Ringworm?

I have a three and a half month old rescue kitten who has already had a bad URI, fleas, took ages to box train... we love this little guy, but he's put us through the ringer. 

In any case, we're fairly sure he has ringworm, since my boyfriend and I both have circular rashes that look a lot like ringworm. We know what we can get to address it ourselves but I'm worried about what to do with the cat. He doesn't show any symptoms that we can see, barely scratches himself, has a full, healthy coat, etc., but since we do, I assume he must. 

We *really* don't want to take him back to the emergency vet if we can help it so is there anything OTC I can get, or order on a site like 1-800-Petmeds? Any natural alternatives? Cost isn't an issue, but timing with the vet is (although we won't hesitate to take him back in if that's our best option). 

There are a couple of over the counter things but it is really better to make sure that he has ringworm first.  Lime sulphur dip is effective and Lotrimin applied to lesions but it doesn't sound like there are any lesions yet.

Cats can carry ringworm without looking like they have any sort of infection.  There are lime sulfur dips and anti-fungal shampoos you can buy online (I bought some malaseb anti-fungal shampoo for my dog on Amazon).  I'd get him to the vet as soon as you can and get him tested.  A culture is really the only way to know for sure, sadly.

It's of course possible that you and your boyfriend got ringworm from some other place and the kitten doesn't have it or you gave it to him. But it's also possible that he is a carrier but isn't showing any signs or he only has a mild form of it and isn't showing signs yet. Either way, treating him as a precaution is perfectly okay. In fact, some shelters will give every incoming cat at least one treatment (usually a lime dip) and if you have a multi cat household where one cat has ringworm the vet sometimes recommend treating the other cats too even if they show no signs.

The only way to know for sure if the cat has ringworm is to scrape some of his skin off and do a culture test but in my opinion that isn't really necessary unless your cat is showing symptoms and you don't know for sure what it is. Sometimes you Can diagnose ringworm with a black light. When you shine the light over your cat's coat, in a dark room, the ringworm spores will fluoresce bright green. Not all kinds of ringworm will do this though so it's not a very good test and there are also other things that can shine green under a black light.

If it was me I would start treating the kitten with either lime dip or an anti-fungal shampoo. You kan get either a shampoo called Pharmaseb or one called Malaseb. They contain different anti-fungals but are both equally effective and are used the same way. Lyme dip is made by a number of different manufacturers (the full name is Lyme Sulfur Dip and could be spelled Lime or Lyme). All these things can be bought without a prescription online. I usually use a site called Revival Animal Health which I've had only good experiences with but there are many other sites too. 1-800 Pet Meds is overpriced in my opinion. All these products should cost no more than $20.

Both shampoo and dip should be used for 4-5 weeks. The shampoo has to sit for 10-15 minutes (can't remember exactly) which is a pain in the you-know-what, in my opinion. Because of that I prefer the dip. With the dip you just have to make sure that the kitten is saturated with the dip, towel dry him some and then let him air dry. The drawback is that lime dip smells like rotten eggs and it can stain light cats yellow. It goes away in a few weeks, though. They don't get bright yellow but some will have a tint of yellow. Because of the smell it helps to do the dip outside or by an open window. The bottle of each product should have instructions.

Also , don't forget to clean your place and the kitten's areas thoroughly to make sure that you or the kitten isn't reinfected. You don't have to go overboard though as some say. A good normal cleaning is enough.

Good luck!