Ringworm

I think my cat may have ringworm. Are there any other symptoms besides skin lesions I should be watching out for?

Nope, not really.... That's pretty much it. One word of advice: You will read/hear a whole bunch of bad stuff about it - it is not that bad . Annoying, yes, but not much more than that.
If you have a good immune system you should be fine - if you get it, a cream for athlete's foot will get rid of it pretty easily.
My Lucky had it, and I went the natural way with her, treating it with colloidal silver. It went away on its own.
No matter what you do: discuss it with your vet first - human meds can be very toxic to cats, and you also want to know if RW is really what he has.

Thanks. She does have ringworm the vet said to just treat with over the counter cream and shampoo. She has one lesion that is at an injection site from two weeks ago. The lesion was barely noticeable. I felt it yesterday but she has not really lost any hair around it. We have her in one room of the house for now because we do not want our other cats to contract it. We have been sanitizing the cat tree and any other shared areas. Do you think it is necessary to keep her quarantined? I feel really guilty about it because when ever she is the room alone she cries.

There will be people here who will tell you yes, to quarantine her... Others, like me, rather not. The problem with RW is that it is highly related to their immune system, and stress is what lowers their immune system the most.
Even if you quarantine, the spores will go your clothes, shoes or through the air vent... So... IMO... Quarantining just adds stress, without really preventing RW. This is my opinion only...

I never quarantined, or sanitized anything, and the only cat here who ever had it was Lucky. I am not saying your cats are not going to catch it, just giving you my honest opinion...
I would put everybody on L-Lysine to increase their immune system, and hope for the best. I would not quarantine.
Again, this is only my opinion...

IMO - these are my thoughts. I'm talking in shelter type situations, or in foster homes, is where my experience comes from.

Topicals are worthless, as are the shampoos, by themselves. I used oral meds. They can be harsh, but they are all I've found to be effective. Some vets dose for 10 days, which has never been successful in eradicating RW from what I've seen. I've had to treat for 4 - 6 weeks with oral meds (Fluconazole seemed to work well).

I did quarantine, but only due to the sheer number of pets I have, and that many have underlying health issues. If you do let her loose - it means daily cleaning. Spores can live for a *very* long time.

I got good results from topical meds (a human-marketed 1% tolnaftate cream rather than one designed for cats...my cousin helped me pick it out, based on what a vet had told her to do). Panther had ringworm really bad when I first got her, and Squirrel had it a bit. I didn't use any shampoos. It was greatly reduced, although not completely gone, by their second vet visit, about a month after I started treating.

I didn't bother to quarantine. Chilsa picked up a little from them, but it was easy to catch him and get the ointment onto him, and he fought it off quickly as his energy came back (he'd just been missing for three weeks and came back skinny), so that wasn't a problem. I picked up a spot or two from them...I slapped the cream on it, and a bandaid, and it went away.

The kittens did also at the same time transition from the really cheap general cat food that the barn cats at the farm got (I think it was the store brand stuff at Wal-Mart that's $5 for a 20 pound bag or something), and probably not a lot of that because the humans there kept running out and forgetting to get more for a few days (yes, I yelled at people for that), to actual kitten food of a moderate-quality brand (Purina, the best I knew to get at the time) and as much of it as their bellies could hold. They were also brought indoors, so they didn't get rained on any more, they got brushed and played with and cuddled instead. So their general health improving probably also contributed to fighting off ringworm.

Related story: A little after that, my dad took their brother off of the farm. Surprise surprise, their brother had ringworm too, but even worse since it had been let go longer. Dad asked how I had gotten it off of my two, and I told him that I'd used athlete's foot cream with the cats until the ringworm went away. Dad said, "OK, so you put it in their food?" I had not expected that particular question. I blinked and said, "Um, no. You put it on the cat."

IMO, I agree with Carolinalima about ringworm being linked to a low immune system. My cat was diagnosed with ringworm through a fungal culture. We found out (later) that his immune system was low because he had developed food allergies and was eating the allergen all the time. Without any treatment (one vet prescribed 6 weeks of oral antifungal + solution + shampoo, which other vets thought were extreme), based on my holistic vet's recommendation, the ringworm resolved itself quickly once his immune system was boosted (in our case, eliminating the food allergen and eating a good diet).

My vet told me that ringworm spores are everywhere and it's impossible to completely rid any environment of it, no matter how much you clean.

I did not quarantine or sanitize and my other pets did not get it and I personally believe it was because they had good immune systems.

I'm not implying anything medical-wise, just sharing my thoughts and experience with ringworm.

You should go to your veterinarian. Looks like your cat have ringworm

Originally Posted by KatGoddess

IMO, I agree with Carolinalima about ringworm being linked to a low immune system. My cat was diagnosed with ringworm through a fungal culture. We found out (later) that his immune system was low because he had developed food allergies and was eating the allergen all the time. Without any treatment (one vet prescribed 6 weeks of oral antifungal + solution + shampoo, which other vets thought were extreme), based on my holistic vet's recommendation, the ringworm resolved itself quickly once his immune system was boosted (in our case, eliminating the food allergen and eating a good diet).

My vet told me that ringworm spores are everywhere and it's impossible to completely rid any environment of it, no matter how much you clean.

I did not quarantine or sanitize and my other pets did not get it and I personally believe it was because they had good immune systems.

I'm not implying anything medical-wise, just sharing my thoughts and experience with ringworm.

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I refused to touch the oral medications.... A cat with a healthy immune system can fight it off on his own.... The topicals help prevent the spores from dropping into the environment. ( it helps prevent spreading vs curing the cat IMO).

I used the topicals, then Program, and with some time afterwards, he fought it off on his own. I did NOT sanitise everything, because unless you can sanitise your heating/cooling system, there's no point. The spores can be everywhere.

Out of the 4 humans in my family, 2 of us caught RW...both of us broke out when we were sick (comprimised immune systems). My daughter got one sore, I got 2, (1 on each occassion). They cleared up easily with OTC meds for athlete's foot.

Haha that is funny. I will not be putting in their food. Okay thanks for the advice. I hated having her all by herself. I was told it isn't that uncommon for cats to develop ring worm at an injection site. Although this is the first time it has happened to me. I have 4 cats and she is the first, as far as I know, and they are indoor cats, to develop ringworm. She has had more health problems than any of the other kitties though, and I have a real ragtag group. All four of these were dumped, etc. as kittens.