Entirely co-incidental that this seems to have been raised at the same time as Hilary22cat's OP, but I it did encourage me to ask. I have a kitty who seems to have a poorly paw; he's not off his food and is trotting around happily but keeps doing a bit of a limp and an 'I'm a teapot' job with his paw. He is a bit wriggly and not a lapcat so difficult to do a ful exam, but he likes a chat and when I've managed to look and feel and have a very gentle press of his claw pads, all I can see is that he seems to have lost his 'dewclaw' on that paw. Would that make him do limpy teapot? Will it improve if I manage a salt bathe or is it down the vets deffo? Its probably about 5 days in from me originally noticing and the extent of the limpy teapotness seems to come and go a bit and he seems to overlook it when he's on a chasing my other cats around mission! Any advice/views most gratefully received

Limpy paw is always a difficult one. Whenever I have gone to the vet, they have shown me wounds I hadn't spotted.

But - perhaps I only took the cats when it was subtly obvious (if that isn't an oxymoron!!) that there was something up. Other times I have left it if it hasn't seemed too bad and they have 100% recovered.

Stripe is favouring one of her front paws at the moment. Otherwise well, able to use the limb, no obvious wound. Seems to be improving. So I shall take it day by day. If it gets worse or goes on for too long without significant improvement, I shall take her to the vet.

Thanks StressMonkey - you seem to have got my gist entirely and me yours. It always seems to be that elusive 'puncture wound' that we don't spot but vets always manage to find. I've looked and felt as much as Clarence (for it is he) will let me do but all I can think is a possible inflammation following loss of dewclaw and to cut his toe nails just in case. I'll review tomorrow and take to vets if I'm not confident. He's just trotted delicately downstairs, showed me a limpy one and then tonned it out the open front door for a major play

See now, he's tonned it back in, scoffed a big tea and then limpy pawed it past me. It must be him to the vets or me to the opticians

Awww they do play on it don't they? Your description of "limpy teapot" is perfect!

My cat has had a poorly foot for a few weeks now, which turned out to be a nasty but almost invisible bite on his front "ankle". It needed lancing under anaesthetic and he's had to have 2 courses of antibiotics which still haven't cleared it up completely, but he's almost better thank goodness. Although it's still a bit swollen he doesn't limp at all now, unless he's walking past one of us, then he starts the limpy teapot act (when he remembers, that is ). It didn't stop him catching and delivering a dead mouse to the back door yesterday though.

I've taken Clarence to the vets today. There is no obvious wound and it just seems to be one toe that is bothering him. It's either arthritis or he's had that claw in something and wrenched it. It should settle down in a few days apparently. He's had a jab and I've got some metacam painkiller to put in his food from tomorrow so I've reached some turkey mince out of the freezer! He's still doing limpy teapot though. Bad news was that he does need to go in for dental work (which I suspected) and that won't be cheap, still it could all have been a lot worse if he did have an infected wound I hadn't picked up.