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- #261
Hi Maureen,
I'm very sorry to hear you are going through all this. RosieT is giving you good advice; she went through this not so long ago herself and licked it — we all did. And you will, too. The lime-sulfur dips are a pain, but if you do it right and really soak the cat and then let her air dry, she should be much less contagious and you can relax on the cleaning. It's great that she's never been in contact with your other cats or elsewhere in the house. Often, by the time ringworm is discovered, the cat has been all over the house and with the other animals, so quarantining doesn't make sense, and the whole house has to be cleaned and cleaned.
I hope you found the two articles TheCatSite wrote with me about ringworm. You seem to have a clear idea of what ringworm is, and what needs to be done. So it sounds like you probably know everything you should know... and on top of that you're doing the work, being brave and kind, and not freaking out at ALL the way I, for example, did at first.... But here's a link to the article, which is tricky to find, in case anyone else reading here wants it:
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/ringworm-in-cats-how-to-win-the-fight
There's a link to an article about housecleaning there, too. Maybe you can get your husband to look at them so he can understand where you are coming from.
Sporanox and terbinafine are both effective drugs. Still it wouldn't hurt to let your vet know how much worse Rosie is looking in case she wants you to keep giving it after one week. Maybe you can take a photo or two and email it to the office. Also, find out how soon they can start culturing. You will need at least a couple, if not three, negative cultures to know Rosie is cured. The cultures can take a long time to develop or be declared negative, so try to get started as soon as your vet feels the cat has had enough dipping and medication to make a difference. You don't need to wait for one culture result to do another, so you can do them every week and speed the process. And remember, the cat can be cured while its spots are still healing.
I don't remember your saying whether your shelter is no-kill but, a lot of times, if you bring a cat with ringworm back to a rescue, they will put it down rather than deal with it, since they can't risk spreading it around the shelter and the treatment is both expensive and hard. You may well have truly saved a life.
Finally, my main advice to you is give yourself some BREAKS. You need to de-stress; we all did. Between the heat, the cleaning, the worry about all of your cats, and both of you working so hard, you need down time. Try to get out of the house and forget what's going on inside, even if it's just for a couple of hours. Reread a favorite book or binge-watch something great to take your mind off things as much as you can.
Please keep us posted on how things are going; we rooting for you. And hang in there!
I'm very sorry to hear you are going through all this. RosieT is giving you good advice; she went through this not so long ago herself and licked it — we all did. And you will, too. The lime-sulfur dips are a pain, but if you do it right and really soak the cat and then let her air dry, she should be much less contagious and you can relax on the cleaning. It's great that she's never been in contact with your other cats or elsewhere in the house. Often, by the time ringworm is discovered, the cat has been all over the house and with the other animals, so quarantining doesn't make sense, and the whole house has to be cleaned and cleaned.
I hope you found the two articles TheCatSite wrote with me about ringworm. You seem to have a clear idea of what ringworm is, and what needs to be done. So it sounds like you probably know everything you should know... and on top of that you're doing the work, being brave and kind, and not freaking out at ALL the way I, for example, did at first.... But here's a link to the article, which is tricky to find, in case anyone else reading here wants it:
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/ringworm-in-cats-how-to-win-the-fight
There's a link to an article about housecleaning there, too. Maybe you can get your husband to look at them so he can understand where you are coming from.
Sporanox and terbinafine are both effective drugs. Still it wouldn't hurt to let your vet know how much worse Rosie is looking in case she wants you to keep giving it after one week. Maybe you can take a photo or two and email it to the office. Also, find out how soon they can start culturing. You will need at least a couple, if not three, negative cultures to know Rosie is cured. The cultures can take a long time to develop or be declared negative, so try to get started as soon as your vet feels the cat has had enough dipping and medication to make a difference. You don't need to wait for one culture result to do another, so you can do them every week and speed the process. And remember, the cat can be cured while its spots are still healing.
I don't remember your saying whether your shelter is no-kill but, a lot of times, if you bring a cat with ringworm back to a rescue, they will put it down rather than deal with it, since they can't risk spreading it around the shelter and the treatment is both expensive and hard. You may well have truly saved a life.
Finally, my main advice to you is give yourself some BREAKS. You need to de-stress; we all did. Between the heat, the cleaning, the worry about all of your cats, and both of you working so hard, you need down time. Try to get out of the house and forget what's going on inside, even if it's just for a couple of hours. Reread a favorite book or binge-watch something great to take your mind off things as much as you can.
Please keep us posted on how things are going; we rooting for you. And hang in there!