Vianne ripped out her front claw :(

faeriedust1127

I have been gone the past 5 days and I left my cat with my sister while i was gone. I just returned last night and today i picked up Vianne to trim her nails. When i got to the second claw on her front left foot, she started to cry when i touched the toe. Upon further inspection i noticed that there was no nail there at all!! Just a little slit with dried blood where it used to be. Crying or Very sad

I feel sooo bad, poor baby. I have no clue how she did this and my sister doesnt recall her crying or acting unusual while i was gone. She seems to walk on it fine, but i noticed when she was licking her foot, she was very slow and gentle on that toe. I just cleaned the toe with Novalsan and dabbed some Neosporin on it.

I also just cleaned out her litter box last night and filled it with Swheat Scoop, which has much smaller pieces than the Ultra Pearls litter I have been using. I'm a little concerned about litter getting in there, cuz I'm not sure when she did this or how much its healed. She won't let me get a very good look at it. I could tell she was resisting the urge to bite me while i was trying to clean it.

Anybody else's kitties had this happen?

Mary_NH · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:55 am Post subject:

Dixie does something to her claws now and then. Not sure what it is but quite often when I got to give her a manicure the base of a claw will have scabs/blood on it.
I think she hits it.
Poor Vivanne

faeriedust1127 · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject:

I know what you're talking about, I've seen that on dogs before, but never on my cat. Tho she ripped the entire claw clear out! Nothing but a little hole there now, poor baby. She musta got it snagged on something. I haven't found the nail yet. I hope it grows back, I'm just worried about it maybe coming in crooked or something and hurting her more.

faeriedust1127 · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:24 am Post subject:

well i guess i'm gonna go ahead and make an appointment for a vet to look at her toe tomorrow. it's starting to smell bad which scares me that its getting infected Crying or Very sad

I cant even imagine what it must feel like.

vene · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 4298

I hope Vianne and you feel better soon. *hugs* Pumpkin had an embedded toe nail and I didn't do anything about if for a couple of weeks cause I didn't know. Embarassed

Luckily, she healed up great.

faeriedust1127 · Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 3:18 pm Post subject:

Vianne and I just got back from her vet appointment and I am proud to announce that she did surprisingly well. She only got really nasty when they had to hold her down for the vet to get a better look at her toe. Other than that you could tell she was nervous, but she handled it all beautifully.

My suspicions were confirmed and it is in fact getting infected. The vet gave me Clavamox tabs for a week and some pain meds which I'm a little nervous about giving her after reading the warnings. Its Metacam. Anybody had experience with this med?

The vet said that the nail should grow back normally, but it may come in at an angle so i'll just have to make sure that I stay on top of her nail trimmings. Everything else looks good. Ears, teeth and all that stuff are perfect. I was shocked to find out that my "little" girl has gotten not so little over the past year tho and I didnt even realize it. So the vet recommended I keep a closer watch on her food portions. Vianne is now officially on a diet Rolling Eyes

Luckily she's all up to date and won't need to get poked with a needle again until 2008. Overall I think it was a good experience and not overly pricey. We gotta outta there for only $65 so I was happy about that too. This vet seems really nice, so we got lucky. I didn't know where to take her up here and just happened to see the building while i was out driving the other day. Vianne doesnt even seem mad at me now that we're home, so that's good! Mr. Green

Ginger · Member Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 176 Location: UK

My oldest cat was perscribed Metacam a month or 2 ago as a pain killer for artheritis and I was really worried about the warnings too, I researched it for hours and posted on this and a few other cat boards. I read a couple of stories saying it can cause kidney damage/failure within 2 weeks Shocked

and others saying its absolutly fine, I don't know what the truth is, its hard to tell when your researching on the internet.

I suppose because a vet gave it to me (and you) its safe but it does say on my bottle its for dogs, from what I've heard there are no problems giving it to dogs but this is a cat!

I have decided not to give it to Mitz, the glucosamine I give her for the artheritis has helped and she doesn't appear to be in pain. I came to the decision because I know if I gave it to her and something went wrong I couldn't forgive myself, even if a vet perscribed it, I would be the one giving it to her.

If her pain had been so much that it was going to destroy her quality of life I would have had no choice, I'm glad her pain was helped with other treatments.
If you do give it to Vianne (or find out anything about metacam) I would be very interested to hear how you get on.
Hope she feels better soon

Chessmind · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 2:57 am Post subject:

I'm glad she's okay and that you took her to the vet. That must be painful. I hope she makes a speedy recovery.

nern · Moderator Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Posts: 5042 Location: NY

Poor Vianne. I'm glad she is okay. Richie split all his front claws (having a fit in the carrier) when I took him to the vet. He pretty much shredded two of them almost completely off. I had to take him back again just to have his nails checked out! They were a little bloody but not infected. I hope Viannes infection clears up quickly.

faeriedust1127 · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 3:49 am Post subject:

Thanx everyone for all of the well wishes for Vianne. She was due for a yearly exam anyway and i just hadn't gotten around to it yet with so much going on and moving and all that. I got her the 3 yr rabies shot last month, but all she really needed was a routine check-up cuz all of her other shots are still good til 2008. The toe injury was just an excuse to really get on it, cuz she is otherwise in perfect health and i kept putting it off cuz i've just had so much other stuff to deal with lately. but anyway, now thats done and one less thing to worry about! wheeew!

I found her toenail btw. i put it in her "jewelry box"(collar box). Yea I'm weird, lol. AHH, still makes me cringe to imagine her doing that to herself.

vene · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 4298

Glad Vianne is all checked out and doing fine. I also collect kitty things in my jewelry box mainly whiskers + teeth so I can totally relate. Mr. Green

Nern, I'm so sorry about Richie. Poor kid. He's been through so much.

wildflower_131 · Member Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 154 Location: Sydney

Kitty came in this afternoon and I didn't notice anything peculiar with her, but then when she was sleeping next to me i noticed dried blood one one of her back paws, it seems that she has ripped one of her claws out. She won't let me look at it closely.. I will be ringing the vet in the morning. Hopefully they can see her then. Poor little thing.... Crying or Very sad

vene · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 4298

Sending healing vibes for Kitty. Hope she's ok.

EternalFlame · Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 10:52 pm Post subject:

Vianne is lucky to have such a great mommy.

i was going to mention with the litter it is best not to use things with fine granuals because it can get in the wound. Using litter like 'Yesterdays News' (you guys have that in the states? made up of recycled newspaper into pellets) would be ideal...

but you've been to the vet so i'll hush heh

Nern, hope lil Richie is doing ok too.

wildflower_131 · Member Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 154 Location: Sydney

Kitty is fine !!! Surprised

The vet just cleaned the wound and gave her a long lasting antibiotic. She was very good at the vets.. considering she was a stray, she is very tolerant when you need to look her over! my girl. Very brave. She'll stay inside for the next few days!

Tiger will look after her. Funny, he kind of seemed to know there was something wrong with her last night and he was licking her!

that's my little man! He has the most affectionate personality!

vene · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 4298

Great news Wildflower! Glad Kitty is ok! Tiger is the very best! What a great little guy.

Goldy Cat · Member Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 23

Just wanted to tell you that my Mimi cat ripped her claw out about a year ago, I don't know how long it had been ripped out before I noticed it, but I'm sure not too long because it was really red and looked like some traces of blood. My step mother who is a Veterinarian said it may or may not grow back, and if it does it may come in crooked.

Her claw did grow back, but it took months, and it did come in just a little crooked. I'm so glad that it did grow back Surprised

As for the other post about your cat having arthritis, my cat also has pain in her joints, a friend told me about Flexicose (liquid Glucosamine/Chondroitin with some vitamins), and I have been giving it to her in her food for a few weeks now and I really see an improvement. Surprised

she is able to jump on the couch with ease now.

I definately didn't want to give her medication due to all the bad side effects, so I'm so glad that this natural remedy is working for her.

I really hope your cat's claw grows back with no problems Very Happy

Goldy Cat

Cassie · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:13 am Post subject:

How's Vianne doing?

I often worry about Booger doing this. She doesn't seem to be able to retract her claws all the way. When she's relaxed, you can see about a quarter inch of claw extending beyond her paws and she often gets hung up on her scratching posts. I'll be sure to check her often.

Chessmind · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:29 pm Post subject:

This post is from April 2006.

bellack1 · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:12 pm Post subject:

lol wow i kinda feel dumb. how did this get here? Laughing