Waiting for 1st ringworm culture results.... what to do now?

It's lovely of you to say that, but I don't have to tell you how nasty this problem is, how difficult it is to treat, and how long it will take. I keep hoping that cleaning and worrying is storing up "good karma," but that's not a lot to hold on to!

And if anyone deserves to be done with it, you do!!!

If only life were fair.

Have you been getting results with the Pets Best yet, or is it too early to tell? I think their white sulfur, etc. sounds like a GREAT idea, but if my vet hasn't heard of it and can't find good studies on it, she won't use it. We'll do the tried-and-true.

I'm going to try to remember to ask her about Revolution and Program, just in case she is willing to deviate from her plan and try more drugs.

I'm not sure how much more my husband can take. We are currently giving pills, drops, oral gels, and powders to all four cats, in various forms and dosages. We also giving sub-Q fluids and force-feeding one cat and putting topical gel on two others. It's a lot to do and remember, especially in the morning, when we're not fully awake and he has to get to work. And we have to catch Wendy, who is still doing her feral thing. It's a pity I can't hold and pet her and help her come around. This ringworm hit at the worst time.

At least we won't be driving 350 miles to my family for Thanksgiving and then back the next day. We've been very politely disinvited because we may be contagious and I have fragile elderly relatives! And we'd have no one to take care of the cats anyway. So my husband gets a break from that, at least (I don't drive). We'll be dining with friends up here who aren't afraid of us (yet).

Wow, Bunnelina, what a trial you're going through right now.

I sure hope everyone mends as quickly as possible, and that no more lesions show up. *whew!*

Thank you, Auntie Crazy! I'm finding a lot of comfort by reading some of the older posts on ringworm here as I wait to hear from my vet. I appreciate the tips from posters who got through this successfully but didn't isolate their cats or pour 10% bleach solution over every item in their house.

There have been thoughtful posts about the logic of not doing those things, which are simply impossible for some of us to do. Given that the fungus is airborne and air circulates, even if the kitten is shut up in a room you're going to have spores everywhere. Isolating my kittens makes no sense: They've been everywhere for weeks, and my older cats and my whole little apartment have been thoroughly exposed. Too late! I'll just keep cleaning.

I have wooden floors, oriental rugs (at the cleaner), colorful upholstery, a heavy down comforter, 200 linear feet of books on shelves.... I can only bleach about 5% of my house, so what's the point?

So I'm going to buy some Health Guard and spray and launder with that. I've heard several strong recommendations here. If anyone has more tips please let me know! And thanks again for listening and just being here!

Originally Posted by Bunnelina

... 200 linear feet of books on shelves....

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That's a funny tidbit of information. I, too, enjoy reading. I have a room set aside as my "library" and, at last count, had over 1,500 books. I never thought to measure the shelves and describe my collection this way.

I measured them because we were thinking about moving to a (slightly) larger place and it helped us figure out where the books might fit when we went to open houses. I can't count how many books we have, but it's a ridiculous amount! We dusted about a third of them last weekend. More to do this weekend. Most belong to my husband; he's a scholar and is building a library on his subject, which is why we no longer fit in 800 square feet. But I'm guilty, too. We filled our trunk with discards last week for the used bookstores and got $100 in store credit and $15 in cash. For hundreds of dollars' worth of titles. Gee.

We're doing our Xmas shopping at the used bookstore this year!

Funny, funny. I can't imagine how many you have.

Mine are mostly paperback sci fi novels, but I have one bookcase devoted to animal topics alone (I have, in the past, assisted in rescuing/socializing/adopting out an incredible variety of animals, and owned some pretty interesting ones myself. Emperor scorpions, anyone? *grin*)

What's your husband's study topic, if you don't mind my asking?

He is an Egyptologist. He specializes in the Old Kingdom period, and the area around the Pyramids, with all the surrounding "mastaba" tombs. We met at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, back when I worked there, too. He got hooked on Egypt in 4th grade and settled his career plans at age 9.

Egyptian art is not in my Top 10, but it's much more interesting than many subjects I could think of. And so many of his colleagues are crazy!

There are plenty of scorpions in Egypt and I don't think either of us would be thrilled to have one in the house! I hope you didn't try to socialize it.

Originally Posted by Bunnelina

He is an Egyptologist.

Egyptian art is not in my Top 10, but it's much more interesting than many subjects I could think of. And so many of his colleagues are crazy!

There are plenty of scorpions in Egypt and I don't think either of us would be thrilled to have one in the house! I hope you didn't try to socialize it.

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Very interesting. And I'll bet his colleagues are true characters.

As to the scorpions - Emperors are pretty laid back to begin with. And being what they are, they're pretty hard to traumatize, so no, no socializing efforts were necessary.

So we waited all day, beginning at 8 am, for my vet to call and tell us about the ringworm treatment. I had a list of questions. We checked in with her office twice, and both times she was busy, so we waited until we absolutely had to leave to get to the pharmacy to pick up Sporanox. All we'd heard was that we needed to get that at the local children's hospital. So we get to CVS, and the label on the bottle says that dosage instructions were FAXED to us. We've never had a fax machine. Of course, the vet called our home while we were at CVS and never tried our cell number, which we carefully provided.

So we've got four cats who really need treatment, a bottle of Sporanox, and no dosage info. And no clue about what else we're supposed to do. Our beautiful little kitten, Possum, is developing a large lesion right on his nose, his first lesion, and we are desperate to treat it. Now it looks like we'll miss two whole days.

I mentioned to the vet's assistant that we were running out of topical ointment for the lesions, and that it's not working anyway, but of course we heard no response about that, either.

I slid a big, desperate note under the vet's door tonight. If they are boarding cats and they use that door, they'll see it tomorrow, maybe.

If I had been able to speak to the vet today, I could have ordered or purchased everything we'll need for treatment, and scheduled their first medicinal bath/dip appt., which might have even been tomorrow, Sunday, because we're doing them on the groomer's days off.

So then we spent a miserable hour and a half in the ER at Boston's huge, expensive animal hospital, listening to some poor child screaming in hysterics the whole time because she wasn't ready to put the family dog to sleep. The entire time we were there... heartbreaking. A nice but harried vet finally gave us dosage info, but when I checked it at home against Sporanox's online drug info, the doses seem too high. Since Snalbert already may have liver issues from not eating, I'm doubly afraid of this dosage info, and it doesn't sound like what I remember the vet assistant rattling off when she told us to pick the stuff up.

I got on Google when we got home. I hunted down the home phone of the head of the vet practice and left a pleading message. I think she's away. I found out our vet's address, but not her number. Half-tempted to bang on her door.... I think I found out where her parents live in the Midwest. Do I call them? I am not a stalker, just a fed-up, desperate, exhausted woman trying to take care of sick cats.

Most vets in Boston don't have an emergency or after-hours on-call service, and that means their patients are left high and dry in desperate situations. We are all supposed to go to that hospital, but if they haven't seen your cats, they charge about $185 just for starters.

We just went through an even worse Saturday night drama in September when Bunnelina started having seizures (we didn't know what they were at the time, thought it was heart problems or trouble breathing) after we gave her chemo on Labor Day weekend. We wound up in that same ER, and a nice young vet we'd never seen before guided us to put her to sleep.

We weren't able to talk to our vet for days after that, because of the holiday and her schedule, and we were devastated and guilt-ridden, thinking that we'd acted too soon and done the wrong thing. By the time we learned Bunny had been having seizures, and we'd done the right thing, we were emotional wrecks.

I can't take another Saturday night crisis. I hate the idea of becoming a regular client at that big, scary hospital, but I'm not sure I have a choice if I want what's best for my cats.

Sweetie, HANG IN THERE!!!!!!! I am so sorry about your perfectly horrible day! Keep breathing and don't let circumstances beat you!:vibes :

Oh my gosh, what a terribly difficult situation you've been put in. Two whole days! I'm so, so sorry....

And all the work, effort, time you're expending. God bless you. You clearly love your babies unreservedly.

I'm so upset for you. Maybe you'll get a call tonight or first thing tomorrow!!! I will keep you all in my thoughts.

Hang on, Bunnelina. Eventually, you'll be able to put this behind you as an unpleasant, but distant, memory.

<<<<<hugs>>>>>

THANK YOU, both of you!!! I'm writing this with tears in my eyes at your kindness and encouragement. I suddenly feel much less angry and just deeply disappointed in my vet, whom I've trusted for years.

I know people make mistakes, but this mix-up went on all day. And every time I look at Possum's nose, it breaks my heart... he's the sweetest little boy and he's got a nasty virus lesion under his nose and now ringworm starting on top.

We just finished force-feeding our teenaged guy, Snalbert, and there's no way I'm giving him Sporanox without talking to the vet and possibly checking his liver levels first. He's already at risk because he'd stopped eating due to his virus. Sporanox is supposed to be hard on older cats' livers, and he's 14. Our 15-year-old, Snicky, is even more fragile. She's on a steroid for IBD, which will make treating any ringworm even harder, they say. Another reason why I am desperate to begin before she gets lesions, too.

I'd like you to see them, in better days:

Here's Possum, before his nose lesions:


And here's Snalbert, our Persian guy:


Sorry if the photo is huge, I resized it to be small but it didn't take.

I think I'm going to bed with a good book. Tomorrow might be a better day.

Oh my!!! They're totally adorable. I'm coming to get Possum!!

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Oh my!!! They're totally adorable. I'm coming to get Possum!!

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Wait a minute! He's mine!

I can't decide if he's the pussycat Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant, or George Clooney, but he's mine, even with a big ringworm bump on his nose.

Everybody should have at least one handsome guy in a classy striped suit in the house!

This morning, I realized I had the number of my vet's tech asst. in my caller ID, so I called, and she was there! She'd found the note I'd frantically stuck under the door last night and was about to call my vet.

Our vet called within the hour. She's had a terrible cold or flu but has had to work a lot because the other vet is away. She apologized for thinking we had a fax machine, and chalked it up to a fever and a hectic day. She told me the recommended doses she'd calculated for Sporanox, which were, as I'd thought, drastically less than those the vet in the ER had given us (0.5 ml vs. 4.5 ml, for example). Then she realized that she'd made a serious math mistake, twice, yesterday. YIKES!

She said she was appalled. She also realized that the cherry-flavored liquid ($56 and unopened!) was not feasible at the higher doses. She will investigate generic oral Lamisil (terbinafine) instead. It was her first choice; it just will take longer to get here.

We talked for a half hour about issues - the cats with calicivirus shouldn't be bathed or dipped, for example, and the older cats will need liver tests, and so on. Although tomorrow is her day off, she's going to see if a compounding pharmacy will overnight the oral medication. She's also going to get me more cleaning info from a private vet site she likes.

She'd never heard of Health Guard, but thought it sounded worth trying, so I'll buy it tomorrow. She's also researching DMG. We'll both be researching holistic treatments to try on top of the others.

In the meantime, she sent me to CVS for miconazole. She thought it'd be an athlete's foot cream, but it's in the feminine products aisle.

She said Program, Revolution, and Advantage won't work. She never had success using Program on ringworm.

Our regimen will probably be: oral terbinafine for 15 days on, and 15 off, etc. Weekly miconazole shampoos followed by lime-sulfur dips (no clipping unless groomer insists). A topical treatment for lesions (this miconazole 2% cream, I guess?), and endless cleaning. Plus any holistic supplements we find and like. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Any quibbles?

I'm still not feeling great about the long list of miscommunications and serious errors that happened yesterday. Both the vet and her staff screwed up several times in handling our situation. But she apologized. (Writing to you last night, and reading your sympathetic responses, made me feel considerably less angry and able to focus on the problems at hand.)

I'm to blame, too. I wanted to be a polite, patient client (for a change; I was calling every day with ??s when Bunnelina had lymphoma). This time, too, I should have put my cats first, not my reputation. I should have called yet again when it got close to closing time, instead of assuming I'd hear from them after hours. Next time, every time, I will be more of a pain!

I'm curious to know what you think about this experience. Generally, my vet is extremely sharp, thoughtful, and well-informed. She cared for four of our cats quite well for more than a decade. Would you forgive the errors of yesterday (the dosage error would have made the medication useless, not fatal...) and move on? I'm inclined to, especially since no other practice in Boston would be any more useful to their clients after hours. But I'm curious to know what you think.

The lesion on Possum's nose is no worse so, although we are losing half a week when we could be tackling ringworm, I'm not the furious wreck I was last night. Thanks are due to the support and advice I've received here!

PS: She called me on her cell phone today and I wrote down the number!

Wow! I'm so glad that you got in touch with your vet!!! :c lap:




Having recently changed vets myself, I can totally sympathize with your frustration and anger regarding this most recent snafu. In analyzing your experience it looks that everything possible that could go wrong indeed did go wrong and whether one wants to blame a full moon or Mercury in retrograde, I DON'T THINK THAT EITHER YOU OR YOUR VET WILL EVER LET A SIMILAR STATE OF OFFAIRS HAPPEN, AGAIN. Given your past history with her, I'd keep her. Vets are human and I think that you've learned that be a "good client" isn't necessariliy in the best interest of your kitties. YOU GO GIRL!

The main test, of course, if whether the program that she has mapped out works. I'd would be doing all the independent research possible to check on what she is doing. I wonder if there is a Yahoo Use Group for ringworm?

All, in all, you done good!

And Snalbert and Possom are adorable!!!!!

Ok, so let's get the most important stuff out of the way, first.... Esrandall and I are having a throw-down in the parking lot for Possum. What she doesn't know, of course, is that while I'm letting her kick the stuffing out of me (hey - I'm a lover, not a fighter!) I've got someone going in the back door for a cat nab! *long, loud, evil cackling laugh*



Bunnelina - Taking into consideration the historical behavior of your vet and her current condition, I agree with you and Esrandall whole-heartedly. She probably should be resting, but is so concerned about her clients she can't not go in; 'though now she knows that she must double her attention to detail until she's feeling well again.

And I am very, very glad you finally have the information you need to manage the ringworm. Those of us who have been around awhile know - helplessness is the absolute worst feeling in the world.

I think you've handled this situation admirably!

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Ok, so let's get the most important stuff out of the way, first.... Esrandall and I are having a throw-down in the parking lot for Possum. (What she doesn't know, of course, is that while I'm letting her kick the stuffing out of me (hey - I'm a lover, not a fighter!) I've got someone going in the back door for a cat nab! *long, loud, evil cackling laugh*

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OK, I'm taking the kid gloves off about Possum!!!! I'm willing to go for joint custody, here. Or is it three-way custody? Mom gets him for 33% of the time, Auntie Crazy gets him for 33%, and I, Elizabeth, get him for 34% of the time (being a CPA does have its advantages)!.

Seriously, treating FOUR cats for ringworm is a fate that I would wish on no one.

We are BOTH here for you, so hang in there!

Dear Elizabeth and Auntie,

Why either of you would welcome another cat — after hearing my wormy tale of woe — is beyond me, but you're certainly welcome to date him. He's free most nights, assuming he's done his homework. He's got a busy weekend schedule: lime-sulfur dips, manicures, fundraisers, screen tests, and he's interviewing agents on both coasts.



Seriously, I had visions of being a foster mom someday, and this experience has put a full and permanent stop to that. I'm even beginning to think it's risky to visit our local shelter, which is a really nice, happy place for both the cats and visitors. I'm viewing hand sanitizer in a whole new light.