Swollen paws. Injury or allergy?

A few weeks ago I noticed that the right front paw of my 5 year old cat was swollen and he was limping slightly. I made an appointment for the vet the next day, they took an xray, said it was normal and he probably punctured the pad (possibly wrestling with the kitten, both are indoor only cats) and it was infected then sent me home with antibiotics. About a week later, no change in swelling, called the vet, they gave me a new antibiotic that would supposedly target a different type of bacteria. A week later, nothing. Brought him back into the vet, we noticed some scabbing and peeling around the edges of the pad, they give me a steriod and an antibiotic to give him that should work deeper in the tissue and into the bone. Two days later, I notice the swelling going down, finally. Two days after that, I notice his front left paw is now slightly swollen and he's limping for that paw.

He had a similar problem last summer, there was no kitten to cause an injury then. I thought I had figured out the problem at the time to be a food allergy. I had changed his dry food and not long after is when the swelling started. When I changed it again to what I am still feeding him today, the swelling stopped. It was also different then, the swelling would quickly change paws: one would swell, then the other, then both would stop. This time its been consistently one paw until now. I'm not feeding him anything different, though he is munching on kitten food, but he has been for 3 months now.

So I'm wondering if anyone has seen anything like this before. Is it an injury or maybe an allergy? The vet was stumped last year and seems to be again this time too.

Originally Posted by ReillyNCalleigh

A few weeks ago I noticed that the right front paw of my 5 year old cat was swollen and he was limping slightly. I made an appointment for the vet the next day, they took an xray, said it was normal and he probably punctured the pad (possibly wrestling with the kitten, both are indoor only cats) and it was infected then sent me home with antibiotics. About a week later, no change in swelling, called the vet, they gave me a new antibiotic that would supposedly target a different type of bacteria. A week later, nothing. Brought him back into the vet, we noticed some scabbing and peeling around the edges of the pad, they give me a steriod and an antibiotic to give him that should work deeper in the tissue and into the bone. Two days later, I notice the swelling going down, finally. Two days after that, I notice his front left paw is now slightly swollen and he's limping for that paw.

He had a similar problem last summer, there was no kitten to cause an injury then. I thought I had figured out the problem at the time to be a food allergy. I had changed his dry food and not long after is when the swelling started. When I changed it again to what I am still feeding him today, the swelling stopped. It was also different then, the swelling would quickly change paws: one would swell, then the other, then both would stop. This time its been consistently one paw until now. I'm not feeding him anything different, though he is munching on kitten food, but he has been for 3 months now.

So I'm wondering if anyone has seen anything like this before. Is it an injury or maybe an allergy? The vet was stumped last year and seems to be again this time too.

I guess I can take the silence as no one else has any clue either. The right front paw seems to have healed, though there's still a small scab on the pad that i'm keeping an eye. His left front paw has gone up and down in swelling and just tonight i noticed that on his rear left paw, just above the part of the foot that touches the ground when he walks, there's a new swollen area. This never swelled up before.

I was starting to develop a new theory for the swelling but now the rear paw swelling is shooting a major hole in that. The new theory was that he's allergic to the centipedes that live around here, he loves to chase them and kill them and maybe in the fight they're biting him and he's having a reaction to that. The reason he never had the swelling issues until last summer could have been because he didn't move in with me until the winter before that, he had lived with my parents until then and somehow, only being 30 miles south, they don't have those centipedes there. But why now would his rear paw be swelling that high up and not around the foot like the front paws did?

I am moving in a week, a little farther south again but not far enough to get away from the centipedes, I saw one during the home inspection. My new hope is that maybe he's just allergic to something in the apartment, something that isn't coming with me in the move, though I'm not getting rid of much stuff either.

Maybe its time for another trip to the vet. Although as I type this he is chasing the kitten through the room and down the stairs so the swollen paws can't be bothering him that much...