Ringworm Out Break! Help!

So I know I had posted a couple weeks ago telling everyone that I had gotten my little Angelo a play mate his age to help with his rehabilitation. The woman I adopted him from told me that he had a ringworm infection when she first got him, but that it had been treated. Well, apparently she was wrong because I just noticed both my dogs have ringworm leisions all over them. I have the 2 dogs and 10 cats. The dogs will go to the vet Wednesday, and I know both the kittens will need to be treated. I had just read that most healthy adult cats are able to fight off the infection on their own. Do I need to treat my adult kitties? I seriously can not afford to take 12 animals to the vet. Help!

This may or may not be an unpopular opinion, but I usually let ringworm run its course and only treat an animal if they are showing really bad symptoms. One of my fosters picked up ringworm at an adoption event back months ago. I know that's where it happened because another foster had he kittens pick it up the same day- and our kittens were on either side of another fosters kittens who- of course- were found to have ringworm a few days later. Well, I have a lot of fosters- and cats of our own- at the time 16 foster kittens in total! All started showing small areas of hair loss- none were bad- most had 1 or 2 little spots. Most of my adults did not get it at all, with the exception of a few who often groom the kittens. I did not treat anyone and within a few weeks everyone had hair growing back and all have of course completely recovered by now.

I do believe this was a very mild type of ringworm. Last year I had 3 fosters with ringworm so bad that they had more missing hair than hair. it was horrible. All had to go on oral itraconazole and both me and my significant other got covered in ringworm- WE even had to go on meds. They had to go to the vet more than a few times- it was a mess!! This year was nothing like that- we didn't get it either thankfully!

So I would just watch and see what you are dealing with before you go and take all of your animals to the vet! If you are just seeing a small (like dime size or so) spot or two on each cat, or less, then I would wait and see- if you are seeing cats with massive patches of missing hair, lots of scratching,  & in discomfort then that is a different story altogether.

Your vet should be able to give you some ointment , drops, or other topical medication to treat the spots if you would like. There are some natural remedies that some people use too, although I have not tried them. Oral meds are another option if it gets really bad- itraconazole, fluconazole, etc

Thank you! Right now the pups are the only 2 showing symptoms, but I figured I would treat the 2 kittens anyway because I know their immune systems aren't fully developed yet. I hope I don't get it! Ugh! What a stressful situation :-(