Cat paws and pads: burns, chemicals, ingrown claws and pillow foot

Quick answer

A cat that is used to being handled will let you lift and open a paw, which is the whole of the examination.

A cat's paw pads are the only part of its body that touches the ground, and they have no fur to protect them. Everything the floor offers, heat, ice melt, cleaning product, glass, tar, goes straight onto bare skin. Then the cat grooms that skin and swallows whatever is on it.

Most paw problems in cats are not weather problems. They are burns from surfaces indoors, chemicals carried in on the feet, claws that have grown into the pad, and swellings that are not injuries at all.

• Check all four paws in daylight, comparing left with right, rather than looking at the sore one alone.
• A pad burn often looks like nothing on day one and sloughs several days later.
• One swollen toe in an older cat is not automatically an abscess and should not be treated as one without a look at the chest.
• Soft, puffy, over-inflated central pads on more than one foot point to plasma cell pododermatitis, an immune condition, not to trauma.
• Anything a cat walks through, it later swallows. That is the main reason paw contamination matters.

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What lands on the pads ends up in the mouth.

Cats groom their feet thoroughly, so a paw is an ingestion route, not just a skin surface. Antifreeze from a garage floor or driveway is lethal to cats in very small amounts and causes kidney failure that is often irreversible by the time signs appear. Dog flea products containing permethrin, walked through or rubbed off by a treated dog, cause tremors and seizures in cats and kill them. Phenol-based floor disinfectants, the kind that turn cloudy in water, are also poorly tolerated because cats process this class of chemical badly.

If you know your cat has walked through antifreeze, a dog spot-on, or a strong disinfectant, wash the feet with lukewarm water and a mild dish detergent, stop the cat licking them, and phone a vet immediately. Do not wait for signs.
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Decide in 60 seconds

Why the pad is the weak point

A cat walks on its toes. Each foot carries a digital pad under each toe, a large central pad taking most of the load, and on the front legs a carpal pad set further back that touches down only when the cat brakes, lands or climbs down something steep.

The pad surface is a thick, hairless plate of keratin. It resists abrasion well, which is why a cat can cross gravel without concern. What it resists badly is heat, solvent and pressure held in one place.

Underneath that keratin sits a fat pad and a dense blood supply, plus the sweat glands cats use for traction and, marginally, for cooling. That blood supply is why a small pad cut bleeds impressively and why pad wounds are slow to close: the tissue is under load every time the cat takes a step, so the wound edges are pulled apart repeatedly.

Pigment does not change how strong a pad is. It does change what you can see. A cat with pale pink pads gives you a free view of circulation and colour, so pale, grey or yellow pads on such a cat are informative. On a black-padded cat you will read the same information from the gums instead.

Fur between the pads matters more than owners expect. In longhaired cats those tufts collect litter, grit, ice and sticky substances, hold them against the skin, and hide the early stage of anything that starts there.

What a healthy paw looks like

A comfortable cat rests with the paws loosely extended. Guarding a foot under the body, or sitting with one paw held off the floor, is the opposite signal.

Healthy pads are smooth to slightly grainy, firm but yielding, and even in colour for that cat. The skin between the toes is dry and closed, with no gap, no moisture and no smell.

Claws retract fully and sit clear of the pad when the foot is at rest. Extend one gently by pressing the toe between finger and thumb: the claw should be curved, layered, and free of splits or crusting at the base.

The two front feet should feel the same as each other, and the two hind feet the same as each other. Front and hind normally differ a little, because the front feet do more braking and gripping.

A cat that lets you hold a foot, spread the toes and press each pad without pulling away has a comfortable foot. Withdrawal, a flick of the ears, a tail thump or a sudden groom of that foot afterwards are all pain signals in a species that does not usually cry out.

Burns: the injury that shows up late

Thermal injury to pads is common in cats and is usually indoor. A cat jumps onto a glass or induction hob that has been switched off but is still hot, onto a wood burner surround, onto a radiator shelf, or onto a metal balcony rail or flat roof that has been in the sun all afternoon. Because the cat arrives by jumping, all four pads land at once and at full weight.

The contact is brief, which is exactly why owners miss it. The cat leaps away, shakes its feet, and appears normal.

Early, first day. The pad looks slightly pink or feels warm. The cat licks it, may flick the foot, and often eats and moves normally. On a pigmented pad you may see nothing at all and only notice the licking.

Established, day two to four. The surface becomes dull, waxy or leathery, and the cat starts guarding the foot. Fluid may collect under the keratin plate and lift it.

Late, day three onward. The dead keratin layer separates and peels off, leaving raw tissue underneath. This is when most cats are presented, and by then the wound is open, painful and easily infected.

The practical consequence is that you treat a suspected burn on the day it happens, before it looks like anything. Run cool, not iced, water over the foot for several minutes. Keep the cat from licking it. Ring the vet the same day and describe the surface the cat touched, because burn depth is judged from the source as much as from the skin.

Never put butter, oil, cream, honey or a human burn gel on a cat's pad. Anything you apply is groomed off and swallowed within minutes, and greasy layers trap heat in the tissue instead of releasing it.

Chemicals: what the cat swallows off its own feet

Winter pavements are treated with de-icing salts, which draw water out of skin and can be mildly caustic in the presence of moisture. The visible result is dry, cracked, sore pads. The invisible result is a cat that grooms the residue off and swallows it, which causes drooling and stomach upset.

Garages and driveways are the more serious problem. Ethylene glycol antifreeze is sweet and cats are exposed mainly by walking through a spill and grooming, not by drinking it. The window in which treatment works is short and closes before the cat looks unwell.

Household floor products matter more for cats than for other pets. Cats have limited capacity for one of the main liver pathways used to detoxify phenols and related compounds, which is why phenolic disinfectants and pine or tea tree oil preparations are unsafe around them. A floor mopped with a strongly aromatic cleaner and walked on before it dries delivers the dose to the pads.

Tar, road sealant, paint and sticky traps need softening, not scrubbing. Warm a bland vegetable oil in your hands, work it into the substance until it loosens, then wash it out with a small amount of mild dish detergent and lukewarm water. Never use turpentine, white spirit, petrol or nail polish remover on a cat.

Between any of these and the mouth stands one barrier, and it is you. Wash first, stop the grooming, then call for advice.

Cold, salt and cracked pads

Cats regulate their exposure to cold well when they are allowed to. Pads are not usually the first tissue to suffer frostbite, because the ear tips and tail are thinner and less well supplied with blood, but the pads do crack.

Cracking comes from the cycle of wet, cold, salt and drying rather than from cold alone. The tufts between the toes in longhaired cats ball up with ice and snow, which pulls on the skin and keeps a cold, wet mass in contact with it.

Trim those tufts level with the pad surface with blunt-ended scissors, or comb them out. Do not shave into the webbing.

After an outdoor cat comes in during salted-road season, wipe the feet with a damp cloth and dry between the toes. That single habit removes most of the salt and most of the licking that follows.

Deep cracks that reach pink tissue, bleed, or persist through mild weather are not weather cracks. Persistent pad hyperkeratosis and crusting, particularly if the nail beds are also crusted or the face and ears are affected, points to immune-mediated skin disease such as pemphigus foliaceus, which needs a diagnosis rather than a moisturiser.

Swellings: telling the five kinds apart

A swollen foot is the presentation where cat owners most often get the wrong answer, because the popular answer is always abscess.

Pillow foot deserves its own note because it looks alarming and is not urgent in the way an abscess is. The central pad becomes puffy and soft, as if slightly inflated, often on several feet, and the cat may be entirely sound. It is an immune process, is diagnosed by sampling the pad, is associated with viral status in some cats so testing is reasonable, and is managed with immune-modulating medication rather than surgery in most cases.

The lung to digit pattern is the one that costs cats their lives when it is missed. In cats, a primary tumour in the chest can spread to the toes and cause a painful swollen digit long before any cough. A middle-aged or older cat with a digit that will not settle should have its chest imaged, not another course of antibiotics.

Ingrown claws, the quiet senior problem

An old cat climbs less, scratches less and sleeps more, so its claws are worn down less. The claws keep growing on the same curve, and the sharp tip meets the pad it curves toward.

The front dewclaw and the outer toes are the usual offenders because they contact nothing at all during walking. Once the tip enters the pad, the cat has a foreign body and an infection in one, and it hurts every step.

Signs are subtle: a cat that stops jumping onto its usual shelf, sits with one foot tucked, chews at a foot at night, or leaves blood spots on bedding. Lameness comes late.

Extend each claw individually every one to two weeks in any cat over about ten years old, in any cat with arthritis, in obese cats that cannot reach their feet, and in every declawed cat. Declawed cats often have altered weight bearing and, when the amputation left fragments behind, regrowth that emerges through the pad.

If a claw has already entered the pad, do not pull it out. Cutting the tip free is a job for someone who can also clean and assess the wound underneath, and the cat will need pain relief for it.

Changes that mean act today

Bleeding that does not stop with several minutes of firm pressure through a clean pad.

Pad skin lifting, peeling or absent, with pink or red tissue exposed.

A foot the cat will not put down at all, or that it holds up when standing.

Swelling that extends above the foot into the lower leg.

Both hind feet cold with pale pads, painful, with weakness or dragging of the back legs. This is a suspected arterial clot and is one of the most painful emergencies in cats.

Pads that have turned grey, purple, black or yellow.

Any of the chemical exposures above, whether or not the cat looks unwell.

The routine that catches problems early

The whole kit is a towel, a comb for the tufts between the toes, and good light. A longhaired cat like this one needs the between-toe fur checked most.

Do the check when the cat is already settled and drowsy, not when it is alert and busy. Sit beside it rather than lifting it onto a table.

Take one foot at a time. Cup it from underneath, press gently on the top of the toe to extend the claw, then release. Spread the toes with a thumb and look into each web space. Run a thumb over the central pad and feel for softness, heat, or a lump that the other foot does not have.

Finish the foot before moving on, and stop while the cat is still relaxed. Two feet today and two tomorrow beats a struggle that teaches the cat to hide its feet.

The same short handling session is when to glance at ears, coat and mouth. Cats hide illness, so a repeated, boring routine is what turns a small change into an early finding.

What the vet will want to know

Which foot, when you first noticed, and whether it has changed since.

Whether the cat is bearing weight, and what it has stopped doing, such as jumping to a particular height.

Indoor, outdoor or balcony access, and whether it has been in a garage, shed or on a flat roof.

What cleaning products are used on your floors, how recently, and whether the floor was dry before the cat walked on it.

Whether any dog in the household has had a flea or tick treatment applied, and which one. This one question resolves a proportion of sudden neurological cases in cats.

Whether the cat is declawed, and if so how long ago.

Photographs of all four paws in daylight, and your baseline photos if you have them.

Recent weight, appetite, and any coughing or breathing change, which matters when a digit is involved.

What never to do

Do not apply human antiseptic creams, burn gels, tea tree preparations or essential oil balms. Cats groom them off and metabolise several of these classes poorly.

Do not use a dog paw wax or spot-on product on a cat without checking the ingredients with a vet. Permethrin is the specific killer.

Do not bandage a paw tightly at home. A wrap applied over a swollen foot restricts an already compromised blood supply, and cats tolerate bandages poorly enough that they often make the injury worse trying to remove them.

Do not soak a burn in ice water. Extreme cold on damaged tissue deepens the injury.

Do not cut a claw that has grown into the pad and then leave the wound alone, and do not try to pull the claw out.

Do not treat a persistent digit swelling in an older cat as an infection indefinitely. If it has not resolved as expected, the diagnosis is wrong.

When to get help

Go the same day for a burn, exposed or peeling pad tissue, a foot that will not take weight, bleeding that will not stop, or a foot swelling that is spreading up the leg.

Go immediately, without phoning first if that is faster, for cold pale hind feet with pain or weakness in the back legs, and for any known exposure to antifreeze or a permethrin dog product.

Book within the week for a soft swollen central pad on more than one foot, a claw growing into the pad, a persistent discharging point between the toes, or crusting around the nail beds.

Bring your daylight photographs, the name of any product involved, and the date you first noticed the change. Those three things shorten the consultation and often decide the diagnosis.