Ringworm But No Symptoms

[sydney]

so this is weird, about 3 weeks or a month ago I got my kitten who had spots of missing hair, so I took
Him to the vet and we sent out a culture, the first culture cake back about two or three weeks later and was negative. Since then all his spots got better and now he looks totally normal. We just got the final culture back and it said he has ringworm. He was never treated for it in all this time and his spots healed up and his hair grew back. My 3 dogs and I are symptom free. Weird right? Anyone experience this before? Did I just get super lucky on this one and he healed on his own without transferring anything to me and the dogs?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

That is extremely weird. I wonder if somehow they got the samples mixed up

 

[jcat]

A strong immune system can ward off ringworm, so it's not all that strange.

 

[sydney]

His before and after.

 

[kat hamlin]

Ringworm is a funny beast. It sounds like the second culture was probably taken when the fungus was still sporing, hence the positive culture. I would say if there are no spots of missing hair and no fluorescence under a Woods lamp, then even with a positive culture he is subclinical.
We don't see much ringworm around here but I recently learned a lot about it at the Maddie's Fund Kitten Life-Saving Apprenticeship Program at the HSSV in Milpitas, CA. Rather than using fungal cultures, they use in-house DTM plates which are much faster to yield results. You might ask about doing one of those to confirm a negative ringworm.

 

[sydney]

So here's another question, so like I said before my cat tested positive but heal on his own. It's been about a month now since I got him. Today I came home from work and noticed one of my dogs has a sore on the side of his nose, I really don't think it was there this morning. I'm hoping he just did something to it while I was at work, but could it be ringworm? Would it just appear that fast from nothing this am to a big red sore now 9 hours later? I work tomorrow and will take him with me ( I work at an animal hospital) just curious what you guys think. Thanks!

 

[TrashCat]

The thing that sucks about ringworm is that it can take up to THREE WEEKS for a lesion to appear. There is a good chance your dog has ringworm by being exposed to it while the kitten had his active lesion. I brought in a rescued kitten who had been exposed to ringworm at the shelter and all but 2 of my 7 other animals (including neighbor's dogs) who came in contact with him got 1 spot of ringworm (my adult cat got 3 spots). Dogs seem to fight it better and healthy dogs tend to get just one spot. I would do the lime sulfur dips or (my favorite) Ciderm shampoo from J-Kat on everybody for the next 3 plus weeks and do lots of cleaning to mechanically remove the loose spores in your home. Otherwise, it will keep coming back and you will probably spread it to lots of other animals. It's a nightmare.

 

[sydney]

I'm curious, if this is ringworm on his nose, how do they treat it since nothing topical can be applied because he will just lick it off?
I'm taking him back on Sunday and we might send out a culture.

 

[TrashCat]

The best treatment is all over treatment. I personally think that the Ciderm shampoo by J-Kat is the best on the market for ringworm. It uses chlorine dioxide. You would bath all your pets all over every 3 days for 2 weeks, then do one batch a week for another 3 just to be sure you got it. Clean all dog beds on bath day too so that they don't keep reinfecting themselves. Keep yourself clean too as you can get it from them and then you could keep reinfecting them.
You can also use Lyme Sulfur dips which are very effective, but very stinky. You soak them in it and then let it dry without rinsing.

 

[intertwangled]

Curious about j-kat products, the nerd in me researched chlorine dioxide in treatment of microbial infections including fungi, and found this (relatively recent) publication. I just wanted to see if there was any information or studies out there that would explain why there have been so many anecdotal claims (like on this site) of the J-kat products being so successful.

https://medcraveonline.com/IJVV/IJVV-02-00052.pdf

The paper doesn't focus specifically on ringworm; but towards the bottom you can see ringworm as one of the many things that CLO2 has been successful at treating, and a thorough explanation re: how this happens.

Excerpt:

"Because of their low tolerance for nascent oxygen and the acidic medium in which they thrive (from the liberation of organic acids); fungi in the mycelial form are sensitive to the destructive action of CLO2. One example of a human pathogenic fungus is 2 Candida albicans; invading finger and toenails. A second example is the fungus responsible for “atheletes foot”; thriving between toes in a moist environment while still another example is “ringworm”; propagating on the dead cells found on skin (as well as generating many mycotoxins affecting homeostasis)."

Anyways, just sharing in case there are other nerds like me out there. :-)