- Joined
- Jan 26, 2023
- Messages
- 13
- Purraise
- 15
Hi,
I have been battling the dreaded Ringworm in my cat(s) now for 6 months, wow is it stressful. In October 22 my then 10 month old Mainecoon had some flaky skin under her fur on her neck, so being OTT I took her to the vet and after a culture confirmed it was Ringworm. I am nearing the end of it now I hope with the original culprit finally responding to treatment after going off label with the dosage of Itrafungal (i will touch on that). Thought I would share some tips as after 6 months I have figured out most of it!
Background:
Luckily it was summer so I isolated her in the tiled conservatory with the door wide open all day and she had the time of her life with free roaming our (cat secure) back garden.
Scrupulous daily room cleaning with Virkon / F10 (on rotation), new scratch box every week and toys replaced weekly (unless they could be soaked).
Ridded the house of everything that could not be cleaned, had the carpets professionally cleaned twice and even replaced the carpet entirely in the first room we used to isolate whilst we readied the conservatory.
Sprayed the walls with f10 and Virkon on different occasions and wiped/cleaned/binned everything in site.. I now know that Anigene is far better so advise going straight to that if you like non rusty stuff in your home.
Treatment
My vet had no experience of ringworm so the only reason I knew I needed to clean was this site. He was very blazey and just gave itrafungal on pulse dosing to treat it. I also have a very old moggy and for the 5 months of treating the mainecoon never caught it.
Fast forward and after 4 rounds or itrafungal, she had it quite bad on her ears (flaky dark grey skin) and on her head (she didn't lose fur). we had requested topicals too and for 5 months washed her head twice a week with Malaseb, used miconazole creams, clotroconazole creams and it just did not respond. Even the spots that I caught from her had not healed with cream after months of it. So at this stage we realised this strain very resistant to azoles... joy.
Also Cats protection and even the label for the shampoo even state that Malaseb can cause the ringworm to recover if not used with Grisvolen which is not used.. and when I started the shampoo her ringworm spread like wild fire.
Any way I found a post on here and a few vet articles on the internet that stated for resistant cases, dosing of itrafungal should be doubled and taken for 3 weeks without any breaks. I passed these to my vet and he said if I sign a waiver I can do it. Turns out itrafungal unlike previous oral medications, it is extremely rare to cause liver issues.. so dosing like this for 3 weeks should have no major issues.. of course you should watch carefully and stop if you see anything worrying.
Amazingly for the first time after those 3 weeks (I also started lime sulphur dips on her head twice a week.. it stinks but I feel this was an important step I should of done from day 1) the ears healed and flakes stopped! it has been 3 weeks since stopping the meds and she has been in the house which I still clean like mad but she is looking good and getting all the cuddles again.
Sadly my older moggy I had to isolate in a room that the infected cat had been in because it was too cold in the conservatory in December.. and even though I wet vacced and sprayed that room before admitting her, she finally caught it.. right as we finally got the maincoon on the way to recovery.
she is so sad in there it breaks my heart but she has to stay there till she finishes treatment. She has tele and lots of treats but it is still very detrimental to her happiness being alone.
Cleaning
I researched new cleaners after 5 months and have now binned f10 and Virkon (f10 reacts badly with bleach, if soaked things in f10 in the sink, the next time we used bleached the sink would turn red and give off only what I can describe as chlorine gas).. also both f10 and Virkon caused everything I used it on to rust, kitchen handles, table legs etc... awful.
So we have now moved to using Anigene HLD4V, which from reports is more effective even in very dirty conditions, and it destroys ringworm/spores rather than disabling it... it does not rust anything, doesn't smell and does not seem to react badly. Comes with multiple scents or unscented..
I have been using the unscented on in our bissel carpet cleaner at 1:50 ratio, and the scented one for everything else at 1:50 ratio. Spray the walls, surfaces, anything it will reach, I use pressure sprayers from amazon and they are so good.
We pick up another mainecoon baby this month who the breader has kindly kept much longer whilst we attack this plague.
Please feel free to add any tips you have or your experiences. I will be updating this thread when my moggy is finally clear and again if it stays away!
oh just to add, I also had screwfix henry styled vacuums in the early days as they are easy to clean after each use and I got rid after a few months of use.
Since this started I have actually purchased a 'Henry allergy' which has a hepa filter. I soak the heads in anigene/spray the whole unit down after use and ensure no hairs are left behind. This stops the spores from being ejected from the exhaust of the vacuum and you can use it everywhere without fear of spreading spores.
I actually meant to put this started in August not October, August 3rd to be precise
I have been battling the dreaded Ringworm in my cat(s) now for 6 months, wow is it stressful. In October 22 my then 10 month old Mainecoon had some flaky skin under her fur on her neck, so being OTT I took her to the vet and after a culture confirmed it was Ringworm. I am nearing the end of it now I hope with the original culprit finally responding to treatment after going off label with the dosage of Itrafungal (i will touch on that). Thought I would share some tips as after 6 months I have figured out most of it!
Background:
Luckily it was summer so I isolated her in the tiled conservatory with the door wide open all day and she had the time of her life with free roaming our (cat secure) back garden.
Scrupulous daily room cleaning with Virkon / F10 (on rotation), new scratch box every week and toys replaced weekly (unless they could be soaked).
Ridded the house of everything that could not be cleaned, had the carpets professionally cleaned twice and even replaced the carpet entirely in the first room we used to isolate whilst we readied the conservatory.
Sprayed the walls with f10 and Virkon on different occasions and wiped/cleaned/binned everything in site.. I now know that Anigene is far better so advise going straight to that if you like non rusty stuff in your home.
Treatment
My vet had no experience of ringworm so the only reason I knew I needed to clean was this site. He was very blazey and just gave itrafungal on pulse dosing to treat it. I also have a very old moggy and for the 5 months of treating the mainecoon never caught it.
Fast forward and after 4 rounds or itrafungal, she had it quite bad on her ears (flaky dark grey skin) and on her head (she didn't lose fur). we had requested topicals too and for 5 months washed her head twice a week with Malaseb, used miconazole creams, clotroconazole creams and it just did not respond. Even the spots that I caught from her had not healed with cream after months of it. So at this stage we realised this strain very resistant to azoles... joy.
Also Cats protection and even the label for the shampoo even state that Malaseb can cause the ringworm to recover if not used with Grisvolen which is not used.. and when I started the shampoo her ringworm spread like wild fire.
Any way I found a post on here and a few vet articles on the internet that stated for resistant cases, dosing of itrafungal should be doubled and taken for 3 weeks without any breaks. I passed these to my vet and he said if I sign a waiver I can do it. Turns out itrafungal unlike previous oral medications, it is extremely rare to cause liver issues.. so dosing like this for 3 weeks should have no major issues.. of course you should watch carefully and stop if you see anything worrying.
Amazingly for the first time after those 3 weeks (I also started lime sulphur dips on her head twice a week.. it stinks but I feel this was an important step I should of done from day 1) the ears healed and flakes stopped! it has been 3 weeks since stopping the meds and she has been in the house which I still clean like mad but she is looking good and getting all the cuddles again.
Sadly my older moggy I had to isolate in a room that the infected cat had been in because it was too cold in the conservatory in December.. and even though I wet vacced and sprayed that room before admitting her, she finally caught it.. right as we finally got the maincoon on the way to recovery.
she is so sad in there it breaks my heart but she has to stay there till she finishes treatment. She has tele and lots of treats but it is still very detrimental to her happiness being alone.
Cleaning
I researched new cleaners after 5 months and have now binned f10 and Virkon (f10 reacts badly with bleach, if soaked things in f10 in the sink, the next time we used bleached the sink would turn red and give off only what I can describe as chlorine gas).. also both f10 and Virkon caused everything I used it on to rust, kitchen handles, table legs etc... awful.
So we have now moved to using Anigene HLD4V, which from reports is more effective even in very dirty conditions, and it destroys ringworm/spores rather than disabling it... it does not rust anything, doesn't smell and does not seem to react badly. Comes with multiple scents or unscented..
I have been using the unscented on in our bissel carpet cleaner at 1:50 ratio, and the scented one for everything else at 1:50 ratio. Spray the walls, surfaces, anything it will reach, I use pressure sprayers from amazon and they are so good.
We pick up another mainecoon baby this month who the breader has kindly kept much longer whilst we attack this plague.
Please feel free to add any tips you have or your experiences. I will be updating this thread when my moggy is finally clear and again if it stays away!
oh just to add, I also had screwfix henry styled vacuums in the early days as they are easy to clean after each use and I got rid after a few months of use.
Since this started I have actually purchased a 'Henry allergy' which has a hepa filter. I soak the heads in anigene/spray the whole unit down after use and ensure no hairs are left behind. This stops the spores from being ejected from the exhaust of the vacuum and you can use it everywhere without fear of spreading spores.
I actually meant to put this started in August not October, August 3rd to be precise
can't be mad she just wanted to make sure they was both happy. Sadly 3 weeks later she had symptoms.
