Anyone with animals!

So I posted on fur mama's and fur babies and no one is answering my questions on there they just look at it and carry on. So I'm posting it here even though it not controversial.

My cat started limping a week ago, I thought nothing of it because she would limp sometimes and other times she wouldn't, and I figured she ran into the couch or wall again while playing and she'll be fine in a few days. Well yesterday the limping was very noticeable. So I looked at her paw and it was swollen. On this paw her pads are that light pink and the ones bothering her are gray like her other paws. And they are definitely swollen. I was going to wait and see if it took care of itself but today she's limping more and when she just sits or stands there she'll lift up her paw so it's not on the ground. So I made the appointment. I looked at her paw again to see if something maybe was just stuck in it and I couldn't see anything. We do have pokies laying around the house so I'm wondering if maybe she stepped on one of those and punctured her paw. It looks infected there's this light brown tan color coming out of the pads. If this is an Infection how do they clean it out? Do they just take something and scrape under her paws? Or shoot her with antibiotics in her foot? Do they need to do an x-ray? I can't imagine so. It's just one little area that's bothering her. And we checked her elbows and shoulder, for arm and the lower arm. Only time she reacted was when we touched the spot on her paw. I figured that wouldn't call for an x-ray. She actually enjoyed us touching her arm, she never likes that Haha! But if anyone has experience with their pets getting infections please let me know how they clean them out. I just want to be prepared for what they will do tomorrow.