Swollen and slightly weepy pawpad

To be super clear, my cat has not been acting at all out of the ordinary. He is a strictly indoor cat and we have two cats. They don't fight aggressively but they do playfight and sometimes get on each others nerves.   His back right paw pad is swollen, the skin looks tight and shiny, and theres obviously some sort of broken skin/discharge but it's difficult to pinpoint where. He has been licking it as part of his normal grooming but I wouldn't say he's focusing on that paw more than usual, and he lets me have a look and push fur out of the way etc which suggests he isn't in pain.   Its difficult to tell if there's much discoloration as his paw pads are multicoloured, but I do think it looks like there's some darkness (could be red, could be more purple) towards the edge of the pad, closer to the fur.   Could I get any sort of idea what this might be? We've moved house recently so sorting the vet is in progress but I would like to know if I need to take him to an urgent drop in or something or if he's okay to "see how it is" for a few days.   Thank you!

Hello and thankyou for this excellent question, which shows awareness of the need to split objective and subjective judgements when assessing whether or not an animal is in pain.  However, it's possible that you may have come down on the wrong side this time because cats are such experts at hiding when something hurts.  Signs of pain can include limping, reduced activity, reduced or increased eating and increased licking (on all feet, not necessarily just the sorest) but I would never take an absence of any of them to mean that a cat isn't experiencing pain, especially when a foot is obviously swollen.  They hide it.  The veterinary profession has come up with various tools to assess pain, for example the Glasgow Pain Scale, but this can be hard to apply on your own, at home, from scratch. Given that you have observed swelling to the foot, my best guesses would include inflammation e.g. caused by a tiny foreign body, an injury or a cat-bite.  If you can imagine swelling for any reason to the extent that fluid is seeping through, I would expect that to hurt.  However, it's worth mentioning that tumours, odema (fluid filling e.g. due to a blockage in the lymphatic system higher up) or cases with nerve damage can be surprisingly completely painless. Please speak to your vet about an appointment; they should perform 'triage,' which means asking a series of questions in order to establish how soon a patient needs to be seen.  Wishing you and your cat all the best from here;  please will you let us know how he gets on?

Thank you for your response. I have booked in to see the vet on Thursday as they said I didn't need an emergency appt, but if I notice any progression I will try to convince them to see him sooner!   Will update after the appt.