Resistant Ringworm

Meemo

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Hi,
I have been battling the dreaded Ringworm in my cat(s) now for 6 months, wow is it stressful. In October 22 my then 10 month old Mainecoon had some flaky skin under her fur on her neck, so being OTT I took her to the vet and after a culture confirmed it was Ringworm. I am nearing the end of it now I hope with the original culprit finally responding to treatment after going off label with the dosage of Itrafungal (i will touch on that). Thought I would share some tips as after 6 months I have figured out most of it!

Background:
Luckily it was summer so I isolated her in the tiled conservatory with the door wide open all day and she had the time of her life with free roaming our (cat secure) back garden.
Scrupulous daily room cleaning with Virkon / F10 (on rotation), new scratch box every week and toys replaced weekly (unless they could be soaked).
Ridded the house of everything that could not be cleaned, had the carpets professionally cleaned twice and even replaced the carpet entirely in the first room we used to isolate whilst we readied the conservatory.
Sprayed the walls with f10 and Virkon on different occasions and wiped/cleaned/binned everything in site.. I now know that Anigene is far better so advise going straight to that if you like non rusty stuff in your home.

Treatment
My vet had no experience of ringworm so the only reason I knew I needed to clean was this site. He was very blazey and just gave itrafungal on pulse dosing to treat it. I also have a very old moggy and for the 5 months of treating the mainecoon never caught it.
Fast forward and after 4 rounds or itrafungal, she had it quite bad on her ears (flaky dark grey skin) and on her head (she didn't lose fur). we had requested topicals too and for 5 months washed her head twice a week with Malaseb, used miconazole creams, clotroconazole creams and it just did not respond. Even the spots that I caught from her had not healed with cream after months of it. So at this stage we realised this strain very resistant to azoles... joy.
Also Cats protection and even the label for the shampoo even state that Malaseb can cause the ringworm to recover if not used with Grisvolen which is not used.. and when I started the shampoo her ringworm spread like wild fire.

Any way I found a post on here and a few vet articles on the internet that stated for resistant cases, dosing of itrafungal should be doubled and taken for 3 weeks without any breaks. I passed these to my vet and he said if I sign a waiver I can do it. Turns out itrafungal unlike previous oral medications, it is extremely rare to cause liver issues.. so dosing like this for 3 weeks should have no major issues.. of course you should watch carefully and stop if you see anything worrying.
Amazingly for the first time after those 3 weeks (I also started lime sulphur dips on her head twice a week.. it stinks but I feel this was an important step I should of done from day 1) the ears healed and flakes stopped! it has been 3 weeks since stopping the meds and she has been in the house which I still clean like mad but she is looking good and getting all the cuddles again.

Sadly my older moggy I had to isolate in a room that the infected cat had been in because it was too cold in the conservatory in December.. and even though I wet vacced and sprayed that room before admitting her, she finally caught it.. right as we finally got the maincoon on the way to recovery.
she is so sad in there it breaks my heart but she has to stay there till she finishes treatment. She has tele and lots of treats but it is still very detrimental to her happiness being alone.

Cleaning
I researched new cleaners after 5 months and have now binned f10 and Virkon (f10 reacts badly with bleach, if soaked things in f10 in the sink, the next time we used bleached the sink would turn red and give off only what I can describe as chlorine gas).. also both f10 and Virkon caused everything I used it on to rust, kitchen handles, table legs etc... awful.
So we have now moved to using Anigene HLD4V, which from reports is more effective even in very dirty conditions, and it destroys ringworm/spores rather than disabling it... it does not rust anything, doesn't smell and does not seem to react badly. Comes with multiple scents or unscented..
I have been using the unscented on in our bissel carpet cleaner at 1:50 ratio, and the scented one for everything else at 1:50 ratio. Spray the walls, surfaces, anything it will reach, I use pressure sprayers from amazon and they are so good.

We pick up another mainecoon baby this month who the breader has kindly kept much longer whilst we attack this plague.

Please feel free to add any tips you have or your experiences. I will be updating this thread when my moggy is finally clear and again if it stays away!

oh just to add, I also had screwfix henry styled vacuums in the early days as they are easy to clean after each use and I got rid after a few months of use.
Since this started I have actually purchased a 'Henry allergy' which has a hepa filter. I soak the heads in anigene/spray the whole unit down after use and ensure no hairs are left behind. This stops the spores from being ejected from the exhaust of the vacuum and you can use it everywhere without fear of spreading spores.

I actually meant to put this started in August not October, August 3rd to be precise :)
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Thank you so much for this info. Hoping others will find it useful.
 
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Meemo

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Thank you I hope this helps too,.
I have a whole cleaning arsenal from dust magnet clothes, cloth rollers, even got a tumble dryer and hair remover for the wash, happy to give any tips on what 'I Think' has been useful/effective.
I am UK based and found most of the helpful posts had come from Americans and the products although do exist in the UK had different names! Swiffers are Flash speed mops here.. could of saved allot of money buying the UK ones by the time I realised (I had been buying imported swiffer cloths) :D
 

kaytekat

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Thank you. I have 2 foster kittens with active ringworm (1 diagnosed today and the other 2 weeks ago) and another older kitten heavily exposed and presumed infected. (i also have 3 housecats of my own I fear have been environmentally exposed.)

I started the intrafungal tonight for the 2 kittens. The initial cat is on his “off” week bc vet wanted to do pulse therapy dosing.

I am very curious to ask the vet about not pulsing the treatment and doing it straight on.
I have not heard of your cleaning products in US. I am using Rescue - a hydrogen peroxide solution.

I had found some home foggers that seemed promising but they killed a different strain of ringworm. I would love to find some that kill this strain! I feel I am a walking spore. 🦠

thanks and best of luck.
 
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Meemo

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Thank you. I have 2 foster kittens with active ringworm (1 diagnosed today and the other 2 weeks ago) and another older kitten heavily exposed and presumed infected. (i also have 3 housecats of my own I fear have been environmentally exposed.)

I started the intrafungal tonight for the 2 kittens. The initial cat is on his “off” week bc vet wanted to do pulse therapy dosing.

I am very curious to ask the vet about not pulsing the treatment and doing it straight on.
I have not heard of your cleaning products in US. I am using Rescue - a hydrogen peroxide solution.

I had found some home foggers that seemed promising but they killed a different strain of ringworm. I would love to find some that kill this strain! I feel I am a walking spore. 🦠

thanks and best of luck.
You poor thing I feel for you. The cleaning product anigene I think is made in the UK, we don't get rescue here and it took months to find something that ticks all the boxes. Do you get f10sc? It doesn't bleach so I was spraying that up walls and soaking curtains etc.
If you feel like a walking spore as I still often do! Teatrea oil kills ringworm, it worked in a week to heal mine vs 4 months of medicated cream.
I have a bath most nights and pour a healthy dose of the oil in, smells really relaxing too so double bonus. Just don't let kitty drink it or use on them because it is toxic to cats.
If you Google pulse dosing or itrafungal with out breaks,I found quite a few countries don't do pulse dosing anyway, I thought it was a UK thing!
If the first round does not work auth pulsing I can link you the vet articles I passed to my vet.
Good luck and hang in there!
 
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Meemo

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Thought I would share what ringworm looked like on both cats in the beginning, just because the grey one never lost fur so it was not till we shaved her we saw it! She had grey pigmented skin and dandruff. Where as moo our moggy has non flaky bald spots.. so different to each other.
Maybe these pictures might help someone.
That tiny bit of dandruff when shaved is that huge grey lesion on her neck!
At one stage she would get rusty/yellow build up on her paw pads that wiped away with some rubbing,and I believe that was the ring worm too.

20221115_132349.jpg

Screenshot_20230129_105413_Gallery.jpg
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And moo had an eye infection we believe caused by it as she has went on to have more bald spots on her ear and arm (pending results) but she had 10 days of eye drops which seem to help the irritation. Because she is quite old she is getting less aggressive treatments. The tests from her eyes are negative for ringworm but we have since had the other spots tested so I think a false negative first time which is possible.
20221213_215426.jpg
 

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Meemo

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Happy grey kitty post treatment living her best life in the house again :)
Just the moo (moggy) to go, she is still isolated since she managed to last 5 months before catching it the final round of treating the grey one.. despite being seperate the whole time.
We had a cat sitter in whilst we went on holiday, and she didn't pay attention to my instructions about changing her clothes between entering the isolation area/washing hands, she did tell us after she didn't think it was a big deal 😵 can't be mad she just wanted to make sure they was both happy. Sadly 3 weeks later she had symptoms.
IMG_20230122_192822_850.jpg
 
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Meemo

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1 culture result back for the grey maincoon, she has the all clear. Lab has not returned my moggy's yet and she is so sad shut in her isolation room :,(
 
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Meemo

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Both came back clear on their fungal cultures, lord only knows why my poor old moggy has a bald spot on her ear when she didn't leave the room for months, maybe stress caused her to scratch it or something. Hair is growing back though, plus it never spread or grew, her eyes are still a little bald but definitely improved.
I am still acting suspicious and washing hands, but she is getting lots of strokes and we are setting up her the conservatory again with new furniture and cat stuff so she can enjoy her retirement away from the new Mainecoon kitten/resident maincecoon(patient zero) who she will definitely hate.
Once all her fur is back properly I will finally stop holding my breath.
PTSD anyone?
 

fionasmom

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This is good news and I hope that the whole episode is over for all of you. Yes, it would be enough to make you nervous for a while to come.
 
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Meemo

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Couldn't resist sharing a picture of the new addition. I think we are calling him Sid, like from ice age because he is so sweet and cuddly, but there is brain in that cute little head.
IMG_20230204_220935_552.jpg

Patient zero
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Little old lady moo
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Happy to share links to any of the cleaning arsenal that got us through, but this is my must have cleaning list below for fighting ringworm:
  • Anigene disinfectant (unscented for carpet cleaner, apple for everything else) note: 100% destroys ringworm unlike some "effective against rw" disinfectants
  • 2 litre hand pressure sprayers (amazon)
  • Bissel upright heat Pro carpet washer
  • Henry allergy vacuum (hepa filtered) from currys
  • Flash speed mop and dry dust magnet refills (swiffer in other countries)
  • 15 pack of clothes roller refills (amazon)
  • Stainless steel bowls (amazon)
  • Latex free gloves
  • Full coverage protective overalls for the weekly deep clean
  • Isolation zone slip on shoes
  • Large builders bucket (to soak items)
  • Fleece blankets (2 for £5 in b&m) thrown away weekly
  • Cardboard scratch pads from zooplus, replace weekly
  • Toys that can be soaked rather than thrown away, ideally plastic like puzzle feeders, ball runways etc
 

fionasmom

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They are adorable little cats and I love the expression on Sid's face. Thank you so much for sharing your list of supplies. Ringworm is unfortunately a frequent topic here on TCS.
 
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Meemo

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They are adorable little cats and I love the expression on Sid's face. Thank you so much for sharing your list of supplies. Ringworm is unfortunately a frequent topic here on TCS.
Is amazing that I have had so many pets over the years without even having heard of RW, now I wish I had never heard of it! Sad to hear there are many cases from owners on here :(
I have read there is an endemic in the US since storm Catrina, which I guess explains why every thread about cleaning products I found had US products I could not find here in the UK like Rescue.
 
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