Our Ringworm Saga To Date...

[inkysmom]

My kitten at the time had a definite positive ringworm culture and I had the rash but I never isolated anyone and none of my other pets got it. My boyfriend at the time who lived with me and I both got it because I was letting the kitten sleep in the bed with us.

I treated the kitten with the recommended meds and gave each other cat and dog a medicated wipe down daily for four weeks. Except one feral cat who I couldn't touch. Boyfriend and I treated ourselves and the rash went completely away in less than a week.
We washed all the laundry and bedding and vacuumed as much as we could. Kitten healed rapidly and no new cases with none of the complications you're reporting.
That sounds stressful but extreme. Maybe it's something else?

 

[intertwangled]

I am pretty sure all my commentary is exacerbated by the fact that I've had such enormous anxiety over the uncertainty of this. The lesions themselves (on myself, the kitten, or my dog) were not intense or widespread (we all had a handful maybe); it's just that I guess I was expecting my skin to return to clear complexion rather than still show evidence that "something was there." And the lesions on my dog, they are healing more quickly than expected; but I've just been worried about the new one on her elbow which triggered concern about her still being contagious even after all this treatment to date. I just don't want her to come back into our home, only to find out two weeks later someone else has a lesion and we have to start the timeline all over again. But the vet seems to think she should be clear. I just wish she'd comment on the elbow photo I sent her. Either that she say "meh" or... "ok, let's wait another week."

 

[Totemo_kawaii]

I was reading your thread, & oh my goodness! Im so sorry you are so stressed! You already know my situation... and thank you for replying to my thread.
Don’t worry, everything will be OK. Luckily it’s just ringworm & not something that’s life threatening right!( I keep trying to tell myself that) I suffer from anxiety & it’s been a struggle for me to remain calm. So you are not alone, I promise! It’s been a few weeks for me, just took the kitten to the vet Friday , they said she looks wonderful! No lesions or anything. They took a toothbrush & got samples of her fur everywhere to do a culture. I’m very hopeful.. BUT... my other adult cat, she has a bald spot. It got scabby & nasty. I took her in to get a culture almost 2 weeks ago... her results still show negative?? But it looks like ringworm. However, I nor my fiancé has any lesions and opal (the adult cat) doesn’t have any expect that bald spot. So the vet is thinking it’s somethinf else... but I’m like... that would be a weird coincidence right? We are taking her back Wednesday (when it’s offically 2 weeks since culture) for another check up to see what’s going on. Luckily we have a small apartment so it won’t be much to clean, but if opal has the ringworm ... both kitties will remain in the bathroom until both are clear I feel bad for the kitten since she may be all clear, but may have to start the meds all over to prevent it from bouncing back and forth between the cats -___-
You can msg me anytime you like! I’ve also been cleaning like cray cray too! We can shar e ideas and whatnot hang in there! Like I said, it will all be okay

 

[intertwangled]

Thank you. I made an appointment with a veterinary dermatologist for Friday just for my own piece of mind. I hope it will be the last vet visit we will need. By then Akila will have finished 22 consecutive days of oral antifungals. And will have been on over a month of twice daily baths. I just want someone with a “skin” background to look at her skin and assess healing, if we are going to be basing on visuals. They seem to be healing but it’s hard to say where in the process it is. I hear hair sometimes takes several weeks to start growing back,

Til we get more of an idea from this vet dermatologist, Akila is sleeping inside our master bedroom (on a sheet on the spare couch) at night and is still isolated during the day. At least she has more company but I am still trying to minimize contact with my other pets and other parts of the house. Just in case.

I know it’s a bit late but I just caved in and invested in a Miele vacuum. Got a mid sized canister one (C2). It will arrive on Thursday.

I also think I’m in need of dermatological follow up myself. I’ve been spraying myself with antifungals for so long my skin has been peeling, but only in the sprayed areas where I had lesions. I’m not sure which of the numerous topicals I’ve applied has been causing the dryness and sudden exfoliation. I’ve been using lamisil, Lotrimin, jkat Dioxiguard (chlorine dioxide) spray, tea tree oil body wash, and Nizoral (ketoconazole) shampoo. I’ve not used moisturizer because everything I’ve read says “keep your skin dry.” And now it’s too dry, and very ugly and uncomfortable!

In spite of all this treatment one of my original lesions is still re-presenting itself and it’s been a month and a half of diligent treatment! Which makes me worry about how resistant this fungus strain really might be to everything we have been trying.

So we are trying to hang in there.

Fingers crossed that opal’s bald spot is NOT ringworm and that your house gets back to normal quickly!

I was reading your thread, & oh my goodness! Im so sorry you are so stressed! You already know my situation... and thank you for replying to my thread.
Don’t worry, everything will be OK. Luckily it’s just ringworm & not something that’s life threatening right!( I keep trying to tell myself that) I suffer from anxiety & it’s been a struggle for me to remain calm. So you are not alone, I promise! It’s been a few weeks for me, just took the kitten to the vet Friday , they said she looks wonderful! No lesions or anything. They took a toothbrush & got samples of her fur everywhere to do a culture. I’m very hopeful.. BUT... my other adult cat, she has a bald spot. It got scabby & nasty. I took her in to get a culture almost 2 weeks ago... her results still show negative?? But it looks like ringworm. However, I nor my fiancé has any lesions and opal (the adult cat) doesn’t have any expect that bald spot. So the vet is thinking it’s somethinf else... but I’m like... that would be a weird coincidence right? We are taking her back Wednesday (when it’s offically 2 weeks since culture) for another check up to see what’s going on. Luckily we have a small apartment so it won’t be much to clean, but if opal has the ringworm ... both kitties will remain in the bathroom until both are clear I feel bad for the kitten since she may be all clear, but may have to start the meds all over to prevent it from bouncing back and forth between the cats -___-
You can msg me anytime you like! I’ve also been cleaning like cray cray too! We can shar e ideas and whatnot hang in there! Like I said, it will all be okay

 

[intertwangled]

Also, I'm still waiting for the local TNR agency to get back to me regarding trapping my cat's feral friend (both are males; my cat is neutered). We want to get the feral cat health checked and neutered, but I'm also hoping they'll run a culture on him just in case, since he often presents with scratches and imperfections on his face, likely from fights, but you never know. I'm really worried if this feral is positive. I wouldn't know what to do with our indoor/outdoor cat Suarez. Suarez can't be 100% indoors because my belgian shepherd (malinois) is a liability (even with their training, belgian shepherds have very high prey/ working drive that I would never risk letting her being around cats unsupervised, even though she listens and behaves fine under supervision).

Though we can make a room available for quarantine if needed, Suarez can't be confined to any room for life as he's always been outdoors and we would not be able to make the room enriching enough to sustain his needs. If the feral cat is positive, all I could fathom doing is see if there is a volunteer willing to take (the feral) in for treatment and find a permanent feral foster placement elsewhere (or return here when he's clear)-- and then we'd just quarantine our cat for a few weeks and treat with baths in case he's been "carrying" this whole time. He's never had any lesions, and I've bathed him once with j-kat ciderm (as a precaution), and sprayed him a few times with Dioxiguard. I also just ordered some Diamotaceous Earth in case it would help. But ultimately he has to be outside.

 

[intertwangled]

OK, so yesterday I took Akila to see the veterinary dermatologist. Though the clinic itself was old, dated, and a little stinky, I appreciated that the vet himself did a very thorough dermatology exam and looked at her from head to tail. He did another Woods lamp exam but did not find anything glowing. I told him the full history. He did find scaly skin in places that I didn't even know where scaly. Which scares me because I don't know how long those areas have been like that or if it sets our treatment clock back. Akila's neck, chest, and elbow areas were still really red. The vet took a few slides to look under microscope. He said that he saw active bacteria but not fungi. Akila has some patches that are supper irritated and I'm wondering if it's from any of the topicals I'd been applying. The Ciderm shampoo hasn't irritated her but she did seem to be bothered by the Dioxiguard spray (my own skin reacted to it in the areas that were already sensitive), and every other topical we'd put on her chest and neck (including lime-sulfur prior to getting the J-kat products). So something maybe left her sensitive areas open to secondary bacterial infection. He told me to discontinue the topical sprays I'd been using, but gave me Miconahex-Triz instead. He said we could still continue the baths. He prescribed 10 additional days of oral ketoconazole (which would amount to a month total of oral meds including the first week of Itrafungol from the other vet). He also gave an antibiotic (simplicef) to help with the infection. He took fur samples from areas all over her body (especially the affected areas) for submission for a PCR test (I'm glad this is finally getting done given our bad luck with regular cultures). I should be getting a call about the result sometime early next week. Till then, Akila still has to stay in isolation. She is kind of used to the routine now. I gave her and my other dog another Ciderm bath today, and a quick walk-- just barely beating the rain.

On a good note, I don't remember if I mentioned previously but our foster kitten (that started this fiasco) has a home. Her foster family decided to keep her. I'm really happy. It sounds like she is doing well. They renamed her Finja :-)

 

[Sabrina77]

OK, so yesterday I took Akila to see the veterinary dermatologist. Though the clinic itself was old, dated, and a little stinky, I appreciated that the vet himself did a very thorough dermatology exam and looked at her from head to tail. He did another Woods lamp exam but did not find anything glowing. I told him the full history. He did find scaly skin in places that I didn't even know where scaly. Which scares me because I don't know how long those areas have been like that or if it sets our treatment clock back. Akila's neck, chest, and elbow areas were still really red. The vet took a few slides to look under microscope. He said that he saw active bacteria but not fungi. Akila has some patches that are supper irritated and I'm wondering if it's from any of the topicals I'd been applying. The Ciderm shampoo hasn't irritated her but she did seem to be bothered by the Dioxiguard spray (my own skin reacted to it in the areas that were already sensitive), and every other topical we'd put on her chest and neck (including lime-sulfur prior to getting the J-kat products). So something maybe left her sensitive areas open to secondary bacterial infection. He told me to discontinue the topical sprays I'd been using, but gave me Miconahex-Triz instead. He said we could still continue the baths. He prescribed 10 additional days of oral ketoconazole (which would amount to a month total of oral meds including the first week of Itrafungol from the other vet). He also gave an antibiotic (simplicef) to help with the infection. He took fur samples from areas all over her body (especially the affected areas) for submission for a PCR test (I'm glad this is finally getting done given our bad luck with regular cultures). I should be getting a call about the result sometime early next week. Till then, Akila still has to stay in isolation. She is kind of used to the routine now. I gave her and my other dog another Ciderm bath today, and a quick walk-- just barely beating the rain.

On a good note, I don't remember if I mentioned previously but our foster kitten (that started this fiasco) has a home. Her foster family decided to keep her. I'm really happy. It sounds like she is doing well. They renamed her Finja :-)

Hello!
I was wondering, how did everything turn out with your ringworm situation?

 

[mani]

Hello!
I was wondering, how did everything turn out with your ringworm situation?

It's unlikely, S Sabrina77 as this member has not been on for some time.