# Old cat with thickened curled claws



## IowaGold

Yes, old cats tend to not shed their claws properly resulting in the really thick claws you are seeing. And if not trimmed, they can and will curl back into the pads. This is VERY painful and can lead to infection. Kitty needs to see the vet ASAP. She may need to be sedated to allow the vet to trim those nails and remove the remnants of the claws from her pads. She will most likely need antibiotics too. In the future, you will want to keep her claws trimmed.

FWIW, I don't believe this is something that happens in two weeks time. Most likely that person on the internet that stated this was not looking at the paws thoroughly prior to noticing the problem.


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## mullietucksmom

Oh my that doesn't sound good.. Cats need their nails cut just dogs do.. I hope your son gets your cat to the vet *very* soon.. She has to be in bad pain.. My 13 year didn't use the scratching pole like the younger cats...I had to watch her nails closer then I do Rider and JoJo


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## CarolinaCasey

I'm sure that she'll be good as new in no time. I'd get her to the vet soon though, it has got to be painful.

Another pre-vet student that I know had a declawed cat come into their clinic. It had been limping for TEN YEARS... After finding a lump on the cat's foot, they performed surgery. It was a nail that had continued to grow INside the skin. It was circular and curled- gross and so very, very cool. So, don't feel bad is the moral of my story. I have a picture somewhere!!


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## jwemt81

IowaGold said:


> Yes, old cats tend to not shed their claws properly resulting in the really thick claws you are seeing. And if not trimmed, they can and will curl back into the pads. This is VERY painful and can lead to infection. Kitty needs to see the vet ASAP. She may need to be sedated to allow the vet to trim those nails and remove the remnants of the claws from her pads. She will most likely need antibiotics too. In the future, you will want to keep her claws trimmed.
> 
> FWIW, I don't believe this is something that happens in two weeks time. Most likely that person on the internet that stated this was not looking at the paws thoroughly prior to noticing the problem.


Agreed. It's time for a trip to the vet to make sure that it's not infected and get antibiotics if needed. Our 4 cats get their nails trimmed about once a week. Cats claws tend to curl when they get too long, so it's pretty important to keep them trimmed.


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## Bender

That would be a few months at least to grow that long. I clip our cat's nails about every other week, and they usually don't grow that long anymore. She hates it but at least it prevents her from clawing up the kids as much (she attacks them if they have food and leave the kitchen, bad kitty!).

Lana


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## Mersee

Interesting topic..I trim my cats nails every 2 weeks or so and some of the nails on the same paw are thicker than others. I always wondered why. Did I cut them differently, on an angle? They seem to hate it more when I cut those thicker nails.


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## lgnutah

The vet clipped back all of her claws (including those thick ones) and told me to "just keep them all clipped. I am going to cringe about clipping those thick ones.


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## IowaGold

Mersee said:


> Interesting topic..I trim my cats nails every 2 weeks or so and some of the nails on the same paw are thicker than others. I always wondered why. Did I cut them differently, on an angle? They seem to hate it more when I cut those thicker nails.


Those nails haven't shed off yet. When you cut them you might notice that the outside kind of break off too. Under that, there is a normal sized nail. It probably bothers more because it pinches a bit more trying to get through all that.


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## lgnutah

I actually never was able to look at my cat's claws after she came back from the vet (to have the thickened ones taken care of). My eyes aren't so good and I tried to hold a magnifying glass to look but she wasn't in a mood for me to be doing it so I let her go.


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