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My cat has pillow paw. What home treatments are safe and effective?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | American Shorthair | Male | 7 years and 2 months old

I think my cat has pillow paw is there something I can do at home to heal him?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on August 20th, 2016

Pillow paw is also known as plasma cell pododermatitis. It is believed there is an immune basis behind the development of the disease, so treating the immune reaction is the focus of treatment. As such, there are not treatments at home that you can do for your cat. Peanut will need to see a vet to diagnose if he does have pillow paw, and then vet can prescribe the treatment of choice for it, oral doxycycline.

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12Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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    Answered By Destini R. Holloway, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    In order to understand what treatment works for pillow foot (plasma cell pododermatitis) you have to understand what this disease actually is. It is an immune mediated disease that causes the body to attack itself erroneously, causing a severe inflammation of the footpads. Therefore natural treatments are often unsuccessful. Most pets respond well to steroids (depo-medrol injections) or immune mediated medications (Atopica or Apoquel) + an extended treatment with Doxycyline or Minocycline that will stop this reaction from the inside. This is the only effective treatment that we know of. You can also do other things that can help at home, but it will likely not be enough to completely rid the swollen paws; such as soaking the paws in a chlorhexidine solution 3% daily or Epsom salt can be tried. I encourage you to visit your local veterinarian to discuss a serious and effective treatment plan for your cats condition. Unfortunately I just don't see any other way around it. Here is a website link that explains this disease and the effective treatments in more detail. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1720

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