Kitty help sought! Information please!

[amedia]

Just found that our rambunctious kitten managed to step in a puddle of half-congealed candlewax. He isn't burned, but his paw is caked with the stuff and he's not having a lot of success licking it off. We tried using a stiff brush and got a lot of the bits and pieces off, but the main area is still pretty solid. We tried soaking his paw in warm water to loosen it, but couldn't keep his paw in the water for more than a few seconds.

Is it safe to let him keep licking at it, or will it make him sick?

Is there any other way to get it off? If it was on any other surface, we'd use ice and peel it, but we don't want to try to hold an ice cube to his paw, for obvious reasons.

I am frantically searching the Internet trying to find help on this topic - so far not much (one promising discussion turned into a tiff on the wisdom of leaving electric tart warmers burning).

Comments

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

You could try dunking his paw in cold water... not ice-cold, but nearly... and you may have to wrap him in a towel except for that paw to grab hold of the paw and hold it under the water for a bit.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for answering!!!

Do you know if he will get sick from trying to lick the wax off?

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Dunno... it probably depends on whether the candle was plain beeswax or something more synthetic and/or scented and/or colored.

The reason I suggested cold water rather than warm... getting wax out of fabric is (as you probably know) best done with cold water or ice, and then flaking or peeling the wax off. You probably won't be able to get the wax warm enough to let it drip off, so the other extreme sounded more feasible to me.

Kids eat crayons all the time. It's not really that different, right, except for the scale (kitties being much smaller than children, and therefore the wax being bigger comparatively)?

[amedia.livejournal.com]

It's not really that different, right, except for the scale (kitties being much smaller than children, and therefore the wax being bigger comparatively)?

Makes sense to me!

The cold water makes sense, too. I did read somewhere (I've been to a lot of vet advice pages in the last fifteen minutes) that one shouldn't put ice directly on a kitty (e.g., a kitty with a sprain or other injury should have an ice bag wrapped in a towel, not applied directly), so cold water would be the next best thing. He's already pretty mad about the brushing and the warm water, though, so we may just leave him be for now.

Ack!

[maubast.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know if he'll get sick or not - I had a cats who loved candles and would chew them up and they never got sick. But that doesn't mean your baby won't.

Please keep us posted?

Re: Ack!

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Will do, I promise!

I have read on a number of sites now that candle wax is apparently one of those things that some kitties eat for no apparent reason. None of them has said not to let them do this (as opposed to, say, antifreeze).

And the little kitty seems irked, but nothing worse.

Re: Ack!

[maubast.livejournal.com]

Mine would eat any votives they could get their little claws on. :)

Thanks for keeping us informed. *hugs*

[tuff-ghost.livejournal.com]

i would just leave him alone to get it off himself. the wax is probably not bad for him (unless you already know he is food-sensitive, or if there is anything really strange about the type of candle); i suspect the very worst it may do is make him throw up later. he probably won't eat the stuff as it comes off in bits, although you might want to keep an eye on him just to make sure.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

i would just leave him alone to get it off himself

Thanks - I tend to agree! So far it hasn't made him sick.