I Need Help; I'm Totally Overwhelmed

[akirababe]

*DISCLAIMER* I breed cats. I understand many people believe in "adopt, don't shop" but I ask that you please keep those opinions out of this particular thread <3 (Thanks!)

So first and foremost, a little background on my situation:

I have chronic pain and mood disorders including MDD/BPD/GAD and I'm on disability for all of these things. I make a small amount of extra income (it's barely really income when you factor in expenses-vet bills, food, litter, etc) by breeding Munchkin cats. I have two breeders, a male, Peanut, and a female, Hope. I also currently have one kitten from the previous litter who got returned to me because she couldn't acclimate with the busy home full of loud children. My Queen just had a huge litter of SEVEN, with FIVE standard munchkins (50% chance!). Having kittens around the house brings me so much joy and when I'm feeling particularly depressed I love to cuddle them... Sometimes I'll shove my face into a puddle of cuddling kittens and just breathe, and dear god is it ever calming.

Except for right now.

A few weeks ago, I took this current litter to the vet for their first vaccinations (they were 8 weeks old) and I commented on a small lesion on the top of one of the kitten's heads, because I thought maybe it was from rough play, but I just wanted to rule out anything serious and make sure the wound wasn't healing poorly or something... the vet comes back with a black light and shows me the glowing green dust on the kitten. Ringworm. I've been breeding for a few years now and I've never encountered it before. I actually thought it was a worm at first. Turns out it's just a disgusting and awful and stubborn fungus that is basically everlasting and invisible and impossible to completely wipe out.

I'm completely overwhelmed. The vet gave me a prescription for a compound formula to feed the kittens and momma, but wouldn't give me anything for the rest of the animals in my home unless she sees them herself, which is 75 bucks a pet, plus about 100 bucks for treatment. I wasn't overly stressed at first, because I've got a few sales on kittens (I sell them for $1400) so I'd have some money coming in to handle this problem easily, including paying someone to come in and clean my home top to bottom with disinfectant to completely wipe out the god awful spores from my home, since I'm physically unable to do it myself... but my anxiety is going into overdrive. Two sales have fell through and the one that's already started paying me has missed $420 in payments we have scheduled and she keeps giving me excuses, but I'm starting to feel really sketchy about this sale. She doesn't have the kitten yet, but I was going to drop him off on Saturday with a payment agreement for the remaining amount, which I don't normally do, and I don't think I ever will do again.

Now I'm not sure if I can afford to have someone come in and clean the house for me, which means I'm going to have to try and do it all myself, which will probably send me to the hospital with the aftershocks of pain from that much physical exertion.

Oh, and one of the sales that fell through? Specifically because he talked to a friend that's a vet about ringworm (I'm totally honest with my buyers) and his buddy scared him off of it, fairly, because ringworm is a stubborn nightmare to deal with when it's in your home, and he has a daughter and doesn't want it to spread to her.

I'm totally at a loss where to start with this problem. I mean, I've been feeding the kittens and momma their drugs on the schedule I was told to (one week on, one week off, one week on, etc) and their lesions are totally fading away, but the vet canceled the appointment I had for tomorrow because they weren't totally gone yet, which makes me worried that they're not clearing up as fast as they should. The worst part is, I have NO CLUE where it came from. I'm very clean, typically. I mean, my dishes pile up sometimes, because washing them hurts my back and some days are worse than others... but typically, nobody visits me here. The only thing I can think of is that my cats caught a mouse the other day, so maybe that's where it came from? But I haven't seen any mouse poop anywhere so I don't know how long it's been in my home.

TL;DR? Basically, Ringworm is taking over my home and I don't know where it came from. Kittens are being treated but I don't know how to handle cleaning my home and making sure all thee spores are eliminated entirely from my house and from the kittens.

If anyone has any advice, any personal experience with Ringworm they'd be willing to share, like how they got clean, I'd REALLY appreciate it. Should I buy a black light and wander my house looking for spores? Ugh. HELP. PLEASE. T-T

Seriously considering burning it down. And all my clothes. And furniture. And sulphur/lime bathing my entire household of living beings (including myself) in a hotel room. Maybe I'll up my insurance first. That won't look sketchy, will it? lol

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Sorry no one else has responded yet. Until they do, try a search on this site for ringworm and see if that gives you some previous posts on the problem. Fortunately for me, never have dealt with it!

 

[1 bruce 1]

So we don't breed cats, but don't get mad when people do. We feel both caring breeders and good rescues are needed to keep the balance, and everyone deserves to choose what works for them and their situation, so no worries there.
For a reference, we have mostly purebred dogs that do a lot of breed specific stuff for us. But we've been involved in cat and kitten rescue before (and done some light dog rescue) and have had some ringworm pop up in a few litters of kittens.
It's been awhile and my mind isn't very cooperative lately so someone please correct me if I'm (yet again) wrong (), but ringworm is a fungus, not a true parasitic "worm." You're treating it, it's not a death sentence. We never hired anyone to come in and clean/hose/disinfect the area, we just kept the kittens away from any other cats that weren't affected (not suggesting you separate the babies from each other or the mother). We cleaned a lot, washed things like beds and bowls a lot. (We kept lots of old blankets and towels so pretty much there was always a load of laundry going but the babies still had clean bedding.) We treated them with the medicine, and I got some spots of it going on my arm. No big deal, I got some spray for my arm and it went away.
From what I recall, these kittens all went on to live good, long, happy and healthy lives and had no lingering "problems" from it. I've never had the experience of having it on my arm give me problems, and it's been a very l-o-n-g time.
It feels overwhelming, but just treat as the vet told you to, watch to make sure you see improvement and don't let it stop you from loving them.

 

[Willowy]

Maybe---and I know it will be expensive---you can board the cats at the vet to get their meds and dips and all that, and disinfect your house while they're gone? Because the sales are dependent on the kittens being healthy, I think that would be more cost-effective in the long run, although it'll probably negate any profit from this litter. That's the way it goes with living animals, and that's why responsible breeders say they don't make any profit. There's always something!

I've never had a serious ringworm outbreak, thankfully, and I'm a "crazy cat lady". I've had a few kittens who had lesions (and then got a spot on me!), so I slapped a bit of anti-fungal cream on them (and me) and that was the end of it. I don't know what makes it worse than that but I've heard some real horror stories.

 

[lutece]

Speaking as a breeder myself, I wouldn't suggest placing kittens in their new homes until you know for sure they are clear of ringworm. Willowy has a good suggestion about boarding the cats at the vet while you take care of the house. Maybe have friends or relatives come over to help?

Breeding cats can be a really expensive hobby, so it's good to have some funds saved up for emergencies like c-sections or illness, etc.

 

[vyger]

I just did a quick Google search based on a faint memory and basically I am correct in saying that ozone will kill spores. A friend of mine owns a cleaning business and he uses these large commercial ozone machines to neutralize smoke smell from fire cleanups. One of the requirements of using the machines is that all pets and people must evacuate because it can kill small pets (and also insects). The fast Google search showed than the little machines you can buy in a store can't reach the needed levels but the big ones can. So they don't need to disinfect everything, you just need to have someone run a big ozone machine for a few days and you need to not live there while it is happening. It will also kill fleas and mites so it pretty much sterilizes things. A cleaning company that does smoke abatement should be able to rent the machine to you with their supervision. There are some downsides to ozone but they should be able to explain it all to you.

 

[akirababe]

Thanks for all the support and advice, everyone.

@bruce: I definitely haven't let it stop me loving them They're the best part of what I do, and I don't personally care if I get the rash. I have full coverage for my meds so it wouldn't cost me a dime to get a human-friendly antifungal. I currently have one sleeping on me as I type this.

W Willowy : That idea hadn't even occurred to me. That might be worth investigating, at the least. Maybe I'll do it when they're finishing their meds, so it's just a matter of the baths and cleaning the house.

lutece : I've been really open with my potential buyers about the ramifications of ringworm, and two of them have opted to take over the responsibility for it themselves. One family had special circumstances where getting the kitten early was actually almost necessary for them, but I went over the whole thing clearly with them and they signed off on an updated contract that they were taking over the care... But they know I'd never normally send a cat off to them with any sort of health problems. I've dealt with them in the past. And the other one is the one that suddenly stopped paying me, and I was humming and hawing about that in the first place.
I did have money set aside for emergencies, of course, but my car just took a crap on itself to the tune of two grand in work (basically needed a new steering column/drive train LOVE CARS) so I'm just plagued by unfortunate timing right now.

vyger : That's genuinely fascinating. I've never heard of that being a thing, much less being used for treating ringworm. I'm definitely going to check that out. I could maybe couple it with Willowy's suggestion of vet boarding and stay with family for a few days while it ravages everything in my house. Could be helpful for all the spiders that keep turning up in my bathtub, too T-T (I have a lot of available bug killers, at least!!)

 

[Kefa]

Diluted bleach and sunlight:
Ringworm: A Persistent Fungus | ACES News :: College of ACES, University of Illinois

 

[Elphaba09]

Ringworm happens. I think it is great that you are being honest with your buyers.

I agree with others that there is no need to have professional cleaners. You can get antifungal pills for them to take while doing treatments. We had an outbreak a couple of months ago because of our recent stray kitten. Fluconazole pills, lime sulfur dip, Banixx spray, and antifungal cream cleared it up pretty quickly. Of our nine, six got it with Fennimore getting it the worst, with a 41/2 inch spot. The rest just had small spots that were only noticeable on two of them.

I am going to try the ozone mentioned by vyger just to make sure that we do not get any reoccurrences. I know that the spores can be difficult.

 

[Kflowers]

I caught it once the dermetolgist said I must have been around children, it wasn't the sort you get from animals. I hadn't been around children either, so he decided I got it from a leaf or the like outdoors. He must have been right because my animals didn't get it.

I don't think I'd give the kit to the woman who can't make the payments. It maybe chance, a once in awhile thing for her, or it may not. Perhaps she ought to wait until her money is better set. It doesn't sound as though she is ready for the medical care the kit may need in the future.