Stepped on my kitten's paw

In addition to what trond hansen said, an easy way to check is to play with them. Every time I thought I might step on the paw, I take laser pointer out and observed.

My girls are always obsessed with it and it is easy to see if they are interested in it and if they limp when they try to get the red dot (for the record - they always are interested and never limped).

(After some time I learnt to take my weight off the foot as soon as I feel something tail- or paw-like).

A similar thing happened to my small dog at 6 months. She lagged behind me and her hind foot got trapped in an automatic door. (So much for flexi-leads!)

She yelped loudly but then settled down. However there was blood so I took her to the vet. The vet carefully manipulated each of her toes and other parts of her foot and ankle - there was no further yelping.

The vet concluded that no X-ray was necessary, and that she had scraped a bit of skin off a couple of toes when they got caught. She cleaned things up and prescribed some antibiotics as a precaution and there has never been any problem since.

If there is no bleeding, I suggest a similar test by you. Just manipulate gently and watch for signs of real distress (rather than simply pulling away that most cats and dogs do anyway).

Young animals (and people) tend to recover much more quickly than adults.

P.S. My vet is soon to come out of lock-down but they have treated emergencies right through.

The way to see if the injury is serious is to observe your cat for a couple of hours: if your cat is still limping and tries to avoid using the paw when she walks, you can start thinking about taking her to the vet.

If the paw starts to swell, it is time to call your vet.

You are saying "kitten" in your question, so I am assuming she is only a few months old. The bones in a growing kitten are flexible, so they do not break easily.

If your cat can walk on the paw and is not limping after a couple of hours, you can assume that she will be fine.

You can examine your cat yourself by taking a firm grip on the paw that you think might be injured and if your cat shows signs of pain or cry, you need to take her to the vet to get her examined.

By a firm grip on the paw I mean just taking the paw in your hand and give it a little squeeze, like when you grab your own finger.

Try not to worry, most of us cat owners have stepped on our cats paw at least once and injury to the cats paw is not very common, at least when it comes to fractures. Soft tissue injury will heal in a couple of days, so again, try not to worry.