Ring! Ring! Ringworm!!

I know ringworm is a pretty common problem with cats so... i was going to search for it but... search is not active at the moment so i had to post this instead...

I have a kitten who is about 6-7months old... She had a scratch on her neck and it has been there for some time. The vet came to take a look at it and he said that if it doesn't clear up in a few weeks ago (after the anti bios) then it is probably ring worm. It certainly looks like ring worm...

It's going to take a while if they do a culture and i have 6 other cats in the house at the moment and i do not want them all to get it in the mean time...
Will the vet be able to know or will i be able to tell if it is ring worm just by lookig at it?

She has also just got a new one on her shoulder.... the fur is starting to clear away and the skin is a little crusty.... I'm going to call the vet and see what they say tomorrow. . . Hopefully they will just tell me to come in and pick up the meds... I can't drive... that means i'll have to take a cab and i'd rather not drag her out there in a taxi...

SO

1- Is there anything i can do... on top of whatever medication they give me to make it go away faster?
2- is there anything i can do to prevent the other cats from getting it?

First I would seperate the infected cat from the others.. Ringworm is highly contagious to them and to yourself..

Yes! seperate them and call you vet and tell him you have found another spot you want to see her agin, and or treat this....and get instructions from him as to how to keep this from spreading to others.
Linda

Make sure you wash your hands too, and even one hair on your clothing can spread it to other pets or people if there are spores on that hair. Ringworm is not actually a worm depsite it's name, it is a fungal infection. As others have said it is highly contagious, because it reproduces with spores.
You can put a bit of iodine on the spots for now, but I would ask the vet to give you the med asap.
There isn't really a test you have to wait for to determine if it is ringworm, the vet is ripping you off I think. All they have to do is shine a blacklight on it. If it glows neon yellow, it is, if it doesn't, is isn't.

There isn't really a test you have to wait for to determine if it is ringworm, the vet is ripping you off I think. All they have to do is shine a blacklight on it. If it glows neon yellow, it is, if it doesn't, is isn't.

Click to expand...

Actually, there is. Firstly, they can shine a black light on it, but ringworm doesn't always light up. It's like a 50% chance of it lighting up. They can do a fungal culture, which is where they scrape the area, put it in some ogar-like-stuff and see if anything grows in 10 days. Which is probably the thing you are already talking about.

As far as helping it along, washing it with bedadine scrub everyday will help in making it go away.

As far as spreading, seperate her. Wash your hands after you handle her. I have to say though, ringworm isn't really rapidly spread unless your immune system is down, or you are stressed out. I was working on taking some tests to get my GED one week, and in the 3 years I've work at the clinic, I've seen tons of cases of ringworm, and hanlded the animals. This particular week I was stressed and got ringworm from some rescued cats. So be careful, it sucks to have it because it is itchy, but your odds of getting it aren't too high if your immune system is working properly.

Hope you find out what your problem is. Maybe it is something else. I wish you the best with your cats and yourself if it is ringworm.

I stand corrected.... The vets office I worked at always used the black light for a quick diagnosis. If it was questionable, he would culture, but I don't remember running into any questionable cases.
Any case of it I have seen over the years was obvious as well, people don't often take their pet to the vet until it shows up quite clearly.

I wanted to add that when my cats had it my vet used an med given internally because topical meds apparently don't work well in cats. The did dip my cat in some yellow stuff (I think it was Lime Sulfate) So your vet may want to do that too.

Lyme Sulfer dip for ringworm? That stuff is smelly, and used for demodex... I guess it could go after ringworm? But talk about stinky!

We had that problem with a rescue kitten. I don't believe in the dips. They stink and traumatize the animal. We gave the kitten a bath every day for a week with medicated shampoo, then applied a cream mediation, Lamasil to the infected spots. It went away after about 10 days. But definitely separate the other cats from him/her.