Ringworm or Not?

Hey Everyone!

I recently adopted a 4 month old black kitten from a (what I thought) was reputable shelter. Their vet said he had been screened for ringworm and found clean, so I introduced him to the other two cats in my college apartment. Less than a week later, his ear had a large gray circle. I took him to the emergency vet, and she suspected it was ringworm. Since then, I've been treating with KetoChlor, Lamisal, and Colloidal Silver. I kept him isolated in a bathroom and used a 1:10 solution of bleach to disinfect. He was cultured on 12/3, and it is still negative. His area was healing well, and I was starting to feel hopeful.

About a week after Winston (the black kitten) was diagnosed, Finn (8 month old kitten) had two suspicious spots appear on his face. The vet cultured him on 12/10, and the culture is still negative. He was kept in another bathroom away from Winston in hopes that he wouldn't reinfect him. I treated him with the same process as Winston. As of last night, he has a new spot on his lower chin. 

The third cat in the apartment, O'Mally (a lovely 4 year old orange tabby) was kept away from the other two while they were treated. As a precaution, I gave him a bath with the KetoChlor shampoo and made sure to vaccuum and Swiffer any apartment communal areas. As of last night, O'Mally has a scaly patch on his head right by his ear. It doesn't look similar to Winston or Finn's, and both Winston and Finn's areas presented differently.

I called the vet I've been seeing with Winston and Finn this morning (She's great, it's a cat only vet practice, and I've had good luck with her so far), and I asked if it would be possible to be proactive and start Sporanox for Winston and Finn as well as starting a culture on O'Mally. She can't fit me in until Wednesday, but she said that both cultures were still negative with no growth whatsoever. She's now wondering if the skin areas are something other than ringworm. 

I'm really at the end of my rope, and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I just feel like I'm doing all that I'm able, but it continues to get worse. I love Winston dearly, but I'm starting to resent him slightly for bringing all of this illness into my home. I hate that I feel any anger towards the tiny black cat I fell in love with.

I am so sorry you are dealing with this and can totally understand your frustration but this CAN be solved and cured. Also - usually ringworm is self-limiting as long as the immune systems on the kitties are strong. Still - I would treat aggressively. I found this and also posted this in another thread recently about ringworm infections. I hope this will help you with understanding start to finish how to properly test and then treat. At least some sort of guideline for sure http://www.sheltermedicine.com/node/56

There can be false negatives too..... ..... and very frustrating too. I would continue to treat all cats as if they have ringworm since now they all seem to have a lesion or two. The Colloidal Silver 500 PPM - will kill the fungus BUT you have to find all of the lesions and apply at least four times per day. I usually suggest shaving down the cats. :shame: I know - but this way you can see the skin, any new lesions AND the hair spores cannot fly around or be shed off anymore. PLUS - they dry very quickly after their dips.

Another article and helpful resource http://www.thecatsite.com/a/ringworm-in-cats

I know when you look at your little bundle of love you think.......... WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!! darn it. That little one is lucky to have you though fighting to rid him of this fungus. I would certainly let the shelter know about this too. :slant:

Ringworm is a pain... but out of all the the things kitties can bring home it's really not that big of a deal.

First get a black light and shine it on the spots on the kitties. If it's ringworm the hairs will glow, it's really obvious under black light trust me. If your vet hasn't have them look at the kitty under a Woods Lamp (It's a fancy black light with a magnify glass). If it doesn't glow it's probably not RW.

Ringworm can appear anywhere on a kitty, and can appear differently. It can even be there and not cause hair loss. I've had kitties with it on the head, body, feet and tails. (one kitty was tailless for almost 3 months).

RW also carries very easily and last for up to 3 months in the environment . Your new kitty could have been just a carrier and the stress of bringing him to your place cause the RW to activate. (Well his immune system weekended from stress and allowed the fungus to take hold) Additionally he could have picked it up at your house or even from you. (Say you petted another cat with RW and carried the spores home) Your other kitties could have been carriers of the spores too and the stress of a new kitten triggered the RW on them too. Who knows. Don't stress and don't blame Winston.

Also keep in mind RW can transfer to humans and other pets so keep an eye on everyone. I had several ringworm fosters litters for about 4 months last year and I warned everyone who came over that we had it and most people came over anyways, a few with bad immune systems didn't. But as far as I know nobody caught it (but me, and I got it 3 months in and one tiny spot that I cleared up in a week).

The vet may give oral medication for RW..... and if a kitty is horribly infected use it, but if they only have one spot or two it's not worth the cost. (This is your call and your vets, I don't recommend going against your vet's advise).

I use lamasil and white vinegar to treat RW in my house.

Lamasil goes on spots they can't lick it off and white vinegar on the spots they can lick. Lamasil gets applied twice a day, white vinegar up to 4.

Both cleared up my kitty infections on the single or dual spotted kitties in 14 days.

I did have a couple of trouble cases last year. And I did end up bathing one litter of kittens every other day in medicated shampoo. Two of the three were cleared very rapidly and one stuck around. Another RW kitten I had we ended up shaving. He was horribly infected, he had no hair on his tail and face from a very young age. He healed up from that and had no visible signs of RW, but when we checked him with a black light he'd light up like a christmas tree. We tried spot treating, and spot shaving.... and finally just shaved him completely and bathed him regularly for a couple of weeks. After about 6 months he was officially RW free.

Also if you use a Black light.... you can pluck infected hairs. Sometimes kitties will only have one or two hairs that glow and so they technically aren't cured of RW yet.... I felt bad because one of the kittens last year was cleared of RW everywhere but one whisker..... So we plucked it. It would have taken weeks for him to regrow that whisker on his own hurting his adoption chances... so we plucked it. Kept him a week to make sure he was clear and the vet officially cleared him a week later. He wasn't bothered by it all and got adopted into an great home a few days later.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions about RW. After last year I kind of feel like a RW pro now.....

ReiKitty said:

First get a black light and shine it on the spots on the kitties. If it's ringworm the hairs will glow, it's really obvious under black light trust me. If your vet hasn't have them look at the kitty under a Woods Lamp (It's a fancy black light with a magnify glass). If it doesn't glow it's probably not RW.

Click to expand...

The wood's lamp would surely be a magic too if it could diagnose all RW cases but it is not 100% reliable. Still - testing is really needed. In the first link I posted above "shelter medicine" http://www.sheltermedicine.com/node/56 it explains about the use of the Wood's lamp to diagnose. Check it out! Interesting and reliable information on ringworm.

That's good to know! All my cases last year light up under the light... it was like a disco party at times...

Makes me feel better though I sent home a kitten from an adoption event a month or two ago because I found a near perfect circle of hair missing and flakes, and everything that visibly RW looks like to me. The vet said it wasn't since it didn't show up under the Woods Lamp though.... But ended up treating her anyways because a week later a littermate tested positive under a woods lamp.

ReiKitty said:

That's good to know! All my cases last year light up under the light... it was like a disco party at times...

Makes me feel better though I sent home a kitten from an adoption event a month or two ago because I found a near perfect circle of hair missing and flakes, and everything that visibly RW looks like to me. The vet said it wasn't since it didn't show up under the Woods Lamp though.... But ended up treating her anyways because a week later a littermate tested positive under a woods lamp.

Click to expand...

Yup - I had one foster kitten negative under the Wood's lamp but tested positive in the culture. :slant: GOOD LUCK to you too and glad that you are through the worst of it and hope it stays that way. :cross: