All 4 Cats Have Ringworm And Are Getting Worse Despite 4 Weeks Of Aggressive Treatment :(

[missylovescats]

Want to add Oliver the 17 week old is doing well and growing hair back. Tommy is still losing hair. Bobby's neck has grown in but he is losing hair on his back. The vet derm says not to panic as that was probably affected originally but the hair is just breaking off now. I sure hope it isn't a new area of infection. And Fred's hair is growing back very slowly. He lost all over his belly and paws and face but seems to be improving fingers crossed. It is hard to tell because much of his body is now bare and he is the old one so his immune system isn't great and he cannot tolerate Itrafungol so he is only getting lime dips and topicals and shampoo once a week. I bought the JKat products but not sure if I should continue with the Miconazole shampoo or use her shampoos...

 

[missylovescats]

Just bumping this up looking for any info about shampooing. Does anyone use the JKat products? Thanks.

 

[missylovescats]

Yesterday we shampooed all 4 cats with Ciderm Shampoo.

 

[missylovescats]

Update: the 4 cats are getting re cultured in 2 days. Oliver, Tommy and Bobby look much better and Fred's hair is regrowing. Just growing in dark though vs white and he does still have black crusts on his tummy despite the hair regrowth. IDK what that is. Active RW fungus still? I hope not. He has had a total of 12 L-S dips (at 8 oz per gallon) plus weekly shampoos with anti fungal shampoo and the other 3 have had Itrafungol in addition to the L-S dips and shampoos for a total of 12 weeks and counting.

Fred could not tolerate the Itrafungol. He is the wild card as he is old and immune suppressed and not sure he is going to clear RW and if not we have a difficult decision to make because we cannot keep reinfecting all the cats. Fred also has very severe arthritis and since we discontinued his steroids due to RW he has been barely moving despite giving him alternative meds.

Just posting and hoping someone knows what the black crusty areas on Fred's tummy are (active RW despite 12 L-S dips and weekly anti fungal shampooing) and why his white hair while regrowing in all RW areas is regrowing in brown/black.
Thanks.

 

[missylovescats]

Sharing some recent photos of the kitties during this RW ordeal.

Little Oliver is quite yellow still from all his Lime Sulfur dips.

Fred hanging out with his daddy. Despite it all he is still purring. He is so weak though

And Tommy while looking fierce is the sweetest baby just looking for reassurance during this terrible ordeal.

and Bobby with Tommy waiting at the window for us to get back home

Despite us torturing them multiple times daily they still seem to love us. Poor babies. Just hoping they can beat this RW fungus. It's been a long challenging 3 plus months and just praying we can get them clear.

 

[ZepMom]

Wow, this has been quite an ordeal. You both have provided Fred, Bobby, Tommy & Oliver with amazing care. Hope you received good news after the re culture. Sending healing prayers for all your kitties especially Fred.

 

[missylovescats]

Wow, this has been quite an ordeal. You both have provided Fred, Bobby, Tommy & Oliver with amazing care. Hope you received good news after the re culture. Sending healing prayers for all your kitties especially Fred.

Thank you. The veterinarian called us yesterday after the culture and wants to shave Fred's belly where he has crusting. His hair regrew there (after the RW infection) but it's all crusty as are his paws and face but the vet wants to shave just his belly. So my husband just left with Fred and is bringing him to the vet for that. I am worried for Fred as this will stress him further. I just didn't know the best course of action so am taking the vet's advice. Hope this helps him and doesn't hurt him. She said she will not cause any abrasion/cuts etc. I am concerned about that because I read everything Dr Moriello wrote and said about RW.

A few pics from yesterday's vet visit.

vet examining Bobby with Woods lamp before culturing. Not sure why she did that as I believe with 12 L-S dips (last one 9 days ago) nothing would glow. Right?

The vet tech with Tommy

and they needed my help as Bobby stated thrashing and kicking the vet uh oh so I calmed him down. Poor sweetie. The cats have had it so tough these past 13 plus weeks. I cry every day because they are going through he**. I just hope and pray Fred will come out of this OK. I am so worried about Fred. And while he has RW they all might have it. The vet wants the other 3 to continue on the ITrafungol. 13 straight weeks already. Is that a record for Itrafungol administering?

Thanks for replying and for your encouragement Z ZepMom .

 

[missylovescats]

Update: round one of cultures- negative.

This week we are bringing them into the vet for another round of cultures. Fingers crossed.

We are continuing with the Malaseb bathing (Fred every 3 days and the others every 6 days) and Itrafungol (for 3 of the 4 since Fred can not tolerate the oral med) until the second culture and then we will discontinue the Itrafungol. They have been on it straight for almost 4 months with no break. We will continue the baths til we get the second culture results and might just continue the baths for another few months. This RW business is challenging and I don’t want to let it come back.

Fingers crossed the second round of cultures is negative. Praying and hoping it is. It’s been a long 16 weeks.

And we are still stranded at our beach house as I haven’t wanted to infect another home. Still doing daily thorough cleaning and disinfecting plus lots of laundry daily. It’s been exhausting but we just want our cats to get well and RW free.

Thank you for listening and letting me share and thanks for all the advice I obtained here. Much appreciated.

 

[missylovescats]

Patient Zero. Little (not so little anymore) Oliver.

His hair is still stained yellow despite the last L-S dip being over a month ago.

 

[missylovescats]

We received round 2 of cultures for all 4 cats and the second round was negative as well so a cautious yay. We are not doing any more cultures. We are still cleaning and disinfecting daily and shampooing the cats weekly with Malaseb. I think I have PTSD from this experience and don't yet feel relief. Hoping they remain RW negative/free. We aren't doing a third culture because it has been enough and we are just going to carefully monitor them.

I don't know if anyone is still reading but I am posting this update to help others who might find themselves in a similar situation. Having RW with 4 cats makes it a challenging (and expensive) issue but we hopefully got through it. Took 5 plus months as this was a tough RW strain. I mean it took months of daily Itrafungol straight (4 months) as per the vet derm and 13 or 14 LS dips and weekly shampoos and daily cleaning, multiple laundry loads daily etc to get the cats RW free but hopefully they are RW free and will remain RW free. It's complicated by having 2 homes but we stayed at the beach house for all these months so as not to infect another home and looking forward hopefully to returning to NYC in January. To that end we went to the NYC home to clean and disinfect yesterday just in case my dh brought RW there when he had to return for a board meeting.

Thank you to this forum and the lovely people here for sharing their experiences and helping others through this ordeal.
Happy holidays from our furry crew to your furry crew. XOXO.

Tommy, Bobby and Fred (excuse their shell shocked look this was after their weekly baths)

and little (not so little anymore) patient Zero aka Oliver

 

[jcat]

That's fabulous news!

 

[blumarine916]

I’m so happy your ordeal is showing great improvement. I’m also in a RW dilemma right now and I truly understand the stress you are facing. It’s only 10 days in the treatment but I’m getting paranoid that it’s never getting better.

You mentioned earlier about the RW getting worse. Does that mean it expands over more skin? This seems to be happening to my cat so I’m kinda worried.

 

[moxiewild]

M missylovescats Yes, thank you so much for sharing your experience.

I’m dealing with it right now with 16 cats, all immuno suppressed aside from 3 that we know of. Most are fosters who have lost their prospective forever homes and families due to this

Our patient zero is isolated, but with 4 other currently asymptotic kittens. No one else in the house is showing symptoms yet, but we’re only two weeks in. Like you, I am also immunocompromised with a skin condition (normally controlled with prescription corticosteroids, and going with out it is causing my skin to itch incessantly, be red, raw, and bleeding everywhere, which I feel makes me more susceptible than thinner, intact, steroid-treated skin would, so I’m thinking I’ll go back on it at this point).

We are also battling giardia, and now roundworms that are apparently exceptionally resistant to treatment.

You mentioned that you didn’t isolate and were disinfecting a 3500 sq ft home daily. This is the only other incidence where I’ve heard (or it’s been stated) that someone is treating such a large (home) environment.

Because we have so many cats, they are isolated individually and in groups throughout the house. So we’re having to clean and disinfect the entire 2400+ sq ft home, and we are really struggling to keep up.

I know we have a fair bit more cats than you - but I was wondering if you have any tips.

We’ve covered our couches in vinyl covering, and our mattresses in a tarp mattress bag that encases the whole thing (and hope to get those for the box springs too once money allows). That has helped a lot and given us some more peace of mind that vacuuming simply didn’t.

But any other advice you might have to treat such a large space would be very appreciated!