6 Things I Learned from Our Ringworm Plague (book length....)

ugh. He got out of the laundry room and roamed the house during the night. do I have to re-clean everything? he has been dipped with lime sulfur 3 times and has had the miconazole for 10 days.

I thought you were under the assumption that it might not be ringworm after all?  The lime dips are supposed to make them a lot less contagious, anyhow....

well I ws thinking that about his head but he still tested positive on his back legs. I was thinking perhaps he was a 'dust mop' rather than having a full case of ringworm. Maybe just in denial. I don't know what the vet thinks. we are building a temporary door for the laundry room.

it also concerns me that he is in there with the cat who isn't affected but whom we're treating anyhow. I worry she has a better chance of getting it.

so we are starting week three of treatment. we're not treating his head because of the infection which is actually much much better now. did any of you treat non-affected animals? we have been treating all three of ours and neither of the other two have any symptoms. i'm wondering if it's necessary to continue dipping them in the lime sulfur. if we stopped, they would have received 4 dips total. i should say that the non-affected cat is in the isolation room with the affected cat but she still hasn't shown symptoms.

Hi CassieP3, we treated our elderly Persians who never got ringworm although they were supposed to be very susceptible, given their breed, age, and fragility. They got oral terbinafine and some weekly dips and cultures. They did not get as many cultures as our kittens, since their first cultures were negative. They got cultured again only toward the end of the treatment and that saved us some money. In my experience, dips and oral meds seem to work best together rather than doing one or the other. If everyone has had two or three weeks of both treatments, and esp. if you're getting negative cultures, then I think you can ease up on the dips. Keep hanging in there, and thank you for checking in. I was just wondering how you all were doing!

i asked about oral meds and the vet wouldn't budge. she wouldn't give them. we have only topical and lime sulfur dips. the dog who brought it here and had probably 10 spots got rid of it with only lime sulfur. he's finished his treatment and so far so good. we aren't culturing until the end of this week. the other two aren't being cultured at all. they have no lesions to culture and we were only doing this as a precaution for them.

one of the people I know in rescue had it come through and she only used lime sulfur. she said no need to treat the other two anymore. also, if the spots on his head where he was clipped for his bacterial infection actually have ringworm, would hair grow back there?

Vets don't just culture the lesions; they culture by brushing the entire cat, nose to tail tip, with a sterile toothbrush and putting everything they get into the culture medium. Ringworm is a fungus, i.e., spores, and they live in fur, the air, everywhere... not just in the lesions. That's why we use dips, and why oral meds are generally thought to be very effective. I hope your treatment plan works out for you!  I don't know anything about dogs except that they may respond to ringworm treatments differently from cats.

I'm back.
My vet actually uses a compounding pharmacy, in south Jersey, that mixed a beef flavored syrup Shakti really looked for every morning, so the first week went just fine. Two days later she was itching her neck like mad and has two new lesions--yes, new locations! Calling the vet tomorrow when he's in.

Hugs to all!

Did you clip Shakti?

I took Butter back for a follow up and the vet said that his head appears to be full of ringworm. This makes sense since he got a bacterial infection a week in and we couldn't treat his head. I treated him on Friday with the lime sulfur and when I looked at him on Monday his head looked so much better. I bathed him again last night in the lime sulfure. I can't wait for this nightmare to be over. Still no oral meds. The doctor is more concerned about the side effects. His back legs that were infected first and that we've been treating for 3 weeks now are completely healed (they have been since the first or second bath). They still did the culture on Friday and it hasn't come back positive yet but I expect it will. His head looked really bad on Friday.

shakticat said:

 
I'm back.
My vet actually uses a compounding pharmacy, in south Jersey, that mixed a beef flavored syrup Shakti really looked for every morning, so the first week went just fine. Two days later she was itching her neck like mad and has two new lesions--yes, new locations! Calling the vet tomorrow when he's in.

Hugs to all!

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Oh, no! Hugs back at you. I'm very sorry to hear about those new lesions. One of the things I remember about our treatment nearly five years ago was reading that Dr. Moriello said that the generic "sporanox" was not believed to be effective, only the genuine, brand-name version was. I am not sure if this is still the case: medications sometimes change, for better or worse. But if Shakti continues to get lesions after two weeks on the compounded liquid, you might mention this to your vet. Oral meds should be doing their job after two weeks, I would think. Because that when vets often let us start the cultures. I hope you've seen the last lesions you ever see in your life! Please keep us posted....

I wish Shakti luck! I hope she gets better soon.

I noticed that Butter is now losing hair kind of all over the place along his sides and neck. His back legs look scabby. They weren't scabby on Friday. I'm so confused. I talked to the president of the rescue group who is arranging for Butter to see a new vet who is really good with cats. I don't have faith in the one we've been seeing. He said he would prescribed griseofulvin if it gets too bad. Isn't that stuff the worst thingfor cats?? My poor baby is so down in the dumps.

CassieP3 said:

I wish Shakti luck! I hope she gets better soon.

I noticed that Butter is now losing hair kind of all over the place along his sides and neck. His back legs look scabby. They weren't scabby on Friday. I'm so confused. I talked to the president of the rescue group who is arranging for Butter to see a new vet who is really good with cats. I don't have faith in the one we've been seeing. He said he would prescribed griseofulvin if it gets too bad. Isn't that stuff the worst thingfor cats?? My poor baby is so down in the dumps.

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Griseofulvin is very toxic — there are safer, more effective drugs:  I am quoting from   http://www.wvc.org/images/session_notes_2013/2013_SA62.pdf

Several options exist for systemic therapy of dermatophytosis. Griseofulvin is no longer recommended for routine use in cats due to its potential for bone marrow suppression when used at the doses required to resolve dermatophytosis.    The gold standard has been the use of itraconazole at 10 mg/kg/day.    When used for 21 days daily, this drug was shown to be safe and effective, and after that time, it can be used on a pulse basis, giving it daily for one week, breaking for one week, then alternating weeks on with weeks off until the infections is resolved. What has become clear is that Sporanox brand must be used (in the USA); when itraconazole is compounded into liquids at compounding pharmacies, failure can occur. It is believed that these compounded itraconazole liquid products are not well absorbed. Less expensive alternatives include the use of terbinafine 30-40 mg/kg/day or fluconazole at 5-10 mg/kg/day. Ketoconazole tends to be more toxic to cats, and we have seen some failures associated with ketoconazole treatment of animals with ringworm, so it is not recommended.

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I'm on vacation and not able to find you Dr. Moriello's other treatment links, but they are in this thread somewhere~ Best of luck to you! Laurie

I've seen Dr. Moriello's protocols before. I'm really frustrated with this vet. I mentioned that all of the protocols say to use oral meds and when telling me he didn't want to he said, "Maybe the question to ask is why are all those vets using oral meds when they are dangerous?" His receptionist said that they rarely see ringworm in their practice. It shows.

Yes, you are dealing with enough already and shouldn't have to educate your vet on top of it. I go to an all-cat practice and one of the vets (not our regular one) handed me a sheet about cleaning that was all about using 10 percent bleach everywhere. I was thrown, and that's when I started digging deeper online and found some Moriello articles. I had one printed out for when we went back for another visit but our regular vet was back and knew all about it. It made all the difference that we were on the same page. I hope you can either work with a vet you have faith in or can get this one up to date!

Okay, gang. . . just spoke with the vet. I told him we'd just finished the first week on the oral meds when Shakti was scratching like crazy and two days later she had two dime-sized lesions at the back of her neck. The vet said, "That's odd. Ringworm isn't generally that itchy." He then told me that the last time, when she had the nasty, ulcerated patch across her shoulders that healed within three days of the antibiotics shot, he hadn't expected the whole lesion to heal--just the swelling and infection--but the whole area had healed. Staph infections are extremely itchy and commonly occur between the shoulders, he said. The first lesions--back in February over her right eye-- were ringworm because we had a positive culture, so the vet thinks it's a bacteria (staph) and fungus (ringworm) combo! Lucky us! The good news I just read online is that I can't get this kind of staph from a cat.

So we're going to start on the second week of ringworm meds this Friday, and the following Friday we're going back to the vet for a biopsy as well as a hair/dander culture.

My poor baby! She's ten months old and we only had two weeks together before this nightmare started.

I'll keep you posted. 

Hey, Cassie.
Just learned my kitten has a fungus/bacteria combo of ringworm and possibly staph, so we may be going through something similar.
Shakti responded well to the miconazole topical liquid to the lesions that were cultured back in February. In June and again in July, she's had larger patches between her shoulder blades, and these made her itch the whole area like crazy. The vet gave her an antibiotics shot for the first one, and it healed beautifully within three days. Shakti's now on oral meds for ringworm for the first time--not because the vet didn't prescribe them but because I refused to give such a young kitten something that might cause convulsions, heart attacks, liver failure. . . . Well, in hindsight, maybe I should have. Who knows? But Shakti was less than four months old then and didn't have a fully formed immune system. . . What the VET didn't say (and maybe he should have) was that the ringworm was probably systemic and wouldn't be wiped out entirely with topical meds only. So from February until the beginning of August, we'd been treating the ringworm topically. Now she's on a compounded beef flavored syrup. Two more lesions Saturday. And in a phone call with the vet a half hour ago, he's brought up the possibility that Shakti has a staph infection going on, as well.
I'll know more around the 29th.
Please report back and let us know what your vet discovers and what treatment is prescribed.

Hugs!

Thought I would copy this here for all extended sufferers of "the plague." I hope it helps.

Source: Vetinfo.com  (here's the page: vetinfo.com/feline-staph-infection.html#b)

A case of feline staph infection  occurs when the Staphylococcus bacteria infects the skin of a domesticated cat. The Staphylococcus bacterium is very common, and naturally resides in the skin of every cat. The condition is only called a staph infection when the bacteria start to cause problems in the cat’s skin and hair follicles.

Causes of Staph Infection

Staph is an opportunistic infection, because the bacteria normally exists in the body of the cat without causing any problems. Feline staph infections only occur when the bacteria are given a chance to take hold, such as times when the cat’s immune system is weakened, or when the cat’s skin is irritated. The most common cause of staph infection is an allergic reaction in the skin, which is usually triggered by fleas. It can also be triggered by airborne pollen, food or other potential allergens. Skin allergies weaken the skin’s defenses, making it vulnerable to the staph bacteria that are already present.

Symptoms of Staph Infection

The symptoms of a feline staph infection so closely resemble those of feline ringworm that it is often difficult for cat owners to distinguish between the two. The affected cat will develop circular, hairless lesions on its skin. These lesions will be red and irritated, and they will sometimes be covered in small scabs or pimples. The inflamed area is also very itchy, and infected cats can be identified because of their excessive scratching and biting at the infected areas.

Treatment of Staph Infection

Since staph is a bacterial infection, the medications that most veterinarians will prescribe are antibiotics. While these drugs will be effective in killing the majority of the bacteria in a feline staph infection, the opportunistic nature of staph dictates that the initial cause of the infection be treated as well.

Read more: Feline Staph Infection  

Yes, Cassie. Shakti is a Maine Coon, so I clipped her hair down to about an inch on June 19 so that I could make sure the sulphur lime liquid was reaching her skin.