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- May 30, 2015
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Hi everyone, I'm literally at my whits end. This is going to be long, please bear with me. Please any advice or personal experience stories are greatly appreciated!
Here is my story: I have three long-haired indoor-only cats. About 4 months ago I took two of them to the groomer. About a week later I noticed they were itching a lot especially around the head. So I put them on flea-treatment medicine. After a few weeks I noticed the itching had not stopped and in fact two of the cats had a lot of irritation on their temples and inside their ear on the skin. So I took them to the vet. The vet basically didn't know what was wrong but a cytology showed they had a bacterial infection on their skin so they were put on antibiotics. The vet also did a test for fungus which came back negative a few weeks later.
In the meantime I personally developed several round, itchy lesions on my skin. I also went to the doctor who did a fungal culture. A few weeks went by and the culture came back negative! At this points the cats were done with the antibiotics and their skin looked better. So I thought all was good.
Boy was I wrong. About three days after the antibiotics were finished, the spots returned on the cats. This time, the female cat started losing her hair around her chin and cheek. The boy cat was bleeding and scratching furiously on his ear and temple. Back to the vet, where even more antibiotics were given. Again, this worked a little bit and the skin problem started to get better. Meanwhile my skin was getting worse. It was unbelievably stressful. I went to three different doctors and was diagnosed with psoriasis and this other weird thing called Pityriasis rosea. The steroid cream I was given did NOTHING. But since the fungal came back negative they all assumed it was not ringworm.
Fast forward a few more days and I noticed a lesion on my third cat. This one looked a bit different than on the other two cats but I had enough. I basically demanded that my vet do a skin biopsy. I also personally went to a dermatologist and asked for a biopsy to be done on my own lesions.
Two weeks later I got the results for both myself and my cats: RINGWORM!!!!! Microsporum canis to be exact. The dermatologist gave me a special lotion for myself and within a few days I was finally feeling better!! It was amazing. My husband also contracted ringworm during this nightmare, and he's also on the fungal lotion and getting better. As far as my kitties, it's been more complicated...
One of my cats has Feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD). A few years ago he nearly died of a full urinary blockage and had to have emergency surgery. Thankfully he survived and ever since I've had him on a special diet and on 5mg of a drug called Amitriptyline. He's been fine since that incident thank God.
Now fast forward to the present, and my vet is recommending that all three cats go on Itraconazole for the ringworm. Then I found out that Amitriptyline and itraconazole have major interaction with each other (just google or put the two drugs in a drug interaction checker). So my vet suggested cutting the Amitriptyline in half while I give the itroconazole for two months. I just simply felt uncomfortable with this. So I decided to try doing Lime Sulfer Dips only without oral meds and see what happened.
Well I did the dips for three weeks with very positive results. However, during the forth week my cats got very sick and I had to take one of them to the hospital. 105 degree fever (VERY HIGH) diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy not eating, the works...They were treated for an overgrowth of a bacterial called clostridium perfringens which the vet said occurred from being stressed. I really think the stress was the lime dips because I had to take them to the vet to do the dips (couldn't do it in my apt to smelly no ventilation). The vet would keep them there ALL DAY to do the dips and when they came home they were so upset.
So I stopped the dips and then it came back. And here we are again in the same situation. The cats have the ringworm and I'm so afraid of the itraconazole. I've decided I'm definitely giving two of the cats the oral itraconazole. I already have started it in two of them today. I've also given all three cats a bath today in some sort of anti-fungal shampoo the vet gave us.
But I'm hesitating to give the oral itraconazole to the cat who is on Amitriptyline, I just have a bad feeling about it. Any thoughts? Advice? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS SO STRESSFULL!!!!!
Here is my story: I have three long-haired indoor-only cats. About 4 months ago I took two of them to the groomer. About a week later I noticed they were itching a lot especially around the head. So I put them on flea-treatment medicine. After a few weeks I noticed the itching had not stopped and in fact two of the cats had a lot of irritation on their temples and inside their ear on the skin. So I took them to the vet. The vet basically didn't know what was wrong but a cytology showed they had a bacterial infection on their skin so they were put on antibiotics. The vet also did a test for fungus which came back negative a few weeks later.
In the meantime I personally developed several round, itchy lesions on my skin. I also went to the doctor who did a fungal culture. A few weeks went by and the culture came back negative! At this points the cats were done with the antibiotics and their skin looked better. So I thought all was good.
Boy was I wrong. About three days after the antibiotics were finished, the spots returned on the cats. This time, the female cat started losing her hair around her chin and cheek. The boy cat was bleeding and scratching furiously on his ear and temple. Back to the vet, where even more antibiotics were given. Again, this worked a little bit and the skin problem started to get better. Meanwhile my skin was getting worse. It was unbelievably stressful. I went to three different doctors and was diagnosed with psoriasis and this other weird thing called Pityriasis rosea. The steroid cream I was given did NOTHING. But since the fungal came back negative they all assumed it was not ringworm.
Fast forward a few more days and I noticed a lesion on my third cat. This one looked a bit different than on the other two cats but I had enough. I basically demanded that my vet do a skin biopsy. I also personally went to a dermatologist and asked for a biopsy to be done on my own lesions.
Two weeks later I got the results for both myself and my cats: RINGWORM!!!!! Microsporum canis to be exact. The dermatologist gave me a special lotion for myself and within a few days I was finally feeling better!! It was amazing. My husband also contracted ringworm during this nightmare, and he's also on the fungal lotion and getting better. As far as my kitties, it's been more complicated...
One of my cats has Feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD). A few years ago he nearly died of a full urinary blockage and had to have emergency surgery. Thankfully he survived and ever since I've had him on a special diet and on 5mg of a drug called Amitriptyline. He's been fine since that incident thank God.
Now fast forward to the present, and my vet is recommending that all three cats go on Itraconazole for the ringworm. Then I found out that Amitriptyline and itraconazole have major interaction with each other (just google or put the two drugs in a drug interaction checker). So my vet suggested cutting the Amitriptyline in half while I give the itroconazole for two months. I just simply felt uncomfortable with this. So I decided to try doing Lime Sulfer Dips only without oral meds and see what happened.
Well I did the dips for three weeks with very positive results. However, during the forth week my cats got very sick and I had to take one of them to the hospital. 105 degree fever (VERY HIGH) diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy not eating, the works...They were treated for an overgrowth of a bacterial called clostridium perfringens which the vet said occurred from being stressed. I really think the stress was the lime dips because I had to take them to the vet to do the dips (couldn't do it in my apt to smelly no ventilation). The vet would keep them there ALL DAY to do the dips and when they came home they were so upset.
So I stopped the dips and then it came back. And here we are again in the same situation. The cats have the ringworm and I'm so afraid of the itraconazole. I've decided I'm definitely giving two of the cats the oral itraconazole. I already have started it in two of them today. I've also given all three cats a bath today in some sort of anti-fungal shampoo the vet gave us.
But I'm hesitating to give the oral itraconazole to the cat who is on Amitriptyline, I just have a bad feeling about it. Any thoughts? Advice? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS SO STRESSFULL!!!!!