If it’s not glowing, it’s most likely hair loss caused by something else. Ringworm is everywhere in the environment, so I guess it’s possible to be infected by more than one strain, but as far as I know they all glow under UV light.
My kitten has a spot.of ringworm. Our vet just told us to use the otc lotramin.I just joined the site after reading everything here and elsewhere for the past 5 weeks. We have two adult cats and had adopted a 4 month old rescue kitten, named Lexie, in mid-June. About two weeks later I noticed a weird spot on me and googled it and lead me to self-diagnosing myself as having ringworm (based on symptoms and pics) and the fact that we'd just gotten a new kitten a few weeks prior. I searched Lexie over and found one slightly suspicious spot on his chest. My kitten was due in on a Monday to my regular vet for the first time in just a couple of days so I pointed it out to him and told him I had a spot on me that seemed highly coincidental. Lexie didn't glow under a Woods lamp but the vet cultured it and it came back positive for ringworm on Friday afternoon...really fast. I set up appointments for all 3 on Monday for a look-see and treatment.
By Monday, one of my adult cats, Henry, had a classic lesion on his face (itching, red patch and hair loss). My other adult cat had no lesions. Lexie the kitten seemed to show no symptoms either.
They've all three been getting weekly lime sulfur dips at the vet and daily doses of itraconazole for the past 3 weeks. My house has been getting Swiffered, vacuumed and dusted as I've learned here in this forum. All rugs have been thoroughly vacuumed. The larger room sized have been rolled up off to the side. The smaller ones were vacuumed and taken outside to be washed and are stored in the garage.
I bought a laundry additive I learned about here and some wipes. I bought some DioxiGuard78 from J-Kat for misting of soft surfaced items like the remaining fabric items including the big rolled up rugs. I've even fogged the house twice with the DioxiGuard78 as per their instructions to get all the other hard to reach and hard to clean spaces.
Yesterday, all three cats were getting their 4th dip after completing their 3 week itraconazole round and we had a talk with the vet when we went in to pick them up. He says that Henry isn't looking any better like he expected he should. Henry has more hairless patches now but no red or scaly lesions. The vet did skin scrapes to rule out mites. We talked about other meds but he was reluctant to use another due to risks. He recommended we continue home treatment of topicals like a ringworm cream and baths/dips to see if we could find something he responds to better.
My questions to the forum folks who've already fought (and won) this war:
- Is the vet giving up too soon on oral meds?
- What OTC stuff should I use at home to treat my 3 cats (two adults and one 6 month old)? I like the idea of less harsh stuff on my cats and less smelly shampoo/dip than the lime sulfur stuff for me since I'd be doing this myself at home and stinking up the joint.
- Is there an effective alternative to the lime sulfur dip?
- Has anybody tried J-Kat's Ciderm shampoo?
I appreciate your thoughts and inputs.
Guess I'm still talking to myself on this page. Heh!Question for all of you that have had to do multiple cultures: Did you bring your pets (affected and asymptomatic) in each time (individually) for the culture, or did the vet have you go over each pet with a toothbrush and you just submit the toothbrush in a ziplock when you brought your affected pet(s) in for a recheck? Our vet clinic isn't nearby and it's hard to schedule multiple visits around a full-time schedule. Our regular vet isn't recommending the cultures for our dog since we started with a false negative, but the new veterinary dermatologist might suggest it (and I kind of want to know if my cat Suarez is a carrier even though he's never showed any symptoms), and so I'm wondering what is normally done.
Im into week 3 treating my 8 month kitten with Terbinafine daily oral (compounded) liquid meds and weekly baths with miconahex Triz shampoo, plus lime dipping the head and ears with cotton ball soaked in the stinky solution. I also sponge the lime dip on the wntire body between shampoos. I have isloated DJ kitty for 25 days (as soon as i saw bald spot on his ear). Ver confirmed with woodslamp fluorescent hairs). I have 8 other cats. They tested negative with woods lamp and have shown no lesions on their heads ir bodies. I shampooed them all once and have been giving oral meds to all. Plus deep cleaning. When can i stop isolating DJ kitty? Also would lesions appear by now on other cats? (25 days since DJkitty diagnosed and isolated?)Thanks for the story and that photo. It's great that you and your daughter saved Koby! I wish you luck in contacting vets today.
I'm learning from my very comforting, affectionate new kitten that one can't always be sure of just who is rescuing whom... Koby may "rescue" you someday, and repay you and your daughter for what you've been going through.
Im into week 3 treating my 8 month kitten with Terbinafine daily oral (compounded) liquid meds and weekly baths with miconahex Triz shampoo, plus lime dipping the head and ears with cotton ball soaked in the stinky solution. I also sponge the lime dip on the wntire body between shampoos. I have isloated DJ kitty for 25 days (as soon as i saw bald spot on his ear). Ver confirmed with woodslamp fluorescent hairs). I have 8 other cats. They tested negative with woods lamp and have shown no lesions on their heads ir bodies. I shampooed them all once and have been giving oral meds to all. Plus deep cleaning. When can i stop isolating DJ kitty? Also would lesions appear by now on other cats? (25 days since DJkitty diagnosed and isolated?)
There's no incubation period, is there? They're spores, not a virus. So I think they're either there or they're not. But I really don't know. Maybe your vet knows?I'm so excited you replied. I'm honestly terrified, do you think a PCR test would be accurate a week after exposure? I've read so many research articles (I'm a scientist) but nobody has accurate data on when they would test positive!