we recently moved and since then my 3 year old male cat has been doing the strangest thing.
our dining room has wood laminate floor, that is where his food is. our kitchen and mudroom have tile (his litterbox is in the mudroom) and the rest of the house is carpet. we will catch him limping....he won't put his left front paw down at all, we've picked him up, looked at his foot, touched his leg to see if he'd wince or jump in pain....nothing)
here's the weird part. he only limps on the wood and tile. when he reaches the carpet he walks just fine! and we've never seen him limp on the carpet. but its always the same foot, so i would think that if it were some sensory issue he was having with the floor that it would alternate feet or something? i don't think he's hurt or has any issue only because he doesn't wince when we touch him to inspect what the problem may be?
we had tile in our previous house and he never did this there at all!
anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
We had an older slightly overweight cat that limped literally for years. The vet said the cat had sprained her leg and the only way for it to heal completely was for her to stop jumping........ since there really isn't a convenient way to stop a cat from jumping she just had a slight limp.
he probably doesnt like the feeling, like you say its sensory. They are very sensitive. It could be simple as one of his claws are too long, and when it presses on a harder surface it pokes his paw pad as well. Does he go outside at all? do you use large sized clay litter granules? Could be he got some caught in the claw sheath and again it is the hard surface causing rubbing. Trim his claws, clean that paw well, manual extend the claw on each toe. Be sure no clay in is the sheath. See if that helps. If not, could be old injury acting up with the impact of walking on that flooring, but I bet he is just a particular kitty.
How cold is the floor and how old is the cat? It sounds like he doesn't want to walk on it and whatever the reason is effects that paw the most.
I would just get him checked out at the vet to be safe - often I see kitties for acute onset limping but cannot localize a source of pain or any other obvious causes. I agree it's odd that it's only on certain surfaces but the vet can also prescribe some mild pain medication for a short time and see if it helps.
I thought at one time my dog had developed a limp....finally I inspected the pads of his paw real good and there was a tiny stone stuck up in there....other than that...don't know what it could be...maybe the carpet cushions what is stuck up in there and he can really feel it when he is on hardwood.
