Shiva's injury/abscess

About a week and a half ago, we got home from some Sunday errands to find an injured kitty. We locked up the kitties in their room, per usual. Later on in the evening, I noticed that Shiva was limping on his left paw and looked like he was in pain.

We monitored him throughout the week and kept him confined to his room. By Wednesday, he wasn't eating his breakfast, so Craig called the vet and got him in for Thursday morning.

The vet assessed the leg and then kept Shiva there all day to get some x-rays taken. We found out that nothing was broken and that we would just have to keep an eye on him. The vet thought it was probably a soft tissue injury.

I worked on Saturday and returned home to find this on Shiva's paw. We took some photos and did some research online, assuming what we were dealing with was an abscess. I sent an e-mail off to the vet's office, hoping someone would see it first thing Monday morning.

By Monday, the paw looked like this and I sent yet another e-mail off. I finally heard from our vet mid-morning and he thought it was an infection that would have to be treated with antibiotics. I went to pick those up and we started treatment.

We also have been dipping his paw in epsom salt and warm water and Craig has been trying to push on the injured area, in case there is fluid in the sore that needs to come out.

Shiva does seem to be getting better. Within the last day or so, he has finally put pressure on his foot and is playing with Pema. Perhaps this was an injury from Pema and him playing? We'll never know I guess, but it's been very stressful dealing with this type of thing. We were hoping for healthy cats this time after going through so much trauma with Karma.