Potential for ringworm transmission - is it worth the risk?

I would appreciate advice on a ringworm concern. I usually leave my cat with family when I travel for more than a few days. He is used to them and their house and seems to prefer it to being alone at home and checked on twice a day. We were planning to take him there over the holidays, buy they have recently adopted cats who may or may not have ringworm. They don't have a firm diagnosis yet. Assuming that they test negative, is there still risk involved with taking our cat to their house? Making other arrangements would entail significant changes to our plans (complicated and made months ago), but I don't want to take any big risks.

Well, in my experience, if ringworm is suspected, it nearly always is ringworm.

So assume it is.

In adult cats with normal healthy immune systems, ringworm will usually only be able to cause a small spot or two, so despite wanting to avoid the risk of him contracting it, even if he does it's not all that big of a deal to get rid of.

Nothing like kittens!

A healthy low stress adult kitty has little odds of getting ringworm.

The problem is the stress from going to the other house and meeting their kitties. If you think it doesn't stress him out then I'd say go for it and the odds would be low he'd get ringworm.

If you think the new kitties really stress him out, then his odds are going to get worse for getting ringworm, but still will be pretty low.

I had 5 adult cats in my home and last year I had about 4 months were I kept getting ringworm kittens in. (I think I ended up with about 10 different rw kittens by the end) Of my 5 adults only one caught it, and she got only one patch on her head. Since I was ready for it as soon as I thought she had it I just started treating her for it. She was over it in about 3 weeks. 

So if you do bring your kitty over just  be prepared to deal with RW on your kitty.

And maybe yourself and anyone who lives with you... but you also have a small chance of getting when you visit your family house and even you bringing it home to your kitty... so he could get it with out ever going over there! Just something to keep in mind.

catwoman707 and ReiKitty, thank you very much for taking the time to respond in detail. Your responses are very reassuring, and very logical.

silverpersian said:

 
catwoman707 and ReiKitty, thank you very much for taking the time to respond in detail. Your responses are very reassuring, and very logical.

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If I brought my cat to their home rather than put all the cats through the stress of an introduction that isn't even designed to create long term friendship - assuming they have never met before - I would keep my cat in my bedroom away from the other cats.  When you have suspected ringworm, all the more reason, and I would avoid handling their cats as not only could you get it, but you could transmit ot to your cat.  I've done this personally and I've seen it happen to others.

Stephen, thank you for the sound advice. I was planning to keep our cat in the bedroom where we normally stay. Even before the new cats, we kept his food and litterbox there, so he tended to spend a lot of time in that room.

silverpersian said:

 
Stephen, thank you for the sound advice. I was planning to keep our cat in the bedroom where we normally stay. Even before the new cats, we kept his food and litterbox there, so he tended to spend a lot of time in that room.

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Ok keep us updated and happy holidays

We are back. Our initial plan was to keep our cat confined to the guest room, but apparently at some point he managed to get out and visit with the resident kitties, and they were found happily playing with each other. Several supervised visits went similarly well, and they became very friendly. When we got back, they were actually sharing food and touching noses. No one had ringworm. Our only problem is that our cat is very sad since leaving his friends behind. This is a very unexpected turn of events. All three cats are very friendly and gentle, so I guess we should have seen it coming.

Thanks for the advice.

Aww.....that's rather sad.

Have you considered adopting a friend for your kitty? Sounds like a cat who loves companionship. Some really do, and others really don't.

Yay! A great opportunity to save a shelter kitty and give your persian a friend!

silverpersian said:

 
We are back. Our initial plan was to keep our cat confined to the guest room, but apparently at some point he managed to get out and visit with the resident kitties, and they were found happily playing with each other. Several supervised visits went similarly well, and they became very friendly. When we got back, they were actually sharing food and touching noses. No one had ringworm. Our only problem is that our cat is very sad since leaving his friends behind. This is a very unexpected turn of events. All three cats are very friendly and gentle, so I guess we should have seen it coming.

Thanks for the advice.

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I like to say that having two cats is less work and more fun than one :-)