Cat slight limp on front left paw

[albert2418]

About 3-4 weeks ago we noticed one of our cats, 5 years old, would have a very subtle limp from her left paw after waking up from a nap. We dismissed it initially since it was extremely slight and it would quickly go away but about two weeks ago it got more noticeable and she would start favoring that paw, raising it up slightly. We didn't see any signs of external injury or obvious pain. She doesn't mind us grabbing her paws especially when she's relaxed and nothing we did seemed to trigger a pain response of any sort. Her behavior has been completely normal. She eats, drinks, and uses her litterbox. Of course, we took her to her vet, though on the day we did, the limp seemed to have subsided. Our vet couldn't find anything abnormal with her left paw externally either(claws, paw, joints) and assumed it might be a soft tissue injury. Since it wasn't affecting her behavior either and it seemed to be recovering at the time, she gave us pain meds and advised us to keep an eye on her in the meantime before pursuing other options. It seemed she was indeed experiencing some pain as when we gave her the meds mixed into her food, she would start walking normally.

Unfortunately, the limp doesn't seem to be improving and I've noticed it seems to be worse specifically after she wakes up from a nap. After a while of walking around it lessens but not enough to the point before her vet visit when it seemed to be getting better. Behavior still completely normal. She's very active so the hard part has been playing with her without having her run around much. We'll be going again this Saturday and hopefully it's nothing serious, but in the meantime, I was wondering on any advice to keep her more comfortable or if this kind of thing sounds familiar? I bought her some pet stairs but she doesn't seem to want to use them and prefers to jump down from our beds and couch still.

I should mention she is a bit overweight at around 16.5 lb which could have potentially caused an injury when jumping down from one of our taller furnitures?

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi.
I would get an X-ray done from the shoulder to the toes, if they can. That way you will know if it is skeletal in nature or soft tissue.

 

[epona]

It's possible she might have developed osteo-arthritis younger than average, if being overweight is putting more strain on her joints or causing small wear and tear injuries when she jumps. Or she could have a fracture of one of the many bones in her foot.

I agree that an x-ray would seem to be the way to go if it's it not getting better.

Best of luck, I hope you find some answers.

 

[albert2418]

Went in today and the soonest we can get an x-ray done is this coming Friday. Not very worried about Pelusa (our cat) as her behavior is completely normal with no abnormalities in any of her habits. Of course, this means she's still as active as ever so it's a team effort to prevent her from jumping down from the ledges she normally gets on and get her down ourselves, but it is what it is. The Vet noticed today Pelu was reluctant to letting her left paw getting stretched out, suspecting that the issue could be with her elbow and/or shoulder. I'm hoping it's merely an injury or a minor fracture of some sort.

With that said, on the off chance that it is some form of arthritis isolated to her left paw/leg, any personal suggestions on what we can do in the meantime and how to manage it? She refuses to use the pet stairs we got her so that would be a good start. Prior to this we were already working on her weight loss though it seems more important now to get that down and I'm a little unsure how to approach it. I'm aware weight loss should be very gradual as to not affect her health. Our other cat, Emi, is incredibly picky about her food and never stuck to a scheduled feeding time when we adopted her years ago which led to us letting her free feed on dry food and giving her a bit of wet food as well. She seems to be very on point about eating just what she needs so her weight has remained at a good point. Pelusa, however, will devour anything put in front of her while also seeking out Emi's dry food bowl so it's a little difficult to keep track of the amount she eats. We've cut down alot on treats and I'm looking at weight control food but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on how effective that is from personal experience?