My cat's pillow paw isn't healing after vet care. What to do?

Doxycycline can be helpful in these cases. In severe case, immune suppressive therapy with steroids or cyclosporin may be needed. Antibiotics may be needed for secondary infection. Surgery may also be needed in very severe cases in which ulceration has caused the underlying pad tissue to protrude and become damaged or infected.

Pillow paw is also known as plasma cell pododermatitis. It is believed there is an immune basis behind the development of the disease, so treating the immune reaction is the focus of treatment. As such, there are not treatments at home that you can do for your cat. Peanut will need to see a vet to diagnose if he does have pillow paw, and then vet can prescribe the treatment of choice for it, oral doxycycline.

HI, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! If you can not take Yoda to the Vet then I recommend soaking her feet in Epsom salt baths twice daily. Use an E-collar to prevent licking. We think that plasma cell pododermatitis can be food allergy related or immune. So you can change her diet to a novel protein (avoid chicken based diets and try venison, duck or fish). The disease can wax and wan and I have seen it resolve with out treatment. I have never seen a cat lose their foot. If she doesn't get better than try your best to find Veterinary care. Some SPCAs have low cost clinics. I hope this helps and good luck!

It looks like this may not be a simple infection. You should talk to your vet about a possible immune-mediated disease or a biopsy for a resistant infection or fungal infection. The vet may need to check his blood work and test for FIV/FeLV to see if there are any abnormalities which could affect healing.

Hello, sorry to hear about Tiger. It does indeed appear that he has some form of pododermatitis. This is most often associated with either a bacterial or fungal infection which is confirmed with a culture. A biopsy can be considered if the paw is not getting better on medications. This would confirm if there is a more aggressive process on going such as cancer. If the area is not improving within a few days, then have Tiger re-evaluated and consider further diagnostics. Hope this helps and best of luck.

I am so very sorry to hear about your kitty! It does appear, unfortunately, that your kitty could have an infection going on in the foot here, as the area looks swollen with purulent discharge coming from the area. Unfortunately when we have an area like this, a topical treatment is usually not going to suffice and oral or injectable antibiotics is often needed. We can see infections as a result of overgrown or ingrown toenails, wounds, foreign bodies (like a piece of splinter or grass seed) entering the skin, and sometimes we can also get fungal infections. Without seeing your kitty in person it is very hard to determine. I know you say you cannot afford a vet, but I think you will have to figure out a way to get your kitty in to see the vet. They can look more closely at the toe and the nail to try to determine the cause. They may be able to do this just by looking and feeling the area, they may want to test the discharge to check for bacteria or fungus They may need to flush the wound to be sure there isn't any object lodged there. I would recommend calling the vet's office and letting them know your situation. They may have a program called Care Credit that you can apply for to help pay your vet bills with monthly payments, or they may have another program set up similar to this. If they do not, they may be able to refer you to a low cost clinic in your area. Some Humane Society's or animal shelters have lower cost services for those in need. It is best to let your vet know up front of your financial situation so that they can choose the most stream-lined and cost effective options for you from the start.

Based on your description and the appearance of the paw, my suspicion is that Finley was either bitten / scratched by another animal or he suffered some sort of puncture wound from something else. If there is a yellowish exudate emanating from the effected area, there is likely a significant infection occurring that will require a systemic antibiotic to fix. I would also be concerned about a fever. You should go ahead and obtain a temperature at your house rectally. See if it is above 102.5-103.0. If so, the infection is definitely real and Finley could probably benefit from some fluids as well and an NSAID to decrease the temperature. In order to prevent any further damage to the area, the use of a collar to stop Finley from licking his paw would be great. You can make one of these at home if you don't want to buy one commercially. Anyway, I think a vet visit would be the safest bet in this case. If you decide to wait, I really think you may ultimately end up having to go anyway but with matters only worse. Hope this is helpful.