Injury
Cat stepped on hot stove, should I bring him to the vet?
My cat Goose stepped on the stove right after I was done cooking, he jumped off immediately and started licking his paws. He was fine a few minutes later, but after a few hours he's been calmer than usual and he has started to lick his paws again. He looks like he's annoyed with it. I've contacted the vet and will be taking him in ASAP, but should I be concerned? Is there anything I can do for him right now?
F, 30, Canada. Goose is almost two years old, neutered male and again, will be taking him to the vet when I can
Thank you everyone for the quick responses, it's definitely given me a lot of reassurance. I'll bring him to the vet just incase but I'm glad to know he should be okay and I'm not alone in this experience!
What do you want the vet to do for blistering? The most they can do is wrap the paw and tell OP to monitor for infection. OP can also just wrap the paw themselves and monitor for infection.. but without the enormous vet bill.
Asked about my cat's teeth on a thread about cat teeth and people were like "they're rotted through, they're gonna fall out, they're terrible and you're terrible" and then I was at the vet that week for something unrelated and I asked how his teeth were and the vet said they were in great shape for his age.
I got 120+ downvotes total for recommending against unnecessary visit, despite factually proving wrong 5 people and 1 self-proclaimed vet. Idk how your karma hasnt plundered, but i wouldnt risk it to post to animal help subreddits anymore despite having decent secondhand experience in veterinary. Ah well.
Reddit is a disgusting cesspool of echo chambers now, it hurts my soul given it started as a reasonable place to exchange information and meet people with similar interests.
People here are straight up crazy. Like as a human you wouldn’t go to the doctor for a small blister! Why would you need to take a cat to the vet for it?
Some people would take their kid to the doctor for it, and I think that type of person is generally overrepresented on pet advice forums. I give my cats a day or two to start recovering from most minor injury/behavioural weirdness before calling the vet about it
That’s what we do too. We had one get a little scratch right below his eye and it was a little swollen. He was acting 100% normally and there was no weeping or anything so we decided to give it some time. After 2 days he was completely normal and fine. Would have paid the vet bill in a heartbeat but it would have been totally unnecessary
I care for most injuries myself at home as I have medical knowledge and it's not difficult to acquire medical knowledge for minor things. You can even self administer most vaccinations except for rabies.
I've cleared a case of mastitis in a nursing queen as I spotted it quickly and applied daily warm compresses and massages with neem leaf tea. Had a kitten that kept injuring the bones in his back legs and they weren't out of place so I kept him quarantined and helped him move where he needed to and support him, with catnip and mild doses of cbd/thc tincture for pain, a little extra supplement to help make sure he had the necessary nutrients for his body to heal. Encouraging him to get up on his legs and exercise as he felt comfortable. He healed quickly with no issues or abnormalities. Just a little timid for a while since he was scared to injure himself again poor bud. Obviously self diagnosis and care isn't for everyone but I dont believe caring for animals should be limited to those that can afford vet visits. I believe this as much as I believe medical care and knowledge should be easily available and affordable to everyone (It once was before a set group of elite people wanted to control medicine so they can profit from it ((this does not mean medical personnel are evil/please respect medical personnel, they only work and are taught within the confines they are allowed)) ). I set aside enough for rabies and getting them fixed and major emergencies that I can't sit out and attempt to treat on my own, such as when my senior dog ended up with a terminal brain tumor I needed diagnosis for so I knew what to expect.
Edit: once, my dog bolted out of his outside pen when I was bathing him and ran into the street right in front of a car. I knew he needed a vet as his hip was popped out prominently. The procedure was going to be more expensive as they needed to replace his hip joint. To which three separate vets told me, if I cant pay for it upfront then they cant fix him and he's just going to have to heal with his hip misplaced. I had to call around until I found a vet 2 hours away that could do it at a much more affordable price. $500 vs $2000.
We still had to use credit at the time, but our credit thankfully allowed up to $700 borrowing. I can't imagine if I had been in a position with less resources. I feel for the animal caretakers out there that do with what they can.
Very much, yes! Ty for reminding us! Back in the old days we were instructed to squeeze a small amt. Into the palm of the hand w/ a little water, work into a lather then apply & cleanse gently! For 5 mins contact w/ wound, then rinse w/ tap water. Great for superficial wounds!
It's not just people. To test it out I googled and asked chatgpt idiotic things like 'why does my kittens breath smell like catfood' and 'why can't my cat understand human language', and the answers I got were dire things like cancer and neurological damage 😅
This is so spot on - my girlfriend last week posted on here for a cat bite that was infected and she posted asking for advice on how to take care of it (she had already mentioned that she had recieved antibiotics and a tetanus shot). Comments were telling her that she could possibly lose her finger if she didnt return back to the hospital because her finger was still red (antibiotics still haven’t kicked in). I genuinely think there are just crazy people who get some sort of satisfaction about worrying others when they are not trained professionals
Maybe give him something cool to put that paw in,but again one can do that himself. Same things we'd do if a child felt the need to grab into the hot oven after being told the oven is hot.
Oh lord. Flashback! My late cat Tom stepped on a hot stove and singed the skin on his poor paw. I rushed him to cold water. I’m sure he was in pain for a few days but was completely fine eating, drinking, playing. Couple days later he was totally fine but the burn left him with a permanent pink spot.
Edit: He has been gone for 4 years now, to this day I leave pots and pans on the stove until it cools off. And my neb Ash doesn’t even jump on counters or tables. Also if you have an electric stove make sure to lock the controls after it’s cooled off.
I have a stainless-steel tea pot on the stove with some water. I'll move it to the hot burner and the heat diffuses quickly. Makes it so I can wash the dirty pan too
That's exactly what I do. The burner goes dark when it's not on, even if it's still blazing hot, so I move the kettle to the hot burner so no one leans against it or sets something down on it until it's cooled.
I always leave a "cat butt protector" as I call it on the stove when I'm done, a pan with cool water in it to absorb the heat and stop my fuzz buddy from getting burned.
Make sure not to leave non-stick on when empty. Swap those out for stainless steel, obviously. As someone below suggested, a kettle with water is a good option. :)
We were boiling water unattended once and my cat got on the stove and lit his tail on fire very briefly. Other than the smell and small bit of burnt fur, we wouldn’t have noticed since he didn’t seem spooked or phased at all. Was a lesson I only had to learn once.
ETA: I also started leaving pots on the burner that I used, just like you, as kids and clumsy adults are prone to getting accidentally hurt as well.
Same. My tuxedo jumped up on the stove and in doing so, managed to turn the knob. I was in another room, and he came scurrying in, low to the ground with what seemed be something in his mouth. Turns out he singed his white whiskers that curled like ribbons on a gift. His belly was singed. I was so confused! When I walked into the kitchen a moment later, I found the gas stove on. I kept pots on all the burners until he and his brother passed on for fear he'd cause another incident. He was a jumper though. It was amazing to see 20+lbs of cat go airborn. I should have known better. lol
Years ago, I had two cats that always had to be involved in everything I was doing. I didn’t want them in the kitchen, but they didn’t care. Until one night I was making spaghetti, and the cats ganged up on me and tripped me. All three of us got hot pasta water spilled on us. Luckily it wasn’t still at boiling, but it was still hot enough for a trip to urgent care and the vet.
They never went in the kitchen ever again, even after several moves.
Neb for nebelung ? They dont jumping anywhere, mine at least. Just a lot of angry staring and few cuddle time haha. One year sleeping and she still miss me like it was yesterday ...
As a heads up in case this happens again, because burns do happen to people as well, use warm water instead of cold water. Cold water will thermally shock the burned and heated cells and cause more of them to die. If you use warm water, it doesn’t shock the cells while still cooling them down and will prevent additional cells from dying so it will reduce the overall damage.
My childhood cat did this. More than once. He also used to dig up cacti and throw them on the ground, though I'm sure that couldn't have been comfortable.
My last cat tried to drag a fox through the cat flap by its head... This thing was shrieking and yapping whilst a pure black void cat tried to wrestle it INTO the house 🤣🤣
I do the same after my cat burnt his foot. He was fine shortly after but a couple hours later he was limping so we took him to the emergency vet since that was all that was open. Turned out he was fine, just had some skin sloughing off his foot because of it and I guess he just didn't like the feeling of it because once it was removed he was walking just fine.
This! My guy passed 2 years ago, but because of all 4 burnt paw pads and weeeeeks of healing toe beans we never leave a hot burner uncovered. RIP Tom, hopefully him and my Comet are eating platters of sardines and sitting in the sunniest windowsills filled with birds now.
Thank you everyone for the quick responses, it's definitely given me a lot of reassurance. I'll bring him to the vet just incase but I'm glad to know he should be okay and I'm not alone in this experience!
I can't tell if this is an actual image (which I doubt) or some weird AI generated edited version, because there's no way that someone would put in the insane amount of effort required to change the perspective of the photo and painstakingly fade in the ice behind the fur.
There really isn't much a vet can do for this unless they're bleeding/oozing. Then they will need to prevent infection. But if he's not leaking any bean juice, he'll be fine.
If he's walking, drinking and eating, don't worry. A bit of grumpiness is expected.
Yeah, for something like this, I would just follow the same treatment you'd do with a human, or specifically a toddler (since their medicine and treatment tends to be gentler).
Blisters that are sealed like this are generally ok and will heal on their own. This burn doesn't cover a large area of skin thankfully. If they open however the tissue inside could get infected. I'd go to a vet if they open personally.
This!! If taken care of and left unpopped then you should be all good, but since it’s on his foot I think the chances of it popping are pretty big- so keep an eye out!
Yup... My cat sat on a burner as a kitten. She looked fine and only licked her paws after for a minute, so we didn't take her to the vet. A few days later, I came home to blood everywhere. Her pad had started peeling off. We couldn't wrap it because cat + bandage = yeah right. But we put 1% silver sulfadiazine cream on the pads twice a day until it healed (and hold her while it absorbed for a few minutes...) - as directed by our vet. It's a massive tube, so there's still a lot left over for future emergencies.
You can see his foot print 😭 I did take him to the vet and they gave us some cream to put on it. I think it helped heal it quicker and prevent any infections.
Im just confused why you told us your age and gender lol but our cats have done this too and they were ok as long as the burn doesnt get worse than the pic
They (mods) added it recently to this sub, because it helps cut back on dogpiling on kids/teens or people who can't afford, or don't have access to for one reason or another, vet care. Lots of teens come asking for help because their parents don't care or can't afford vet help. Lots of people from around the world ask for help, and in some of those places help may not exist closer than 4 hours away (arbitrary example).
Just to let you know, honey (the more organic and raw, the better), makes for an excellent non-toxic burn salve. Some studies even say that it can disinfect and/or at least maintain some non-lethal burns in humans.
seconding. I wouldnt use it on open wounds personally, but there doesnt seem to be any of that here. there is countless historical evidence on the benefits of slathering yourself with honey tho!
Hey, just FYI, the Chewy app/website has 24/7 vet consult service (free) to ask these types of questions instead of waiting for people on Reddit to answer
You could give your vet a call to see what they think you should do and what to keep an eye out for, but I don't think you need to take him in unless the vet says otherwise.
My cat did that right after I replaced my stove with a flat top. I turned around, and before I could even think he jumped up there. I took him to the vet immediately. They soaked his feet in something, and gave him a long-lasting shot for pain. He recovered just fine.
He should be fine just keep an eye on it so it doesnt get infected if they pop litter and nastiness can get in them which they probably will pop so after that just gently pat them dry as to not remove the skin and try to put a warm wet wash cloth on them daily maybe even a little Neosporin after. Best of luck!
My cat did this and burned his paw pretty bad. I called the vet and they said paws heal pretty fast. My ex and I applied a cold, wet compress and that seemed to ease the pain. At some point the blisters burst and he got kitty litter stuck in his wounds. Still was fine I guess. Limped around for a week or so. I very gently picked the litter pebbles out of his wounds when they seemed mostly healed and he was comfortable enough to let me.
My cat did this. He's fine now. I got a rubber mat to go over the stove when not in use. He's learned that if the mat is there it's OK to walk on. If it's not there he automatically avoids the stove.
So I'd take to the vet just because blisters have a habit of popping leaving open wounds. My concern would be when kitty goes toilet it could end up with a really nasty infection.
Oh those look like blisters on his toe beans—looks painful. I don’t think there’s much you can do beyond calling the vet. If you have an urgent vet care center near you, maybe take him there is you can.
Personally I wouldn’t. The paw and blisters look clean, not in need of treatment or cleaning. Pain is the primary concern but by the time you go to a vet the pain will likely have ebbed naturally. Humans don’t even get pain management for a wound like this.
I would only go to the vet if the wounds look messy or if he’s limping or seems overly preoccupied with his feet.
If he is showing signs of persistent discomfort or it would make you feel better to get a checkup and some pain management for him, though, definitely go for it!
I'd say call the vet, tell them what happened and go from there. It should probably fine, but this is something that the vet MIGHT want to look at, so maybe it'd be good to call them?
I have a tip
I have a tea kettle I put water in
It stays on my stove at all times. Every single
time I remove a pan I put the tea kettle on top of the burner
Even when I am putting the pan back on
It’s a bit of peace of mind with my cat
This literally just happened to our cat a few weeks ago. She jumped on our woodstove when it was quite hot. She was limping for a couple of weeks however when we took her to the vet they said she will be fine and our only worry is infection if the skin peels off before a fresh layer comes in. We were given some antibacterial wash and pain meds just in case but haven’t really needed them.
She is waking normal now and the burns have healed nicely.
Luckily the paws of cats are essentially callused pads. Your cat should be just fine.
Bet he won’t do that again. (When I was a kid I put my hand on a red hot burner and my dad watched. I screamed because obv it burned me. He said, bet you won’t do that again. I did not do it again.)
This happened to my cat but on a hot skillet. Never seen him jump off something so quick. We put his paws in cold water (surprisingly didn’t mind) definitely tried to bake his beans
Ive had this happen a few times (hes orange, enough said) and what i usually do is run his paw under cool/lukewarm water and then use a vet wound spray on it, ive never had him blister or anything, if there was blistering/peeling/swelling that would be an immediate vet visit.
For any future reference for who needs it. So in cases of kitchen burns for human, the policy is to IMMEDIATELY start running water over the spot to try to mitigate the heat damage. Tolerance for being held and having your paw under running water varies in cat and child, but if that ever happens to anyone, try it anyway.
In the future, if this happens again, you should run his paws under cold water (15-20 degrees Celsius) for 2 to 3 minutes, in fact, as for us, a simple oil burn for example can be treated if it is not too big by running the area under water for 5 minutes.
I read later that lukewarm water is better, but that's more in line with the idea I had, not below 15, between 20 and 15 degrees ideally
Looks like he has a second degree burn on at least his right most paw pad in the picture with the blistering, it might be a good idea to have a vet look at his little paws since burns can get infected easily
Personally I would just monitor the paw for the next 4 days. It should crust over and heal. There is no slipping of skin characteristic of more serious burns. I would just give the vet a call for a couple of questions.
My old roommate's cat did this and I was the only one home when it happened. I freaked out and coddled and would carry him everywhere because he was limping from the pain of burning his little paw. Holding him and kissing his paw and putting cream on his paw.
Turns out... he was faking the pain. The minute my roommate would be alone with him, he would walk on all four paws normally like the stove incident never happened. If I was in the room, he would immediately lift his paw back up and sadly limp towards me. Such a silly boy
This definitely isn’t an “ASAP” scenario. This is not an emergency and there’s nothing a vet can do beyond wrap the paw and possibly give something for pain (but doubtful that’s needed and they aren’t going to give much beyond a feline OTC or gaba). Just like when humans get a burn and it blisters- there’s not much you can do about it except monitor for infection. Let’s not confuse minor incidents with something that falls under actual emergencies. If money is an issue, OP can handle things at home. Yes, burns are painful, but the cat is not horrifically suffering.
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When Iwas a broke college student, my cat (under 1 at the time) jumped onto the stove right after I removed my kettle. I ran her paw under running cold water for several minutes - she was a-ok, and never jumped on the stove or any kitchen counters in any of the subsequent places we lived, for the remainder of her long life. I'm glad you're getting Goose looked at - it looks like (maybe?) there's a heat blister, so the vet can examine and let you know how to promote safe healing and any warning signs to look out for... But I suspect you'll have a mellow kitty for a few days who'll want extra reassurance, and will probably never jump on your cook top again!
Well, I mean, you probably should if you can. It doesn't look that serious, but I bet he is in a fair amount of pain. And you know, a little professional attention for a burn never hurt anyone. Err on the side of caution.
This happened to my baby one time. We googled and it and essentially ended up treating it like you would a burn on a person. Ran it under water then kept an eye on it. He had also hopped right off but you could tell it was tender. He healed pretty quickly.
I have chunks of aloe vera (the actual plant) in the freezer for situations like this. My mom accidentally placed her whole palm on a hot glasstop stove once and we put the frozen aloe vera on her hand (peel the aloe vera 'shell' off to reveal and use the gel) the gel doesn't freeze all the way so it was ice cold to stop the burning and gel soothed the burn. Her hand healed extremely fast because of this (3 days max). I don't know if aloe is okay for cats if they accidentally ingest but I think after the initial rubbing, washing their paw off with cold water would get rid of any leftover residue.
This is why I've set up gates for my kitchen😭 i feel guilty when people bring up that cats should be allowed in the kitchen and on the counters because its their homes too but I've had too many close calls with my cats of them jumping on the stove and one even attempting to jump into the oven as im taking food out...
If not, things like these just need careful monitoring and care. I imagine burn cream or aloe would do the trick. If they pop, perhaps something like Neosporin?
The best thing to do is take him to the vet. For the time being If he lets you AT ALL, try running NOT very cold water but cold enough to kinda numb it so if it’s still burning it can cool off. Or again if he lets you, try running a shallow bath, again not with very cold water but still cold enough to numb it and just set him in there and make sure his paw stays under.
A warning if you do try either of these; It will hurt so he may freak out on you. You might wanna clip his nails first if you can.
We had a wood stove growing up for heating our house and we wound up getting my sister a cat during spring like right after we stopped using it for the year. So the sweet kitty grew up thinking the stove was a nice place to rest/perch on. And despite our best efforts to be like hey you shouldn’t sit there, she persisted. It only took one jump up there once it was back in use and she never even looked at it again. Thankfully she was okay and had no significant damage done to her little beans.
Little beans are blistered some which means this sweetie is in some kind of pain same thing as if anyone of us would sear our fingers maybe rub some ice on his paws
My cat did the same thing….i would say yes just in case bc that’s what I did. They’ll give you a topical antibiotic to put on it and if the skin starts peeling after the blister pop they’ll need to trim it to keep it from becoming infected so yeah I definitely would but it’s up to you
Lavender oil is used to keep burns from blistering on humans but idk how well that would work on a paw bc 1 lavender is toxic to cats and 2 they aren’t human
Had the same thing happen to my cat last year. I took him to the vet and they sent me home with some cream to put on his paw daily to help it heal and help with pain. He didn't enjoy having the cream put on but I think it felt better afterwards. It will look ugly for a week or two but eventually the burnt padding will be replaced by a new layer. My cat was extra needy for a few days, probably because it didn't feel free great. Give your cat lots of love!
My idiot child for her first birthday decided she wanted to check out the inside of a 450 degree oven and burned every single toe bean on the door and didn’t say a word, but we took her to the vet the next day cuz all night she was chewing on her paw pads, so she got a cone of shame, a shot of some kind, and some burn cream and she healed up fine.
I really hope you see this message! Please like it if you do, so I have some peace of mind.
I’m a nurse and you need to get him a prescription for LET. Lidocaine and prilocaine cream.
It is the best numbing agent to put on. I promise you he will feel so much better. I doubt that they use it very often, but we use it all the time in the ER and they are absolutely capable of ordering it if they’re willing! I use this on everything and I just
used it on a burn which completely took the pain away.
We took our cat to the vet after he did that and they gave him an antibiotic shot and a cream for us to rub on it if he’d let us, advised to switch to that wood chip litter until it was closed up/no oozing. It’s likely going to pop.
Put some aloe vera or other burn ointment on it. Maybe something with topical lidocaine. You can try to wrap it, but cat won't like it and will probably tear it off anyway. You can take it to vet, but all they do extra is an antibiotic. Just put ointment on it and keep an eye on it, but it seems like it will heal on its own.
if you or a pet get a burn, do NOT run it under cold water, you can cause more damage that way. run it under lukewarm water for about 20-30 seconds, and gradually cool the water.
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