cats front leg swollen

[lynn799]

My 6 yr old female cat jumped from a tree branch about 5 ft high.  She is always jumping up onto ledges or down from them, she jumps very high, always climbing trees, etc.  Anyway, her front paw is now swollen and she will not walk on it, she limps all around.  She does not seem to be in pain, she still goes up and down the steps and jumps on and off the furniture and beds, going to the food dish etc.  We felt the leg up to about the wrist area to feel for anything broken and there doesn't seem to be.  She uses it to clean her head and she didn't care that we were touching her.  She is alway purring.  The paw itself was too swollen to feel, so we haven't.  Could it just be sprained?

[opus88]

Oh thats really great news Lynn, sounds like its mostly a sprain and will repair itself just fine, hope she has learned not to be such a climber/jumper from now on....(yeah not too likely eh)
Your most welcome to stay with us on the forum, we love new kitty members too...we ask questions, give replies or just plain chat whenever we can....at the very least keep us updated on her recovery...♥

[lynn799]

Thank you!

The swelling has gone down tremendously(sp) in the forearm area, and the paw, but the paw still has some swelling  She has started to put a little pressure on it when she hops along and will use it to flip from side to side while lying down.  We have been looking at it so much she must think we're nuts!  We don't see anything wrong with the nails or pads.  We don't see any bumps or wet spots or anything foreign in the paw.......  She really doesn't mind if we touch it.  She uses that paw to clean herself, too.  She's doing really well.  Thanks for the info!

[opus88]

hi and welcome to our cat forum. Were not Vets here only parents!!..............she will be in pain d/t the swelling, even sprains can be quite painful. however that does sound like thats whats going on...if she had broken a hip or leg she would be in tremendous pain when you touched the area....try and have a good look at her paw, is there a tear or something embedded in her pad? a torn nail? if thats the case you will need to keep a watch on incase of infections..
Keep a close watch on her today perhaps that will give you more clues. An xray would be needed if you start to suspect a break.
best to kitty, please keep us posted. ♥