Ringworm In Multi-cat Household. Urgent!!

[10crazycats]

Hello~ This might sound crazy to some, but I have 10 cats. We noticed our little girl Shiloh was red around her ears and eyes. We had just recently gotten her a toy with mint in it because she loves the smell of toothpaste so I thought the toy irritated her skin and I took it from her. However it was still there and my mom noticed a small ring under her ear.

We had also just recently rescued a very young kitten so I thought that maybe the kitten had something and was getting our other cats sick. We took him to the vet and he was clean! Note: all of our cats are indoors. We’re very confused on how she got the ringworm but we’re now starting to notice it in 3 of our other cats!

My mom and I are very stressed because what can we do if all of them get infected? Correct me if I’m wrong but ringworm is highly contagious and it’s fungal. It can be hard to manage. We got a spray and cream to treat Shiloh and the other few cats we noticed it on but I don’t think it’ll be enough. My other main concern is that we have a semi-feral girl and if she gets infected.... that’s going to be hell to try and treat.

If anyone has any tips on how to treat multiple cats (10!!!!) with ringworm please let me know!! We don’t have enough rooms in our house to separate them from each other and they all like to lay and sleep in similar spots and they split food bowls and share litterboxes so this ringworm will probably spread like wildfire and I’m at risk of getting it too. I’m thinking I should take a few days off from work so we can bathe all of the cats and wash our sheets, trash our cat trees and wash ALL of our clothes too but will that be enough?

If anybody has advice or similar experience it would be sooooo helpful. I have limited resources and money at the moment. I’m getting so stressed just thinking about how to handle this... any response would help at this point. My poor Shiloh has it the worst and she looks miserable. We already have a vet appt for her set up for tomorrow. This is the first time we’ve had an incident where all our cats get sick and I’m starting to panic.. please let me know what I should do!

 

[abyeb]

Ringworm does spread quickly, and getting a treatment from the vet is the first step to stopping its spread. You will also need to clean your home thoroughly. I’ll attach some articles that describe the process in more detail.

Ringworm In Cats: How To Win The Fight

Ringworm Infestation In Cats: The Housecleaning Regime

 

[saladflambe]

Oh man... here I am feeling sorry for myself for having 4 with ringworm in my house right now... but 10?! UGH! I am so sorry!

My best advice is treat EVERYONE even if you can't see it - both oral medication and lime sulfur dip and topicals for active spots.

Clean clean clean clean CLEAN
That means vacuum vacuum vacuum, disinfect what you can using either a 10:1 solution of bleach or a disinfectant that works against this type of fungus. Lysol IC would work, or "Rescue"

I'd say quarantine, but I don't know how to quarantine 10 cats...

It won't let me link the thread I'm following but it's on here somewhere called "6 Things I Learned from Our Ringworm Plague"

Oh and be prepared to do lots of laundry - on HOT - wash TWICE

 

[10crazycats]

Thanks so much for the response! So far the vet says it’s not too aggressive so far only one of our cats has it real bad but she’s healing really well! The others have a few bald spots either on the ear or right above the eye, but it’s not red anymore so I guess what we’re doing is working! Our vet said baths are kind of pointless at the moment and just to use the prescription antifungal lotion we were given but if we don’t see any result then we’re going to have a cat water park in our house soon lol. I heard the lime sulfur dips work wonders

We’ve been washing our sheets constantly and we cleaned our house like crazy today, it’s all tile so it was pretty easy. We plan to do this at least once a week until it starts to settle down. And go away. (Hopefully soon).

I also hope your kitties are doing well! Ringworm can be really scary looking but I keep myself calm by reminding myself that it’s not deadly and i can get rid of it with some temporary hard work. (The vigorous cleaning also keeps my mind off of it) hahahaha

 

[10crazycats]

Oh and it turned out the kitten I mentioned DID have the ringworm. He tested positive but all of his spots are dry and hardly noticeable so two different vets both didn't think he had it! Our Shiloh likes to mother him also so that’s no doubt how she got it.

 

[saladflambe]

You are far calmer than I am lol. I'm glad things are going well. I'm losing my mind and actually had to ask the rescue to find another situation for my foster kittens if possible (still waiting to see) just so I can focus on getting my own cats healthy and my house as cleaned as possible. But, I have the added stressor of a 2-year-old human I'm trying to keep healthy so, there's that!

 

[silkenpaw]

Not crazy at all! I have 12. I went through the ringworm thing when had only 4 and it was exhausting. Mine got treated with oral meds. I don’t know how effective topicals would be, given you might miss a spot and cats may groom the medication off. I think by the time you put cream on all the spots, you might as well have pilled them. Good luck and be careful not to catch it yourself! Wear gloves when you can and wash your hands a lot.

 

[TomTomTomcat]

I used tea tree oil and it worked very well. It cleared up both me and my cat.