Help with Ringworm

[AnnNadine]

HI,
I just joined in hopes of some guidance.I rescued a beautiful Siamese mix kitten who 3 month old. I noticed crust on the edges of his ears but thought he got his head in his food bowl.Little did I know I adipted a kitten with ringworm. I acted quickly when I was hair loss and started the oral meds my vet gave me. He was isolated because I was getting my boys used to him being here. I let him out for a bit a day before I noticed the lesions. :-( A week and a half later one of my 2 older boys was scratching his ears.... so I got more oral meds and treated and isolated the two boys together.
I now have medical gowns and gloves for each bedroom - and separate clothing for each room. I have vacuumed all three floors and washed the wooden floors with Pine Sol on my hands and knees. I apply antifungal cream to all the bald and infected shots as well as give baths to the baby with vet prescribed shampoo.
Now I am freaking out about the cleanup of the rest of the house. Do I need to wash my walls? Is Lysol enough to spray on hard surfaces to kill it? (wood furniture and anything I cannot use bleach on. There is conflicting opinions on whether Lysol does anything. I am WOULD SO appreciate some help. I am hanging on by a thread here.
Thanks

 

[Caspers Human]

Vacuuming the house, super well, will help knock down ringworm fungus.

Vacuuming will get rid of any hair, dander or other debris that might be contaminated. It won't get rid of ringworm but it will slow the spread. (Throw the vacuum bag in an outdoor trash can, afterward. If you use a bagless vacuum, clean the dust cup really well.)

Common household disinfectants will kill ringworm fungus. The easiest thing is to wash with 1/4 cup of Clorox bleach (or similar brand) mixed in a gallon of hot water. Keep your cats out of the area until the surface has dried. If the smell bothers you (or your cats) open some windows until the room airs out. It's best to have plenty of ventilation when using household cleaners, anyhow.

If you don't want to use Clorox, look for a product that contains quaternary ammonium. (AKA: "QA" or "quat.")
Look at the product's ingredients list for things like:

• alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (ADBAC)
• dodecyl didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DDAC)
• hexadecyltrimethylammonium ('cetrimide')
• benzalkonium chloride (BAC)

If you have a steam cleaning machine, pressurized steam can work if you get the item being cleaned hot enough.

Wash clothes and fabric items using bleach and hot water or whichever brand of laundry sanitizer you like. (Again, look for "quat.")

In short, just do all the things you did to clean the house for COVID. It's, pretty much, the same process.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Sorry you are having to deal with ringworm. It seems every case has its variances - why I don't know. You have some additional tips given above that might be very helpful. Maybe you can find some potential solutions in this TCS article?
How to Deal with Ringworm in Cats [Inc. the Housecleaning Regime] - TheCatSite

 

[AnnNadine]

Vacuuming the house, super well, will help knock down ringworm fungus.

Vacuuming will get rid of any hair, dander or other debris that might be contaminated. It won't get rid of ringworm but it will slow the spread. (Throw the vacuum bag in an outdoor trash can, afterward. If you use a bagless vacuum, clean the dust cup really well.)

Common household disinfectants will kill ringworm fungus. The easiest thing is to wash with 1/4 cup of Clorox bleach (or similar brand) mixed in a gallon of hot water. Keep your cats out of the area until the surface has dried. If the smell bothers you (or your cats) open some windows until the room airs out. It's best to have plenty of ventilation when using household cleaners, anyhow.

If you don't want to use Clorox, look for a product that contains quaternary ammonium. (AKA: "QA" or "quat.")
Look at the product's ingredients list for things like:

• alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (ADBAC)
• dodecyl didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DDAC)
• hexadecyltrimethylammonium ('cetrimide')
• benzalkonium chloride (BAC)

If you have a steam cleaning machine, pressurized steam can work if you get the item being cleaned hot enough.

Wash clothes and fabric items using bleach and hot water or whichever brand of laundry sanitizer you like. (Again, look for "quat.")

In short, just do all the things you did to clean the house for COVID. It's, pretty much, the same process.

Thank So much you have made me feel a little better. <3

 

[AnnNadine]

Vacuuming the house, super well, will help knock down ringworm fungus.

Vacuuming will get rid of any hair, dander or other debris that might be contaminated. It won't get rid of ringworm but it will slow the spread. (Throw the vacuum bag in an outdoor trash can, afterward. If you use a bagless vacuum, clean the dust cup really well.)

Common household disinfectants will kill ringworm fungus. The easiest thing is to wash with 1/4 cup of Clorox bleach (or similar brand) mixed in a gallon of hot water. Keep your cats out of the area until the surface has dried. If the smell bothers you (or your cats) open some windows until the room airs out. It's best to have plenty of ventilation when using household cleaners, anyhow.

If you don't want to use Clorox, look for a product that contains quaternary ammonium. (AKA: "QA" or "quat.")
Look at the product's ingredients list for things like:

• alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (ADBAC)
• dodecyl didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DDAC)
• hexadecyltrimethylammonium ('cetrimide')
• benzalkonium chloride (BAC)

If you have a steam cleaning machine, pressurized steam can work if you get the item being cleaned hot enough.

Wash clothes and fabric items using bleach and hot water or whichever brand of laundry sanitizer you like. (Again, look for "quat.")

In short, just do all the things you did to clean the house for COVID. It's, pretty much, the same process.

So Microban does meet these criteria? I just ordered 12 cans of lysol which will be ineffective! LOL

 

[Caspers Human]

So Microban does meet these criteria? I just ordered 12 cans of lysol which will be ineffective! LOL

Which Lysol product did you get? Some Lysol products do have the right ingredients. Check the ingredients list to see if any of those 'alphabet soup' names are on there.

 

[Caspers Human]

BTW: Microban contains benzalkonium chloride, plus a few other antimicrobial ingredients.
(I looked it up on the company's website.)

So, yes! It will work. It you already have some it should do the job, nicely.

 

[AnnNadine]

Which Lysol product did you get? Some Lysol products do have the right ingredients. Check the ingredients list to see if any of those 'alphabet soup' names are on there.

The regular one and it does not have the ingredients

• alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (ADBAC)
• dodecyl didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DDAC)
• hexadecyltrimethylammonium ('cetrimide')
• benzalkonium chloride (BAC)

 

[AnnNadine]

BTW: Microban contains benzalkonium chloride, plus a few other antimicrobial ingredients.
(I looked it up on the company's website.)

So, yes! It will work. It you already have some it should do the job, nicely.

THANKS SO MUCH!

 

[AnnNadine]

Hi. Sorry you are having to deal with ringworm. It seems every case has its variances - why I don't know. You have some additional tips given above that might be very helpful. Maybe you can find some potential solutions in this TCS article?
How to Deal with Ringworm in Cats [Inc. the Housecleaning Regime] - TheCatSite

Hi again,
So I have spnet the whole holiday weekend disenfecting the rooms where the cats are not in. When they are better I have to do the same in the two separate bedrooms. One is not as hard to do, but the other has a book case and lots of books. How do I do this?
Thanks,
Ann

 

[Caspers Human]

You can't get rid of all the spores. In fact, there's a good chance that there are ringworm spores floating around in most people's houses and they don't even know it. All you're really trying to do is keep the numbers down as low as you can.

Just keep doing what you have been. Vacuum to remove as many spores as possible then clean and disinfect as well as you can but don't obsess about it.

There's another little trick I learned from an old timer, a long time ago... Borax. Good, old fashioned, 'Twenty Mule Team' brand borax. The stuff you use in your laundry.

Mold and fungus can't grow in the presence of borax. Since ringworm is a fungus, borax can stop it growing, too.

Like I said, I learned this trick, long ago. I lived in a house with a moldy basement. It was yucky! I was told to scrub the walls down with soap and bleach, using a pump style garden sprayer. Clean well then let everything dry completely. After it's all dry, mix some borax and hot water then use the sprayer to spray down the basement walls. Use a sponge to wipe the solution in but don't clean it off. Let the borax dry in place.

I've done this in just about every place I have lived, since and never once have I had mold in the basement, after that.

I wouldn't suggest you spray down your house with borax but putting in an extra cupful when you wash your sheets and blankets can't hurt.

 

[AnnNadine]

Thanks....Oh my. Do I have to wash my walls too? I still working on how to get rid of them in my 2 large shoe racks that were in the bedroom. They have covers but zip up on the sides. I was thinking of washing the covers but now the shoes? The walls yikes

 

[Caspers Human]

No, you don’t have to go crazy. Just do it like the spring cleaning that we always put off till later.