Ringworm. Help?

I'm honestly starting to feel like I live on the "health" section of this site.

Turns out the kitten we recently adopted and had to send back to the shelter had a ringworm infestation. Now a week later, I'm noticing patches of hair missing on my 5 month old kitten - Great. Best part though? both my boyfriend and I have medium sized round red patches on our backs. The shelter didn't test him before giving him to us, so now we all have it. I'm going to be speaking to them about paying for my current kittens medication (as we got him from them as well, and they're the ones who infected him.)

My main question is, has any one had to deal with this?? How should I go about cleaning my house to kill the spores? Any cat (or human!!) medication you might suggest? I swear. I'm done with this shelter. This is the second cat I've gotten from them and he's just full of medical issues like Ares was.

It seems that experiences with ringworm range from mild and over quickly to severe and drawn out. Just my personal observation from reading up on it is that the more people and animals around, the more severe it is. My own personal experience was very mild and not at all the nightmare I expected.

I had my kitten for one week and noticed some patches of scaly skin and hair loss on him. He was given an oral medication, sporanox, straight away. No other treatment was used. The ringworm cleared up and hasn't returned and I've now had him 2.5 months. That's about one month since finishing the medication. I did not do any extra house cleaning, except I bought an anti-fungal laundry detergent. I changed fabrics (bed sheets, towels) more frequently and made sure to wear clothes once before washing them. I did that for a couple of weeks. I tried to vacuum more often but I'm so shocking at house cleaning that my version of 'more often' is probably most people's normal  I have not had any ringworm on me. The only advice my vet gave was to wash my hands after touching my kitten. Well even that became impractical, as I started to develop dermatitis from too much hand washing. I read that tea tree oil is effective against ring worm (for me, it's toxic to cats) and I used that in the shower with some soap as a preventative. I also applied some occasional anti-fungal cream to my hands, neck and face as I didn't want ringworm to develop in those places. I kept Jasper out of the bathroom because that seemed like the ideal place for ringworm spores to thrive.

So that's my experience. From my research and talking to my vet I was under the impression that a healthy kitten should get a resistance to ringworm as their immune system develops. It made sense to me that it probably manifested when it did because of the stress of bringing him into a new home. So I took the approach of waiting and watching but if I had more pets or children around I might have gotten more serious. It's just me and Jasper living together. If you search the threads here on TCS you should find quite a few that deal with this issue. 

Thank you so much for the information - I'll be sure to get that oil and shower with it, as I'm horrified of this spreading any more. I have one patch on my back - and I don't want it getting any worse then that! I'll be bringing my kitten to the vet tomorrow or friday, and I'll be spraying the house down with anti-fungal spray.

Currently in my small apartment, it's just myself, my boyfriend, and the cat. I've restricted people from staying over for the next few weeks, as I don't want them getting it either.

Definitely get yourself some anti-fungal cream if you haven't already, and treat the spots you and your boyfriend have got. I've also heard that tea tree oil applied directly on the rash is good. Also, anti-dandruff shampoos (like Selsun blue and gold) are anti-fungal too. Hopefully your vet will go down the oral meds road first since that treats it internally rather than playing catch-up with the ointments. However, I realise that individual experiences will vary considerably Good luck!

  Oh yes! I went through this with Maia a couple years ago and believe me I freaked out! She was 4+ years old and suddenly had a bald patch on her chest that even the vet didn't think was ringworm at first. Once cultures came back positive we changed treatment and I did the freakout mom mode- disinfect, wash, thoroughly clean/vacuum all of Maia's regular resting places, and most importantly follow through with prescribed fungal topical treatment. 

    First things first, you all need to be tested to make sure it is ring worm. they will do skin scraping and cultures for results. Make sure you follow through with treatments, SERIOUSLY! Ringworm is no joke, you must be diligent with treatment. It can take several weeks to months of treatment to kill the fungal infection.

    With Maia it was a complete shock! We were living in same apartment with back rooftop garden for 5 years. She loved to hang out on back rooftop, but never dug in plants and never strayed from. Once we were sure it was ringworm, I followed through with topical treatment till end of prescription. I also removed all of her regular resting areas and washed if possible or disposed if not. I never contracted it myself, which was pretty amazing since she was in bed with me every night and in my arms constant through the day.