question about ringworm

as i have posted before, we are considering getting a third cat to entertain our new kitten so he will leave the 8 year old alone. my friend works at a vet clinic and they have kittens there that need homes. her boss, the vet, likes to take in strays, clean them up, fix them, and give them away. she got a bunch back in april and they all had a very bad case of ringworm. they are all clear now, finally. she just very recently spayed/neutered them. my friend was telling me that sometimes cats that are very stressed the ringworm can come back, is this true? i don't want to put my two at risk. they have one little girl that is a tortie, very dark coloring and is just the sweetest thing in the world, and about 7 months old now. max is 5 or 6 months old, so it would be perfect.

Ringworm is a fungal condition, like athletes foot or jock itch. Treat the fungus, and it goes away until the fungus is picked up again. It's not like herpes zoster/shingles in that a virus lives in your nerve endings and will flare up, as one example.

One of the reasons it's so difficult to truly "cure" in cats is it lives in the top layer of dead skin, below the fur, and can stay there for quite awhile. This is probably where she's getting "stress can cause it to flare up", it's not really stress, it's just there, and decided to cause a rash. If they've been symptom free for a couple of months, I'd consider the kitten safe to bring home, and would definitely not rule out adoption based on potential ringworm alone. There are dips that you can use as like "pre-treatment" before bringing the kitten home that might kill any residual ringworm fungus. You usually have to use these several times to really kill it, though.