Newbie with ringworm questions

I didn't get my cat from a shelter, I got him from a town animal control facility.  To be clear, though, he did not have ringworm when I got him.  The woman I got him from insists that ringworm is no big deal and he doesn't even need to be quarantined despite the fact that I have other non-infected pets.  My vet does not have him on dips, just  topical miconosol on his spots, a treatment plan the second opinion vet agrees with.  My family is an hour away, my best friend is on chemo and can't be near ringworm so she cant' help, and my other close friends either work longer hours than I do, are sick themselves, or have their own pets and I don't dare expose them. I just recently got a bacterial infection in the muscles of my back that is painful so I feel like I'm falling behind.  I know someone who used to clean houses on the side so I've emailed her to see if she knows anyone I can hire for a few hours a week just to help me.  I'll do the cats' rooms, but could use help with the rest of the house.  I need for this to be over.

 So sorry you are dealing with this.  I rescued a kitten that had ringworm about 3 years ago, she had it so bad it was covering her body.  All I did was spray topical Miconazole on her sores, and give her medicated baths.  It took her over a month to get better and she literally lost all the hair on her body.  NONE of my other animals caught it nor did I.    At the time I had 5 other cat and 3 dogs, I did not do any special cleaning other than washing the blankets that were in the crate she was in.

I hope my cat recovers as well as yours, cprcheetah.  He is in his own room, my home office.  he has an easy chair I have covered with a sheet, and my desk is near a window so he can look out if he wants. but I'm sure he doesn't since I put him on the desk to medicate him.  he has been quarantined 4 weeks now and while he looks better he is clearly not healed yet.  My other cat is quarantined in her own room while I wait for the culture to come back to tell me if she has it or not. She's been alone for 2 weeks.  I hope my cleaning has been enough.  I cannot go through this again.

I rescued my kitten just over a month ago, and found out he had ringworm about a week and a half after. He's now around 12 weeks old. He started KetoChlor baths right away (2 1/2 weeks ago) and I had him cultured and then started oral itraconazole 4 days ago. I cleaned and cleaned and threw everything away that I could not bleach. And I will continue to clean. His spots look way better, and almost all of them have hair growing back. 

When is he not contagious anymore?

I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and have him confined to small spaces. He passed the ringworm along to my roommate. He is such a happy and playful kitten and I feel bad and want to let him out. He has the best personality, though feisty  I threw all of this toys away but just got him replacements. I cannot afford to keep the vet / kitten bills piling up as they are already substantial and pay over $100 for each of the follow up cultures. Does anyone have an idea when I can let him roam again?

I was told my cat won't be cured until he has at least 2 negative cultures.  He isn't getting cultured again until the 7th.  I don't know if he is not contagious before he is actually cured but I personally won't risk that. I have 2 other pets I need to protect.  He looks better but not as well as I had hoped he would at this point. It's been 5 weeks today and while his spots look better he does not look cured.  We talked about changing to itraconazole a week or so ago but then I got sick and a close family member took a turn for the worse and I just couldn't deal with it so he's still on griseofulvin.  My other cat is also quarantined waiting for her culture to come back. It's been 19 days for hers and I haven't heard from the vet yet. It's all really frustrating.  I wish you well.

Cats with ringworm need to be seen by a vet. The vet will perform a test to see if the cat has ringworm or not. Follow your vet's treatment protocol. It takes about two weeks for ringworm to clear up. Make sure the cat is isolated from other pets.

They are usually considered contagious for about 3 weeks AFTER Starting treatment (oral, topical etc).  But that is just a base, it could be longer. 

Gilligan was diagnosed on October 23 and started meds the day after.  he has been quarantined since.  He gets cultured again on the 7th.  He is clearly not cured.  I will be asking to switch to itraconozole on the 7th.  I had wanted to switch 2 weeks ago but I got sick and a family member with cancer took a turn for the worse and I simply couldn't deal with it so he stayed on the griseofulvin.  I am incredibly frustrated.  I fear I am not keeping the room he is in clean enough but I can't really bleach in there when he's in there and I have nowhere to put him if I was going to take him out of the room to bleach it and let it air out.  So I am swiffering the walls and floors daily, changing the sheet on his easy chair every few days, bleaching his litter box once a week, changing his food and water bowls every few days, but I still feel it is not enough and that is maybe why he isn't improving.  Maybe the itraconazole will help, I don't know.  My vet is awesome but I think maybe ringworm isn't her strong suit since she never mentioned dips and doesn't know much about itraconazole.  She is willing to prescribe it though and will call the compounding pharmacy to get the right dose.  His spots are only on his ears and one tiny one above one of his eyes so I have taken to using the miconosol on his spots once a day, and dabbing lime sulfur on his spots in the evening.  When I hear that other people have had it clear up in a few weeks I get depressed since it's been over 5 weeks. He looks better but clearly is not cured.  My dog has been washed 3x in antifungal shampoo and shows no signs at all, and the other cat is quarantined until I get her one month culture back on the 7th.  She shows no signs at all either.  I am still sick so this is all just too much right now. I desperately need this to be over.

I hope it gets better for you Emme. Ringworm is such a pain, and I am lucky in that I only have one cat. He did however pass it along to my roommate. My fear is them passing it back and forth. Leo looks way better. He has fur growing back on all spots now. I am hoping he's not contagious anymore as I want to let him out of quarentine, and I'm not sure I want to wait the several weeks for 2 negative cultures. I'm hoping the vet will be able to help. It'll be one month tomorrow since he was diagnosed. He's been on itraconazole for 12 days (started immediately after the positive culture) and has had ketochlor baths twice a week for 4 weeks. He seems a lot better. Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel is near for us both!

I hope it passes quickly for you, TMarie!

Hi Emme, I went to another vet today for a 2nd opinion on the ringworm treatment and I thought id pass it along since this vet was really helpful. This is my 5th week dealing with it as well and it sucks. I wasn't using miconzole but will start now, as the vet today prescribed it and I will do whatever I can to kick this as quick as possible. My kitten has 4-5 spots that aren't healing as quickly as the others, but is showing improvement. The other thing was the dose of itraconazole. It was really really low to begin with and my kitten has gained 1.25lbs just since he started using it. The dose is dependant on weight, and it hadn't been changed. I will slowly increase it over the next 5 days up to a more suitable dose, keeping an eye of course for any side effects. Just something to consider if you change to it. He said that may help to kick it faster. He also said a culture isn't necessary right now, as those 4-5 spots are clearly still active, which makes sense to me and saves money, also needed. Good luck!

Thank you so much for your post.  When Gilligan (lord how I hate that name!) first got diagnosed, some friends of mine called their vet to get a second opinion for me and she agreed with my vet's protocol, using the griseofulvin to start.  She recommended the switch to itraconazole if the griseofulvin doesn't work.  Are you using a generic itraconazole from a compounding pharmacy, or are you using the name brand Sporanox?  There is some pretty persuasive stuff I've read that the generic isn't reliable and we should be using Sporanox brand.  But I've read some other things, including a page from a veterinary med school book from my friend's vet that just refers to itraconazole and doesn't reference using the brand name.  The compounding pharmacy I called said I don't need the name brand but I confess all of this baffles me. I'm no expert.  I rely on my vet for these things but I'm not sure ringworm is her expertise.  She doesn't see it all that often and she's way out in the sticks so who knows. She did say that EVERYONE eventually gets through this to the other side.

On the upside, in the past few days Gilligan has really started to look MUCH better.  The fur on his ears seems to be growing back and the tiny spot over his eye seems to have healed completely. So now I don't know if I should even ask to switch drugs.  I just know I want this over already.  Since he's looking much better I'm hoping my vet will culture him on Saturday and we can get started on that end.  The dog still shows no signs at all, I don't have it and Clara shows no signs either.  I should get her culture back Saturday as well, which will hopefully be negative.  I would think my vet would have called if he was positive. So she'll be out of quarantine Saturday, if all goes well.  Slowly we'll get through this.   Thanks again for your post.

I'm glad Gilligan is looking better. That's awesome. I just want this to be done too. I think I have at least another few weeks ahead of me unfortunately.

I have no idea if mine is generic or not! It is from the comounding pharmacy, and I've read it's the med of choice right now based on few side effect in most cats, but is more expensive. I had no idea to look at that. I'll have to check it out. I'm relying on the vets too. He actually double checked a few documents he had on hand from studies to make sure what he was saying is right, and it was! Fingers crossed. Thanks so much for letting me know.

We are going to switch Gilligan to itraconazole when I run out of griseofulvin in a week or so. The itraconazole is actually cheaper at the local compounding pharmacy than the griseofulvin has been. I contacted the place I got him from and told her it's unlikely I'll be keeping him when he's cured and did they want him back or should I find a shelter. She said they'd take him back, which is a HUGE relief. i thought with my heart and not my head when iI took him and his epilepsy is more difficult than I thought it would be. She is looking into whether she can find a place to placehim to finish his ringworm treatment so he won'r be so isolated, which would be great. Once of cClara's cultures was weird so she's getting recultured Wednesday. If she doesn't have it I will keep her since she's a senior cat and we are attached even though iI've had her only. Mos. Gilligan andI never had a chance to bond. I got him in September and he's been quarantined almost.7 weeks since since then. He deserves better than I can give him. Ringworm has done me in, tthough. I'll never own another cat after this. I hope your battle is going well.

Ringworm is a real nightmare, that's for sure. And with multiple animals, I don't know how people do it. Leo was out and running about for 2 weeks before he was quarentined, so we had a chance to hang out. I'm nervous though since my interaction with him has been pretty little with the ringworm. I want him to be the friendly cat he was before this, hopefully he will be. He really wants out and to play. Since increasing his meds, a couple of the lesions are completely gone! I'm hoping to have him out by this weekend. We'll see.

I'm glad they will take him back, if that's what's best for you and him. And Fingers crossed that Clara's comes back negative!

Update -

Gilligan's third culture in a row was negative yesterday and he went to a foster home yesterday afternoon.  I feel truly awful about it, almost sick to my stomach about it but it's better for us both that he finds a great home where his seizures can be better monitored and someone has more time for him.  And has an owner who is not completely freaked out by him.  He's a  lovely boy, he deserves that.

Through it all I, the dog and the other cat remained negative.  The other cat was quarantined for a month while we waited for her culture to come back but it was negative.  I am hopeful I decontaminated the house enough that none of us will get it.  This was an ordeal that I don't think I could handle again since I barely made it through this time.  I'd never really heard of ringworm before but I know I have met my match.  I hope it disappears off the face of the earth so no one has to got through it again.

Thanks to all who offered support.

Emme