to fit with that story, and he said "yes."
Duffy is just all-around gorgeous, but I don't have any background
information. I would guess that there is some Persian, but he is clearly
mixed -- and both are wonderful cats.

I hope some of that information is useful.