I was googling feline ringworm and came upon this site and found a lot of useful information about ringworm. Here is my story and current nightmare (sorry, this is long):
I rescued a 10 year old cat in April that had been languishing in a shelter for over 6 mos. Her name is Clara, she is gray and white and long haired and now that she's adjusted she is lovely (most of the time, a bit testy, that one!). Clara had lived with another cat in her prior home and after she adjusted here it seemed to me she was lonely. I have a 3 year old rescued mutt but she's in doggie daycare all day while I'm at work so Clara was alone. I saw a 9 year old short haired gray and white cat with epilepsy on a rescue (or maybe it was a shelter) website. Talked to my vet, epilepsy didn't seem to be that big of a deal so I contacted them. He was living in an animal control facility, had not been on anti-seizure meds since his owner surrendered him. He had not had a seizure that anyone knew about while he was in animal control. I adopted him. His name is Gilligan. Within a few days of my bringing him home it appeared he was having seizures again. I did not see him have a seizure but twice found him lying in large pools of urine on my bed. Always fun to scrub that out of a mattress. I took him to my vet and while there she noticed he had infected ears and scratches on his head. She cultured the scratch for ringworm, though I had no idea what that meant. It was some sort of quick culture, would take 4 days to come back. She suggested I quarantine him for that 4 days but I really didn't have a place to do that so I didn't. The culture was negative, started him on seizure meds, and we all started settling in. The vet thought the scratches were probably from his scratching at his infected ears. Oh, and it turns out he's 2, not 9.
Since I got her, Clara has been diving at the door to get outside. She got out a couple of times but never really went anywhere. Mostly she'd sit on the front steps in the sun. Once she went under a shrub by the front door but that's about it. She's very attached to me and I don't think she has any desire to get away. So I stopped being so hypervigilant about the door because she never went anywhere when she got out. Gilligan never showed any interest in the door. One day, two weeks after I got Gilligan, I was taking trash out the back door and a neighbor called to me and I went over to chat for a few minutes. I totally forgot about the door, didn't look to see if it was open or not. It was open. Gilligan was long gone when went back inside about 15 min or so later. I put up about 60 signs around the area, called animal control in my town, the local animal rescue league, the woman I adopted him from at the other animal control, etc. I walked hours every night with a flashlight, looking under shrubs and porches and in the woods and along the streets. No sign of him.
A week later, my town animal control officer calls me and says she's pretty sure he was found. I went and looked and Yay! It was him! I brought him home and all was well. He was not microchipped so I called around and learned the local animal rescue league has a chipping clinic once a month. I brought him there, which turned out to be exactly 20 days after I got him back. The vet took him into the back room and almost immediately came out and said he was pretty sure Gilligan had ringworm. I said no, he'd just been tested and the marks were scratches from the ear infections. I didn't see what the big deal was but the vet was a little freaked out. Now that I know about ringworm, I can see why since I had just brought an infected cat into a shelter. Anyway, he called my vet and talked to her and lucky for me the vet was still open that night so I brought Gilligan right up. He glowed like a Christmas tree under the Wood's lamp. She did a 14 day culture anyway to be sure ,but we started him on griseofulvin, 1 tsp 2x a day with 1 tsp corn oil 2x a day, and topical microconosol. No dips, she never mentioned it. He is now quarantined, has been for about 16 days now. It has been a brutal 16 says for me. I brought my dog Juliet up to get checked, she got cultured and was ok. She has a weird spot but it's apparently not ringworm. I had one of the owners of her doggie daycare come to the vet with me when she got checked so she could hear for herself whether she could go to daycare. Based on the visual and negative wood's lamp, vet said ok to daycare. Culture was negative at day 14. Took Clara up last weekend. She has just so much hair! Vet did a full skin check and a Wood's lamp. Not one thing on her glowed. Vet determined she did not need to be treated and was ok. She is not quarantined.
Gilligan is not doing that well, we're headed back to the vet tomorrow. One of the spots on his ears is now ringed with a crusty bloody scab, which doesn't seem right to me 16 days in. I wouldn't think it would still be getting worse now. I'm wondering if his seizure meds are impeding things. It's been a blast giving him 2tsp of liquid and pilling him twice a day.
Here is where I really REALLY need some support and help. The cleaning. Before I put Gilligan in the room where he is I emptied it out of as much furniture as I could. All that is in there is an old chair (which I will throw out after this) that is covered with a sheet that I change and bleach every few days or so, and my desk with a desktop computer on it. I had a bunch of stray furniture I took out, washed, rinsed, bleached and wiped. Much of that furniture is now down in my basement. I Swiffer the floor in there every day, the walls and ceiling every 2-3 days, use disposable dishes for food and water and toss them every couple of days. I wet Swiffer the floor every couple of days. I wear gloves, and leave clothes and slippers in the room to put on. I go in naked. Last weekend I got down to it and scrubbed everything with spic and span, rinsed it all, dried it, then sprayed the 1:10 bleach on it, let it sit, then wiped it off. He was in the carrier in the bathroom at the time. it was horrible. And, it appears, completely useless since I noticed last night that the bleach I got is not for disinfecting. I'm allergic to bleach so I never have any around and bought some that was scented because I get migraines and all I could think was that not only was I going to have hives from all this bleach but I'd have migraines to boot. Well, apparently the scented bleach does not have disinfecting properties. I plan to bleach and wipe down again tomorrow just before we leave for the vet. Should be in the 50s here, figure I'll put him in his carrier on the front steps, spray, wait 10 min and wipe. Not too many bleachable surfaces in there so I figure it will take about 20 min. I'll open the window to vent while we're at the vet and put him back in the room tomorrow, along with another clean sheet on the chair.
It took me 12 hours to scrub my bedroom. I am throwing out a ton of stuff. Took me 6 hours to do my bookcase. I threw out about 100 books. I washed, rinsed and bleached everything else, including cds, bookends, etc. The bookcase is painted wood and I'm not sure if bleach is effective on that or if it's technically porous since it's wood but I bleached it anyway. Guess it doesn't really matter since I used the wrong bleach.
I am gone for work over 12 hours a day. I leave at 6:30 am and get home 6:45-7:00. I have been trying to do some cleaning but frankly I'm exhausted and overwhelmed by this whole situation. Doesn't help that I suffer from extreme anxiety and this has made me so anxious I cannot sleep or eat. I am trying to Swiffer all the floors every night. Last night I spent 2 hours vacuuming my couch and loveseat, then wiped them down to get off any remaining hairs I could get. it felt futile. There is hair I can see but cant' remove. I did get a ton of hair off but I'm certain there is plenty left. I am trying to tackle the big cleaning/disinfecting of one room each weekend day. I have 4 rooms left. I feel so guilty that I simply cannot work on this to any degree after work. I'm exhausted and paralyzed from anxiety over this when I get home. So... if you're read this far, some questions?
1) does the fact that neither Clara, Juliet nor I seem to have contracted ringworm mean that we probably won't at this point since Gilligan is quarantined and the house is slowly getting cleaner?
2) and I doomed to having him get reinfected because I have to wait for weekends to do the big cleaning? I am so depressed by this whole thing, and am discovering just how much useless junk I have in this house. The only good thing out of this is that my house will be clutter free by the end. Rather than try to clean stuff I'm just throwing things out. 15 bags of trash this week alone, but that was also my rugs, curtains, bedding, pet beds, cat climbers, etc too.
3) I am petrified that Juliet, in particular, will get it because I cannot clean the house fast enough. If she gets it she can't go to daycare and then I'm just screwed. I'm gone 12 hours, she'd probably need to be walked twice, which I probably can't afford, and where am I going to find a dog walker who will come into a ringworm infested home? And would she need to be quarantined also? Where exactly am I going to be able to do that? I don't have another spare room. It would make this nightmare just completely unbearable.
4) is there anything I can do for Juliet to stop her from getting it from the not yet totally disinfected house, or even after since I fear I will never be able to do this job appropriately? Can I dip her in lime sulfur dip now, will that prevent her from getting it? Would an antifungal shampoo help? If she gets it, anyone know if it takes as long to clear in dogs?
5) Does Lysol actually work to kill ringworm? I think it said it was effective against athlete's foot, but not the canis variety for ringworm. I have been using it in the places I have not yet been able to adequately clean.
6) Should I just throw out this couch? What are the odds of the couch infecting Clara or Juliet (both of whom have always slept on the couch, as did Gilligan at least twice that I know of. Saw him perched on the arm for a couple minutes that's all, but who knows while I was at work - it's in front of a huge window).
7) I have washed as many clothes as possible in bleach, but since I'm allergic to bleach, I have to wash them again in just soap after. And I used the wrong bleach. Do I have to wash everything again? Is there any other way to do this other than bleach? My electric bill from all this laundry is going to be sky high. The sheer cost of everything I've had to throw out, the vet bills for the 3 animals, his meds, the cleaning supplies etc are really killing me. And we're coming into heating season. I'm just bleeding money. I'll do what I need to do, within reason, but if there's any shortcut or no-bleach solution I'd love to hear about it.
8) I'm losing it having to do this alone. I'm exhausted and overwhelmed and feel like this will never end. Everyone keeps telling me to just euthanize Gilligan. I'm very weepy about this. He's a lovely boy and I vowed to take care of him when I adopted him and yet I feel I have failed him utterly. Does anyone know if there are cleaning companies that will come clean a ringworm house? How many times do I have to disinfect the whole house? How often do I have to bleach Gilligan's room? I think I'm on target to finish disinfecting the house either this weekend or maybe next, or maybe one night this coming week. Is my time lag dooming us all? This is so hard to do alone. How many times do I have to disinfect the whole house? I figure if I have to do it again it will take much less time since things are now clean and I can Swiffer and then just bleach.
9) Had anyone ever tried to disinfect either an elliptical or treadmill? How on earth do I do those????
Any tips, advice, help, support anyone could give would be much appreciated. My dad and best friend are both end stage cancer are on chemo and I'm petrified of giving this to them, so I haven't been to visit since this started. Just a little added stress. I'm not going till next week and I'm meeting both in public so no spores that are on me get in their houses. It feels like this has ruined my life. My beautiful little house that I took such care to decorate over the years is going to be bare with no curtains and blinds. It feels like it will never been ringworm free. I feel in such desperate need of help but there is no help coming.
Emme
I rescued a 10 year old cat in April that had been languishing in a shelter for over 6 mos. Her name is Clara, she is gray and white and long haired and now that she's adjusted she is lovely (most of the time, a bit testy, that one!). Clara had lived with another cat in her prior home and after she adjusted here it seemed to me she was lonely. I have a 3 year old rescued mutt but she's in doggie daycare all day while I'm at work so Clara was alone. I saw a 9 year old short haired gray and white cat with epilepsy on a rescue (or maybe it was a shelter) website. Talked to my vet, epilepsy didn't seem to be that big of a deal so I contacted them. He was living in an animal control facility, had not been on anti-seizure meds since his owner surrendered him. He had not had a seizure that anyone knew about while he was in animal control. I adopted him. His name is Gilligan. Within a few days of my bringing him home it appeared he was having seizures again. I did not see him have a seizure but twice found him lying in large pools of urine on my bed. Always fun to scrub that out of a mattress. I took him to my vet and while there she noticed he had infected ears and scratches on his head. She cultured the scratch for ringworm, though I had no idea what that meant. It was some sort of quick culture, would take 4 days to come back. She suggested I quarantine him for that 4 days but I really didn't have a place to do that so I didn't. The culture was negative, started him on seizure meds, and we all started settling in. The vet thought the scratches were probably from his scratching at his infected ears. Oh, and it turns out he's 2, not 9.
Since I got her, Clara has been diving at the door to get outside. She got out a couple of times but never really went anywhere. Mostly she'd sit on the front steps in the sun. Once she went under a shrub by the front door but that's about it. She's very attached to me and I don't think she has any desire to get away. So I stopped being so hypervigilant about the door because she never went anywhere when she got out. Gilligan never showed any interest in the door. One day, two weeks after I got Gilligan, I was taking trash out the back door and a neighbor called to me and I went over to chat for a few minutes. I totally forgot about the door, didn't look to see if it was open or not. It was open. Gilligan was long gone when went back inside about 15 min or so later. I put up about 60 signs around the area, called animal control in my town, the local animal rescue league, the woman I adopted him from at the other animal control, etc. I walked hours every night with a flashlight, looking under shrubs and porches and in the woods and along the streets. No sign of him.
A week later, my town animal control officer calls me and says she's pretty sure he was found. I went and looked and Yay! It was him! I brought him home and all was well. He was not microchipped so I called around and learned the local animal rescue league has a chipping clinic once a month. I brought him there, which turned out to be exactly 20 days after I got him back. The vet took him into the back room and almost immediately came out and said he was pretty sure Gilligan had ringworm. I said no, he'd just been tested and the marks were scratches from the ear infections. I didn't see what the big deal was but the vet was a little freaked out. Now that I know about ringworm, I can see why since I had just brought an infected cat into a shelter. Anyway, he called my vet and talked to her and lucky for me the vet was still open that night so I brought Gilligan right up. He glowed like a Christmas tree under the Wood's lamp. She did a 14 day culture anyway to be sure ,but we started him on griseofulvin, 1 tsp 2x a day with 1 tsp corn oil 2x a day, and topical microconosol. No dips, she never mentioned it. He is now quarantined, has been for about 16 days now. It has been a brutal 16 says for me. I brought my dog Juliet up to get checked, she got cultured and was ok. She has a weird spot but it's apparently not ringworm. I had one of the owners of her doggie daycare come to the vet with me when she got checked so she could hear for herself whether she could go to daycare. Based on the visual and negative wood's lamp, vet said ok to daycare. Culture was negative at day 14. Took Clara up last weekend. She has just so much hair! Vet did a full skin check and a Wood's lamp. Not one thing on her glowed. Vet determined she did not need to be treated and was ok. She is not quarantined.
Gilligan is not doing that well, we're headed back to the vet tomorrow. One of the spots on his ears is now ringed with a crusty bloody scab, which doesn't seem right to me 16 days in. I wouldn't think it would still be getting worse now. I'm wondering if his seizure meds are impeding things. It's been a blast giving him 2tsp of liquid and pilling him twice a day.
Here is where I really REALLY need some support and help. The cleaning. Before I put Gilligan in the room where he is I emptied it out of as much furniture as I could. All that is in there is an old chair (which I will throw out after this) that is covered with a sheet that I change and bleach every few days or so, and my desk with a desktop computer on it. I had a bunch of stray furniture I took out, washed, rinsed, bleached and wiped. Much of that furniture is now down in my basement. I Swiffer the floor in there every day, the walls and ceiling every 2-3 days, use disposable dishes for food and water and toss them every couple of days. I wet Swiffer the floor every couple of days. I wear gloves, and leave clothes and slippers in the room to put on. I go in naked. Last weekend I got down to it and scrubbed everything with spic and span, rinsed it all, dried it, then sprayed the 1:10 bleach on it, let it sit, then wiped it off. He was in the carrier in the bathroom at the time. it was horrible. And, it appears, completely useless since I noticed last night that the bleach I got is not for disinfecting. I'm allergic to bleach so I never have any around and bought some that was scented because I get migraines and all I could think was that not only was I going to have hives from all this bleach but I'd have migraines to boot. Well, apparently the scented bleach does not have disinfecting properties. I plan to bleach and wipe down again tomorrow just before we leave for the vet. Should be in the 50s here, figure I'll put him in his carrier on the front steps, spray, wait 10 min and wipe. Not too many bleachable surfaces in there so I figure it will take about 20 min. I'll open the window to vent while we're at the vet and put him back in the room tomorrow, along with another clean sheet on the chair.
It took me 12 hours to scrub my bedroom. I am throwing out a ton of stuff. Took me 6 hours to do my bookcase. I threw out about 100 books. I washed, rinsed and bleached everything else, including cds, bookends, etc. The bookcase is painted wood and I'm not sure if bleach is effective on that or if it's technically porous since it's wood but I bleached it anyway. Guess it doesn't really matter since I used the wrong bleach.
I am gone for work over 12 hours a day. I leave at 6:30 am and get home 6:45-7:00. I have been trying to do some cleaning but frankly I'm exhausted and overwhelmed by this whole situation. Doesn't help that I suffer from extreme anxiety and this has made me so anxious I cannot sleep or eat. I am trying to Swiffer all the floors every night. Last night I spent 2 hours vacuuming my couch and loveseat, then wiped them down to get off any remaining hairs I could get. it felt futile. There is hair I can see but cant' remove. I did get a ton of hair off but I'm certain there is plenty left. I am trying to tackle the big cleaning/disinfecting of one room each weekend day. I have 4 rooms left. I feel so guilty that I simply cannot work on this to any degree after work. I'm exhausted and paralyzed from anxiety over this when I get home. So... if you're read this far, some questions?
1) does the fact that neither Clara, Juliet nor I seem to have contracted ringworm mean that we probably won't at this point since Gilligan is quarantined and the house is slowly getting cleaner?
2) and I doomed to having him get reinfected because I have to wait for weekends to do the big cleaning? I am so depressed by this whole thing, and am discovering just how much useless junk I have in this house. The only good thing out of this is that my house will be clutter free by the end. Rather than try to clean stuff I'm just throwing things out. 15 bags of trash this week alone, but that was also my rugs, curtains, bedding, pet beds, cat climbers, etc too.
3) I am petrified that Juliet, in particular, will get it because I cannot clean the house fast enough. If she gets it she can't go to daycare and then I'm just screwed. I'm gone 12 hours, she'd probably need to be walked twice, which I probably can't afford, and where am I going to find a dog walker who will come into a ringworm infested home? And would she need to be quarantined also? Where exactly am I going to be able to do that? I don't have another spare room. It would make this nightmare just completely unbearable.
4) is there anything I can do for Juliet to stop her from getting it from the not yet totally disinfected house, or even after since I fear I will never be able to do this job appropriately? Can I dip her in lime sulfur dip now, will that prevent her from getting it? Would an antifungal shampoo help? If she gets it, anyone know if it takes as long to clear in dogs?
5) Does Lysol actually work to kill ringworm? I think it said it was effective against athlete's foot, but not the canis variety for ringworm. I have been using it in the places I have not yet been able to adequately clean.
6) Should I just throw out this couch? What are the odds of the couch infecting Clara or Juliet (both of whom have always slept on the couch, as did Gilligan at least twice that I know of. Saw him perched on the arm for a couple minutes that's all, but who knows while I was at work - it's in front of a huge window).
7) I have washed as many clothes as possible in bleach, but since I'm allergic to bleach, I have to wash them again in just soap after. And I used the wrong bleach. Do I have to wash everything again? Is there any other way to do this other than bleach? My electric bill from all this laundry is going to be sky high. The sheer cost of everything I've had to throw out, the vet bills for the 3 animals, his meds, the cleaning supplies etc are really killing me. And we're coming into heating season. I'm just bleeding money. I'll do what I need to do, within reason, but if there's any shortcut or no-bleach solution I'd love to hear about it.
8) I'm losing it having to do this alone. I'm exhausted and overwhelmed and feel like this will never end. Everyone keeps telling me to just euthanize Gilligan. I'm very weepy about this. He's a lovely boy and I vowed to take care of him when I adopted him and yet I feel I have failed him utterly. Does anyone know if there are cleaning companies that will come clean a ringworm house? How many times do I have to disinfect the whole house? How often do I have to bleach Gilligan's room? I think I'm on target to finish disinfecting the house either this weekend or maybe next, or maybe one night this coming week. Is my time lag dooming us all? This is so hard to do alone. How many times do I have to disinfect the whole house? I figure if I have to do it again it will take much less time since things are now clean and I can Swiffer and then just bleach.
9) Had anyone ever tried to disinfect either an elliptical or treadmill? How on earth do I do those????
Any tips, advice, help, support anyone could give would be much appreciated. My dad and best friend are both end stage cancer are on chemo and I'm petrified of giving this to them, so I haven't been to visit since this started. Just a little added stress. I'm not going till next week and I'm meeting both in public so no spores that are on me get in their houses. It feels like this has ruined my life. My beautiful little house that I took such care to decorate over the years is going to be bare with no curtains and blinds. It feels like it will never been ringworm free. I feel in such desperate need of help but there is no help coming.
Emme