I've looked at Shockwave and may get some. I've got several cleaners and disinfectants that are effective against ringworm: Benzarid, Accel, plus various bleach-based cleaners that studies have shown will kill trichophyton mentagrophytes (the fungus that causes athlete's foot and ringworm) within 10 minutes. But all but the Benzarid have a strong odor, although the Accel smell dissipates pretty quickly. Many vet clinics use Accel for cleaning/disinfecting because it only requires a 5-minute contact time to kill fungi.
I know how to clean and how much. I just don't know how anyone with a full-time job does it. I'm up at 6 or 6:30 and out of the house until 7 or 8 at night. When I get home, I'm tired and still have to feed the cats and myself, take care of bills and other stuff around the house, etc. Cleaning on top of that is exhausting. I can't run on 4-5 hours of sleep at night and be effective at work. It's all I can do to finish the piles of laundry (my sheets and towels, the clothes I wear to clean, the towels in the iso rooms with the cats, plus the sheets covering the cloth furniture).
I have no idea when I'm going to know if the house is clean of the infection because I still haven't gotten a culture that's positive for ringworm from any of the cats or kittens. This strain of ringworm or whatever it is doesn't glow under the Woods lamp, either. So I still don't really know if it's ringworm. I haven't gotten any other spots besides the two red spots on my back and arm, which faded pretty quickly with the antifungal cream, so I'm not sure it really was ringworm. The itchiness I'd been feeling subsided when I took Allegra-D, so it may have been caused by an allergen rather than ringworm. Plus I have psoriasis, which causes itchiness. If my house really is covered with ringworm spores, it seems like I should have more lesions. Yes, I'm careful about washing my hands after touching the cats, and I shower each morning and evening after taking care of the cats, but still. It's so frustrating to not know whether it's really ringworm and whether I need to put away everything I own and spend every spare moment (not that I have many) cleaning.
And to boot, several people from the rescue group I work with who've been through ringworm trauma are telling me that I need to have all the carpet in the house bleached to kill the spores or they'll just keep reinfecting the cats. This house has wall to wall carpet both upstairs and downstairs. I'm looking at hundreds, maybe over a thousand dollars to have the carpets professionally steam cleaned and bleached. I'm going to have a hard time going to that effort and cost without a positive ringworm culture.
On the other hand, I have no idea what it could be if it's not ringworm, and neither do the three vets I've consulted so far. I have two cats who have no signs of ringworm except excessive shedding and some itchiness; I've been successfully giving them fluconazole ground up into their food for the past few days--fingers crossed they'll continue to eat it. I have another cat who has no current symptoms except itchiness but has shown some in the past (and is on terbinafine as a preventative). I have one cat (Romeo) with lesions who's on fluconazole and is healing--and his lesions are re-growing hair from the center outward, which is typical of ringworm. And I have another cat with an atypical lesion--which he got while he was on terbinafine, which is really hard to understand--that turned into an open sore, which has now healed but isn't re-growing hair. I'm taking this last cat to the vet on Saturday for an exam; the lesion healed up pretty well but is now looking red and inflamed at the edges, so I'm wondering if maybe he needs some antibiotics. It's maddening not knowing what this is and what will resolve it for good.
I know how to clean and how much. I just don't know how anyone with a full-time job does it. I'm up at 6 or 6:30 and out of the house until 7 or 8 at night. When I get home, I'm tired and still have to feed the cats and myself, take care of bills and other stuff around the house, etc. Cleaning on top of that is exhausting. I can't run on 4-5 hours of sleep at night and be effective at work. It's all I can do to finish the piles of laundry (my sheets and towels, the clothes I wear to clean, the towels in the iso rooms with the cats, plus the sheets covering the cloth furniture).
I have no idea when I'm going to know if the house is clean of the infection because I still haven't gotten a culture that's positive for ringworm from any of the cats or kittens. This strain of ringworm or whatever it is doesn't glow under the Woods lamp, either. So I still don't really know if it's ringworm. I haven't gotten any other spots besides the two red spots on my back and arm, which faded pretty quickly with the antifungal cream, so I'm not sure it really was ringworm. The itchiness I'd been feeling subsided when I took Allegra-D, so it may have been caused by an allergen rather than ringworm. Plus I have psoriasis, which causes itchiness. If my house really is covered with ringworm spores, it seems like I should have more lesions. Yes, I'm careful about washing my hands after touching the cats, and I shower each morning and evening after taking care of the cats, but still. It's so frustrating to not know whether it's really ringworm and whether I need to put away everything I own and spend every spare moment (not that I have many) cleaning.
And to boot, several people from the rescue group I work with who've been through ringworm trauma are telling me that I need to have all the carpet in the house bleached to kill the spores or they'll just keep reinfecting the cats. This house has wall to wall carpet both upstairs and downstairs. I'm looking at hundreds, maybe over a thousand dollars to have the carpets professionally steam cleaned and bleached. I'm going to have a hard time going to that effort and cost without a positive ringworm culture.
On the other hand, I have no idea what it could be if it's not ringworm, and neither do the three vets I've consulted so far. I have two cats who have no signs of ringworm except excessive shedding and some itchiness; I've been successfully giving them fluconazole ground up into their food for the past few days--fingers crossed they'll continue to eat it. I have another cat who has no current symptoms except itchiness but has shown some in the past (and is on terbinafine as a preventative). I have one cat (Romeo) with lesions who's on fluconazole and is healing--and his lesions are re-growing hair from the center outward, which is typical of ringworm. And I have another cat with an atypical lesion--which he got while he was on terbinafine, which is really hard to understand--that turned into an open sore, which has now healed but isn't re-growing hair. I'm taking this last cat to the vet on Saturday for an exam; the lesion healed up pretty well but is now looking red and inflamed at the edges, so I'm wondering if maybe he needs some antibiotics. It's maddening not knowing what this is and what will resolve it for good.