Overnight alopecia in kitten

[moxiewild]

My foster kitten, Ash, is about 9 weeks old.

Overnight he developed significant alopecia around his eye.

His skin is not red or inflamed, no scaling, no dandruff, I’ve not even seen him so much as groom or scratch today.

He and all other animals in the house have been flea treated, along with daily vacuuming and washing all blankets, bedding, etc, in hot water, and changing litterboxes entirely - every single day for almost a week now. He is otherwise completely normal.

He’s currently on his last couple doses of an 8 day course of metronidazole for giardia, which I know technically can cause hair loss.

I know only a vet can answer this and we’re going to take him tomorrow, but I was wondering if this might look like ringworm to anyone?

(Hair loss on his ear is just due to ear tip from neuter/TNR from 2 weeks ago).

 

[Srwheeler]

Might be ringworm. But only vet can confirm it, unless you have a blackLight handy on you.
I can only say ringworm because I’ve been going through it for the past 6 weeks. Good luck to you!

 

[moxiewild]

We care for senior cats and dogs, so we actually have several black lights since they aren’t always the greatest at using the bathroom properly.

However, in the chaos of flipping our house upside down cleaning for giardia, I placed them somewhere “safe” and of course I can’t remember where that is now I had spent a good half hour frantically looking for them after my boyfriend casually mentioned Ash was missing some fur earlier.

I suppose ringworm won’t technically add that much more to what we’re already doing for giardia....... but given that that’s A LOT, I’m still not too keen on adding wall and ceiling maintenance to the schedule.

Here is to hoping it is something totally and completely benign somehow, and definitely not contagious!!!

Hope you’re making some headway with the ringworm on your end!

 

[Srwheeler]

We care for senior cats and dogs, so we actually have several black lights since they aren’t always the greatest at using the bathroom properly.

However, in the chaos of flipping our house upside down cleaning for giardia, I placed them somewhere “safe” and of course I can’t remember where that is now I had spent a good half hour frantically looking for them after my boyfriend casually mentioned Ash was missing some fur earlier.

I suppose ringworm won’t technically add that much more to what we’re already doing for giardia....... but given that that’s A LOT, I’m still not too keen on adding wall and ceiling maintenance to the schedule.

Here is to hoping it is something totally and completely benign somehow, and definitely not contagious!!!

Hope you’re making some headway with the ringworm on your end!

yea, you’re alreAdy disinfecting the house. So that’s a plus. If it is ringworm, keeping him isolated might be best, to a room that’s easy to clean. I know how hard that is. We didn’t keep ours isolated and thankfully nobody else, including fiancé and I didn’t get ringworm.I didn’t scrub down the walls or ceiling either. So hopefully we’re ok His two lesions have gone away. His hair is fully grown back. We’ve put our house back together and I’m cleaning 1-2 times a week. Instead of every day. Still giving him antifungal baths and giving him the oral medication. At least for another month.
Let us know how it goes at the vet!

 

[moxiewild]

We weren’t able to go today, both of us ended up stuck at work. But we secured an appointment for tomorrow.

The patch has become a tad more red now :/

Because so many of our occupants are susceptible, it means we kind of have to go all out in disinfecting protocols

And we definitely cannot quarantine him! It’s already been a massive undertaking just trying to find enough space to separate giardia-infected groups from uninfected ones. And achieving that entailed building an outdoor enclosure in our dining room

So carpeted room with 4 other kittens it is

 

[RangersMom]

That is so bizarre! lol I would expect it to be red or itchy but to be just balding like that is weird. I dont have any input unfortunately but keep us updated!

 

[moxiewild]

Ash more or less has ringworm.

Wood’s lamp in office looked like ringworm to the vet and I, but we’ll have a more official diagnosis this week once lab results come back.

The lesion began to look more pink for a couple of days, then went back to a normal skin color but is now a bit scaly.

Ash had a dip when we went to the vet, and we’ll bring him in once a week for the next three weeks to repeat it. I’m too uncomfortable to do it myself given the proximity of the lesion to his eye.

We gave our 13 of our 15 other cats a dip at home. Unfortunately the other two are not able to be handled.

As far as treating the environment, for the most part we will just keep on doing what we were doing before for giardia, so not a whole lot will change because of this. Well, hopefully!

 

[di and bob]

If it's ringworm, it spreads rapidly, overnight. If he has had only the one bald area, it is most likely not ringworm. It could be from a wound. Can you see any cuts, punctures, etc, in the wound or around it? Is it swollen at all, a bump anywhere? It could also be from the medication he is taking, or even coming in contact with any of your cleaning products. My cat's get areas like that from abscesses or wounds.

 

[posiepurrs]

. But only vet can confirm it, unless you have a blackLight handy on you.

Not all ringworm fluoresces and not all fungus that does fluoresce is ringworm. The best is to do a scraping of the area and culture it.

I would expect it to be red or itchy In cats, ringworm usually does not itch, nor does it form a 'ring' shape.

 

[moxiewild]

If it's ringworm, it spreads rapidly, overnight. If he has had only the one bald area, it is most likely not ringworm. It could be from a wound. Can you see any cuts, punctures, etc, in the wound or around it? Is it swollen at all, a bump anywhere? It could also be from the medication he is taking, or even coming in contact with any of your cleaning products. My cat's get areas like that from abscesses or wounds.

We see animals with a sort of “self contained” ringworm all the time at work. Same as humans, for some people it spreads all over, others only ever develop one lesion, and some remain unscathed.

There is definitely no wound. I thoroughly checked hoping to find any indication to verify any alternative to ringworm I could. Hair loss from the metro was/is what I was hoping for!

There is also no way he would get in contact with cleaning products, as there are none in the kitten room.

As far as exposure to residual product, we use Rescue/Accel, which is one of the safest - if not the safest - disinfectants on the market. It is actually a “no rinse” formula that converts to water, but I still rinse (thoroughly) because ample experience with kidney cats has made me neurotic and obsessive about potential toxin exposure.

 

[moxiewild]

Not all ringworm fluoresces and not all fungus that does fluoresce is ringworm. The best is to do a scraping of the area and culture it.

Yep, we did a scrape to be sure, calling tomorrow to see if results are back.

Th most common species of ringworm glows the majority of the time, though. It’s usually a pretty good indication, even if not a confirmation.

And cats certainly do get a ring or circular shape! Sometimes it is more so “patchy” though instead, but very circular hairloss or lesion without any other evident cause is almost always ringworm in the cats (and many other animals) we see at work. Especially if it’s on the head in that area between the eye and ear, like Ash.

Hoping we’ll get lucky though and it's some kind of fluke. None of the other kittens have shown symptoms yet, so that’s slightly promising.

 

[posiepurrs]

I should have said that - sorry. When I dealt with it many years ago, the cat did not have the round lesions. It was just patchy.

 

[moxiewild]

Vet finally called back. Ringworm confirmed

 

[Srwheeler]

Vet finally called back. Ringworm confirmed

You’ll get through this! Took me about 6 weeks and I thought I was dying. But you aren’t alone! You got this