My cat's front paws are swollen and dis-colored?

Question

I brought him to the vet and after finding nothing in the blood, they want to send a tissue sample to the lab. We have changed his food and cat litter but it didn't help. I do not know how long they have been this way since they were like that when we got him from a shelter, so I believe between that time and this, it's over a year.

Answer 1

If your vet who specializes in this can't answer this question no one here will likely be able to help you. If you have no faith in your current vet find another one.

Answer 2

A couple of things:

1) My oldest stray came from a cat shelter and because he was so feral, pooped and peed everywhere, and it had stained his paws. It took about 4 months for his paws to return to normal. (No swelling, just stains)

2) My other stray (we found him stray) arrived with big oversized paws which had a strange texture to the paw pads. The vet did think that maybe he had an allery to something, but that he would have to go on courses of steroids to find out, but that it wasn't overly serious (my cat does not like vets and gets stressed easily, so it was in his interest not to go this route). Since my cat tends to prefer indoors, and still has this issue, I'm thinking that at some point maybe he trod in something that caused his paws to swell, maybe battery acid or something like that, and the shape of the paw never recovered.

3) Finally(!) the other feral cat recently came home with stained, swollen paws... I realised that he had a bone stuck in the roof of his mouth and had been shoving his paws in there, trying to get it out! The vet helped remove the bone, and now he's fine!

You haven't mentioned what colour the paws are?

I guess it's one of those trial and error things to find out! Good luck and bless your kitty!

Answer 3

Let them send the tissue to the lab. And maybe putting an antibiotic cream on them will help. Try to make the cat not able to lick it off. Maybe one of those big funnel type collar would work.