My cat has ringworm :(

Hi, 

I'm new on the forum and on the site. I found it while I was searching information about ringworm in cats. I decided to write here because I need some support and people who I can talk too about my situation 

So two months ago we adopted a 6 years old cat from the SPCA. He's a very nice and affectionate cat. He got used to us and the house quickly. About a week later he started to sneeze, lack energy and wasn't eating and drinking. We figured out that he had rhino so I took him back to the vet at the SPCA for some medication since it was free. The vet gave him some pills to stimulate his appetite and the medication for the rhino. After two days of medication the cat started to vomit so we stopped the medication. By the end of the week he started to look like he was feeling better. He was starting to eat again and had more energy. Everything was fine. 

One month later we had to go to the vet for his vaccination recall. We found a vet near our house and took him. I need to mention that when we took him from the SPCA the hair near his tail was shaved. They said it was because it was matted. So once we get to the vet she saw on that part something like a yellowish crust and the hairs came off. (The night before everything was normal. ) She thought it was ringworm but wasn't sure so she told us to wait to see what happened. By the end of the day it became a red circle with no more hair left. The next day we took him back, the vet made a fungal culture test and sent it to the lab so we had to wait for the answer. One week later it was positive. So she put him on medication. She gave us Imaveral and told us to bath him once every three day four times. She also gave us Itraconazole for six weeks alternating one week we give him and one week we don't. We finished the baths and we are at week two with the Itraconazole. So it's the off week. We also clean the environnement. I vacuum the house every other day and mop with bleach 1:10 2 or 3 times a week. I wash the covers on the couch once a week with bleach too. I clean the furniture and the counter with lysol everyday or every other day. We also bought selsun blue shampoo with 2.5 % selenium sulfide for us and made an antifungal showergel with essentials oils such as tea tree and tea tree based soap in order to prevent the infection from spreading to us. After we bathed the cat with the imaveral, things seemed to get better. He still has his two hairless patches but it doesn't seem to continue to spread. Until now we're safe. At the beginning of this week lots of new black dots appeared and new patches are starting to form. I called the vet and she said that it's was normal to look worse at the beginning. But I'm not sure . I don't know what to think. 

I would like to know what are you think? How long did you guys do the treatment before seeing improvements with the same medication? 

I feel so stressed since all this stared. I can't help but just googling about it all the time even though I know it will not solve anything. And I'm so obsessed with the idea of catching it. Like last night my nails started to hurt so I googled about ringworm on nails and I started to cry like crazy. I mean before I thought that the worst place to have it was on the scalp but after reading how long and inefficient the medication for fungus of the nails was, I changed my mind. I am just so afraid and stressed, and I know that it won't help, just make it worse, but I just can't change my mind and stay positive. I wish I was stronger but I'm not. I just can't wait for all this to be over and my life to go back to normal.  

Sorry for the long message but I needed to share it with some people who might understand me. 

Thank you ! 

First, I will refer you to my favorite thread on this subject, http://www.thecatsite.com/t/210789/6-things-i-learned-from-our-ringworm-plague-book-length.  Here is a quote from the first page of it:

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"2. Don't obsess. Avoid over-Googling "ringworm" on the Internet. Along with all the varying treatment approaches, there's a ton of misinformation, useless products for sale, and scary stuff I wish I hadn't read. Ringworm may be gross, but at least it is not deadly. Deep breaths.

Here's the best source of info I found, by one of the leading vet experts on dermatophytosis: http://www.giveshelter.org/resources/dermatophyte.pdf

Although this info is geared to shelters, it gives clear, useful, up-to-date advice about how to diagnose, treat, and cope with the fungus.

I found help, encouragement, kindness, and commiseration here on TheCatSite! Discovering this community was the silver lining of my ringworm odyssey."

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I will add that if the Imaverol shampoo doesn't work, we have had excellent luck with just two shampoo treatments using chlorhexidine and ketaconozole in a combined solution, sold under a couple of different names, MALAPET , MALASEB and KetaChlor.  the Malapet and Malaseb are advertised for dogs and horses.  We used the KetoChlor which says it is for dogs, cats and horses, and all kittens were free of it after 2 shampoos.  (They had been medicated before but that wasn't enough and even the lime sulfur dips didn't work -- but the KetoChlor did!!  Here is a link to a site that sells the KetoChlor in case your vet wants to try it. 

http://www.1800petmeds.com/KetoChlor-prod10498.html

Thanks! 

I'll try to talk about it to my Vet if the Itraconazole doesn't work but I don't know if we will be able to get it since I live in Québec, Canada. 

Hi, 

So my cat didn't get better and he has new lesions on his body, they now continue until the middle of his back . I talked with the Vet and I told her about the malaseb shampoo and she said it was a good idea to try. But I read that the sides effects can be very bad so I would like to know if anybody else has experience with this shampoo.  

Just go straight to the KetaChlor, same active ingredients and it DOES recommend use on kittens and cats, not just dogs.  Your vet should be able to get it from one of several veterinary supply companies.  I can recommend KetoChlor with NO bad effects on cats and kittens because we have used it a lot, and it worked when nothing else did.