Our beloved frisky feline managed to rip off one of the claws on his back right paw last night. Ewww.
He’s not limping, in fact, he’s running around quite a bit. He is, however, licking his paw a lot. When I tried to squeeze the pad of his paw to make him extend his claws, it’s obviously tender (either that or he’s making pathetic mewing sounds because he knows I give him cat treats after).
As far as I can tell, he ripped this sucker off at the root, there’s no claw to be seen.
The advice part:
Is this something that calls for a trip to the vet?
If no, or, before I can get him to the vet, should I do anything? Wash the paw? Put ice on it? Soak it in something?
If he’s running around, it probably isn’t vet-worthy. As to the licking, I don’t know if that should be en- or dis-couraged. You might want to CALL the vet and ask, do a quick phone consult. But I suspect it’s no worse than losing a fingernail would be for a human – painful, but not life-threatening.
I’d take kitty to the vet, myself. If the claw root is still there he might have trouble with it if it grows back in incorrectly. And of course (since cats run around barefoot all day) there’s a risk of infection. At least, as Scarlett says, give the vet a call and find out what’s up. And be sure not to use any kind of human medications until you get a vet’s okay.
I always take my babies in, but my vet is a good guy whose office is only about four blocks away and has no problem with walk ins. So taking them in is only five minutes of more effort than calling. If yours is harder to get to, at least give them a call.
One of my babies pulled a claw half out (he was a stray when we found him) and it healed twisted, so we had to have that one claw de-clawed.
Although I don’t want to discourage a precautionary call to the vet, having grown up in a house full of cats I can say that they occasionally lose claws in such a manner. We had a screen door that the cats would scratch at trying to get outside, and every once in awhile a claw would get snagged in the wires and be torn out by the roots. I know it sounds painful but it really didn’t seem to bother our cats very much. My mom would just swab the damaged toe with a little hydrogen peroxide and forgot about it, and the claw would grow back within a couple weeks. Nothing to worry about!
Our baby came home with two claws torn out of a hind paw. We called the vet; he said just to soak the paw twice a day in a warm iodine solution to prevent infection. We did and the claws grew back in no time.
Just to clarify, you do mean he lost the nail of the claw, right? Since losing the claw would mean losing an entire knuckle, and half of his toe. Doesn’t sound too fun either way. Hope your kitty’s feeling better!
