Ringworm ???

Hi,

Several months ago we adopted a 5 yr. old Calico kitty  , Bella Louise, from our local shelter. She had been surrendered by previous owner for peeing outside box, however, shelter vet had found bladder infection so she was treated   and using box when adopted.

About 1 month after we adopted her our very elderly dog developed ringworm on his side. Since our home has been very stable with no  other introduction of any  pets , our vet determined that Bella, who was lesion free, may be a carrier. She suggested that we immediately do a culture . I believe that our vet scrubbed Bella"s  body with a toothbrush which was then transferred to  culture medium  and sent to outside lab.  (or something similar to this).

Our vet suggested that we do sulfphur lyme dips on her weekly until culture results returned. and isolate her in home. She was placed in a large bathroom and my husband I used gloves etc. when playing with her. We also did excessive cleaning of all of home to make sure that we eliminated spores. . She had  4  weekly sulphur lyme dips done at vet"s office and after 4tth week the culture came back with no growth. At that point Bella was allowed free roam of home and bed.  That was 1 month ago and I now  ( within past week)  I have several ringworm lesions on my hands. Is it possible that Bella does have ringworm and that we should have gotten more sulphur dips and/or done a 2nd culture.??

I am going crazy not knowing if I got ringworm from spores from dog or if Bella does have ringworm?? 

I am now afraid to pet both animals and have no idea what to do !! Help!!

Hi, Bella Louise.  Yes, it's possible.  The vet should have given her oral medication as well, probably 2-3 months of it.  I had the same thing happen to me.  I rescued a cat from a shelter, brought her home symptom free, and within a week or so, my original cat developed the lesions.  Shortly after he broke out with them, the shelter kitty developed lesions as well.  Both were treated with an oral anti-fungal prescription as well as being bathed periodically in Malaseb shampoo (recommended by my vet).  My vet doesn't like the lime dips and had me use Malaseb instead.  I know he did at least 3 separate cultures, three weeks apart, on my cats  I never stopped petting my cats with my bare hands, and I never developed a lesion.  Your cat, dog and you need to all be on oral medication to be sure there is an anti-fungal in your systems round the clock.  There may be some spores that you missed while cleaning, but I didn't turn my house inside out.  I used PureGreen24 to clean hard surfaces and all toys that weren't cloth toys, and for bedding, pet beds, etc., used bleach along with detergent in the washer.  You need the oral meds.  Ringworm is such a pain to deal with, but after mine were treated for it, it never returned.  I now have two newer cats added to our family and they've never had lesions, so I know of at least one carrier cat that carries it no longer, my little Mia.  And btw, she turned out to be WELL worth all that trouble.  I hope this helps!

Thank you so much!!!.Our vet indicated that itraconazole orally was a very heavy duty drug and she did not want to use it without a positive culture !

Bella Louise said:

 
Thank you so much!!!.Our vet indicated that itraconazole orally was a very heavy duty drug and she did not want to use it without a positive culture !

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Our ringworm episode was over four years ago, and I don't remember what mine were on.  I wish I knew, but I believe there are more drugs available today. Whatever mine were on, it didn't effect them in any negative way.  They were very young, both just over a year old, and otherwise very healthy.  At any rate, I saw no bad side effects at all.  My vet scraped the lesion lightly with a scalpel for the culture.  Another good way to tell if a cat has ringworm is to turn out all the lights and use a black light.  The ringworm will have a phosphorescent green glow!

Hi Bella Louise. If your cat had no lesions and her culture was negative, I believe that your vet was right to not give her itraconozale or other oral meds. The Lyme sulphur dips were a great precaution. How's your dog doing now? What treatments/medications did your vet prescribe for him? I would definitely suspect that you got your ringworm from your dog, since you know for sure that he has/had it. What treatment are you using on your hands?

Suzanne,

The dog was treated with Tresaderm for 1 month. He had a very large red sore on his side. We washed his dog bed covers frequently, used bleach water on floor.... dusted, vacumed and had many  things dry cleaned. Bella has never had any lesions or anything even remotely suspicious on her skin. I would like to believe  that Bella"s culture is truly negative and that it  is spores from the dog.

I am using Lamisil on my hands, bandaids over the suspicious areas, sometimes wear white cotton gloves while I work around other animals. I am very careful .

It sounds like you are doing all the right things. I hadn't heard of Tresaderm so had to look it up. It's a topical? Perhaps your vet didn't want to give oral meds to your dog due to age? Is his lesion completely cleared up now?

Yes our dog got only a topical but it worked well and he has been lesion free for weeks.  I have been spending more time with him now that he doesn't have ringworm so maybe it is those stubborn spores that we missed. Do you think that I should have another culture done on Bella??? She would have received 8 lime dips if she had been positive as she handled them better than an average cat. She received only 4 of them ; we stopped them when we got the negative culture results.

Hi! I'm dealing with ringworm myself. Crazy stuff! We just relocated from the South to the North and about a month ago my kitty who is about 4yrs old got outside and about a week later she began to have lesions, not knowing what it was, took her to one vet and he thought it was just a bad cut, gave us a prescription for antibiotics. After it got worse ;my husband suspected ringworm) the vet said it was allergies, after a hydrocortisone and shot we sought another opinion. The second vet did a woodlamp test and poor kitty lit up like a glow stick mainly around her neck and ears. My anxiety level shot up to 100% because I have 2 kids that were sleeping with her at different times!!! So the vet said I need only do normal hygiene and cleaning and then there are some sites out there that say bleach the whole house (not possible) and fumigate and rip out carpets and never do anything else but clean! She is on an oral med, and topical, and getting dipped once a week. She is in quarantine in a cage in the living room and we let her out once a day in a small bathroom which we hose down with Lysol or 50/50 peroxide water. I suffer from anxiety and feel like my house is too big to bleach every book, and knickknack. I just moved in less than 6 months ago and haven't even unpacked my life yet! Then get punched in the gut with this! Help I just need to know this won't be a epic never ending cycle of fungus hell! I vacuume daily with a dyson, and then spray it down with Lysol . I mop the floor n the kitchen and bathroom. We've replaced the carpet upstairs not because of this, we had to just do it. I have leather sofas so I can't bleach that! Plus they are not even 2months old yet[emoji]128556[/emoji]! I don't know if I'm doing enough! I'm so afraid once kitty is clear, she'll get reinfected and the nightmare will never go away. I'm two steps from verifiable crazy right now! I just need encouragement and hopefully to you the original author of the post, you're not alone. I'm going through this awful thing too[emoji]9785[/emoji]️

@KittyMommy76, you can read about my ringworm experience here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/310261/aarrrggh-ringworm-advice-needed-desperately

I know exactly what you mean about feeling verifiable crazy. I totally lost it, between the horror stories I read online and seeing firsthand the poor babies in our local rescue group's "ringworm ward".

But it sounds like you are doing all the right things. You are doing much better on the cleaning than I did. I'm not sure that I'd bother with the cage quarantine, since the spores can be airborne. What are the meds you're using? Do you have any other pets? Even if you or your kids get it, it's usually really easy to get rid of in humans. I was much more worried about my other cats, but everything turned out okay. I hope your case turns out okay too. Feel free to PM me if you want to know more.

Strange that someone should post on this thread today of all days. Our elderly dog had a large piece of hair come out on his back  today showing a gross huge wound beneath. He is the dog that was previously treated for ringworm . He is now at the vet being shaved down , getting blood work so that we can determine if he can receive an oral anti-fungal. He apparently is reinfected.  I am beside my self with anxiety as we got a puppy about 8 weeks ago who has been housed with the older dog.

Bella Louise, the kitty who was initially blamed for all of this apparently has nothing to do with it. I have had sores on my hands for weeks which I am treating as if they are ringworm (although I am not sure. ) My husband was getting angry because I am always talking about ringworm "this and ringworm that" and I do believe that he thought I was a nut, however, here it is again and he is down on the lower level with bleach water cleaning the dog room . I feel like I can barely take this at this point..so overwhelmed . I also have 3 bunnies and 4 guinea pigs and am so afraid of passing this on.

Oh I feel for you both. Sending a hug your way.

I am dealing with ringworm on my foster cats right now(momma and 4 kittens, 8 weeks old) . They came down with it a little over a month ago. I decided to tough it out so they could stay with mom and get properly socialized. I sulfur dip them at home every weekend and they get pills every morning. There must be something wrong with me because I don't mind the dips... mind you it's allergy season. These are my very first fosters too haha! I was really stressed in the beginning but I have the routine down now (and I haven't yet tackled the bedroom with carpet that they were originally in..that might be stressful) plus some nice folks here were encouraging. They are in a bathroom now and I wipe it down often, very often because they play in poop about every other night and get it everywhere haha. Good thing they are so cute and sweet right

My reason for jumping in though is to tell you guys about the cleaner the shelter gave me. I wish they would have told me before I bought a bunch of cleaning supplies and bleach (i hate bleach) but let's not complan... back to that magical cleaner- It's Accel and it's safe for the pet and for you plus very effective. It will be your secret weapon that we need to help become not a secret. I am bothered a little bit by the fumes but I am super sensitive. It sure doesn't stop me from using it! It will even be safe for your hands

You can put it in the laundry and on the objects you don't throw away. The main thing is that you have piece of mind that the spores are being killed! Hope this helps. Even when the ringworm is gone I plan on using this to clean between fosters. So I will always keep it one hand!

I would abandon the Lysol. Half say it works and half say it doesn't. 

I am thinking about buying a cheap vacuum with a hepa filter and then cleaning it with Accel because I am afraid to use my personal vacuum. I am ignoring that room for now.... 

@BellaLouise, I'm so sorry to hear that you're dealing with this again. I hope your new puppy and your kitty and your other pets remain clear. Since the treatment you've been using for your hands doesn't seem to be working, maybe you should see a doctor for oral meds yourself?

@SuzanneF well we are doing the cage quarantine because we have no other option. She at least won't be trapsi g through the house. I keep vacuuming, spraying everything with peroxide , and praying. She is getting lime sulphur dips 1x weekly and we ordered some to spray her with at home in between. The oral med is fluconazole and the topicals are like a tube of lotrimin. My son got it just one spot on his cheek. I cured it with tea tree oil, which I know I can't put on kitty[emoji]128533[/emoji]. For laundry we bleach what we can and everything is washed on super hot water, and dried on the sanitize setting. So again a lot of prayer. Not worried about us or the kids getting it, just kitty getting it over and over and the cleaning will never end lol. It's made me nuts . The vet techs are sweet and keep telling me that it's not like the black plauge , it's cureable. And they see it a lot. But my only kitty is like 4 and FIV (-) and leukemia (-) and she is fixed so not pregnant; just wonder what caused her to get it? Like why didn't her system fight it off... I've had 4 other cats in the past, 2 from kittenhood and never even knew ringworm was an issue to be worried about. I'm sorry I'm just a stress mess lol. I appreciate your response and will read your story in between cleaning lol thank you[emoji]10084[/emoji]️