Ringworm

dli2509

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2022
Messages
35
Purraise
45
Thank you for the reply! I nearly broke down crying today, it feels so overwhelming. How can a 1/4in bald spot wreck our life like this 😭? It’s impossible for us to quarantine this baby, she’ll scream bloody murder if we lock her up and we’re finally making progress with the introduction to the resident cats. I didn’t swifter the walls! Should I be doing that? Also we don’t want to get the rid of the cat trees, they were so expensive! I vacuumed them and used the steam cleaner and sprayed them with hydrogen peroxide from the pharmacy. The house has been exposed for less than a week (at least the lesion wasn’t there a week ago) and she’s already on a topical spray and oral meds as of today. She didn’t get any dips or shampoos though. Thank you again for sharing your experience.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #22

Babs55125

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
May 14, 2022
Messages
12
Purraise
9
Thank you for the reply! I nearly broke down crying today, it feels so overwhelming. How can a 1/4in bald spot wreck our life like this 😭? It’s impossible for us to quarantine this baby, she’ll scream bloody murder if we lock her up and we’re finally making progress with the introduction to the resident cats. I didn’t swifter the walls! Should I be doing that? Also we don’t want to get the rid of the cat trees, they were so expensive! I vacuumed them and used the steam cleaner and sprayed them with hydrogen peroxide from the pharmacy. The house has been exposed for less than a week (at least the lesion wasn’t there a week ago) and she’s already on a topical spray and oral meds as of today. She didn’t get any dips or shampoos though. Thank you again for sharing your experience.
If you've got it in you to swiffer the walls they say it helps pick up fungal spores. I haven't found any research on how much each swiffering/washing reduces fungal spore count but anthing is better than nothing. It's ok to go a little crazy cleaning but then pace yourself especially if you think your kitten is still shedding spores. Is your vet treating all of your animals? Others on the site have had to treat all the animals, if not watch for lesions, dandruff, new bald spots. I did throw out my beloved cat tree and scratching posts after the first week, once I had them settled in the guest room. I made them a tree out of stacked cardboard boxes with taped on scratching pads from Ikea that my husband found and they did really well with that. I vacuumed several times a week till it looked like the hair was growing back then dropped back to 1-2 week. Covered everything with sheets and washed those weekly and lint rolled daily to everyother day. Out Vet didn't recommend dips or shampoos but my husband wanted to do a shampoo. Of course, he had never bathed a cat so that happened only once...lol.
 

JacquieM

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 3, 2022
Messages
96
Purraise
17
Hang in there!!! The first week feels overwhelming. It's going to get better! I lost my mind for the first 2 weeks then settled into a routine that was managable but far from the agressive approach that is recommended. There just wasn't time for all of it and although I am no stranger to hard work, there is only so much wall washing my shoulders could take.
We just came out of quarantine after ...omg 9 weeks...the vet would only reculture a week after they completed the 3rd cycle of Itrafungol and then it took forever for the cultures to finalize. We were all loosing our minds here. Some pet owners have waited for 3 negative cultures but nobody in my house is goign to survive another 3 months of quarantine, I feel as if I've missed summer. I'll finish deep cleaning, keep up on better than the usual cleaning routine and stay vigilant for reoccurance.
Have you found and read all the good resources on the site? I've been using Rescue wipes and solution as a decontamination agent. It's an accelerated hydrogenperoxide solution that requires only 1 min of wet contact time to kill ringworm vs the 10 min wet contact time for bleech and Swiffer now makes a heavy duty dry/deep pocket swiffer pad that I love. I did a few rounds of wall/floor/ceiling swiffering.
Rescue wipes are fabulous! I didn’t even know they existed, and was using spray and paper towels. I agree; the first week or two are incredibly overwhelming. But then it helps to actually write out a schedule for when you are going to clean what, and it becomes somewhat habitual. It’s a huge pain in the butt, don’t get me wrong. On the upside, your house will be gorgeously clean. 😁
 

JacquieM

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 3, 2022
Messages
96
Purraise
17
Thank you for the reply! I nearly broke down crying today, it feels so overwhelming. How can a 1/4in bald spot wreck our life like this 😭? It’s impossible for us to quarantine this baby, she’ll scream bloody murder if we lock her up and we’re finally making progress with the introduction to the resident cats. I didn’t swifter the walls! Should I be doing that? Also we don’t want to get the rid of the cat trees, they were so expensive! I vacuumed them and used the steam cleaner and sprayed them with hydrogen peroxide from the pharmacy. The house has been exposed for less than a week (at least the lesion wasn’t there a week ago) and she’s already on a topical spray and oral meds as of today. She didn’t get any dips or shampoos though. Thank you again for sharing your experience.
I assume you already got culture results back, and it’s definitely ringworm. That must be how you got the oral med. Listen, if it’s only one spot, you’re in great shape. Also the fact that the kitten has only been with you 1 week is fantastic. I had a similar situation: a new cat and only three small spots on his ears. I did sequester him, but spent about 3 hours a day with him in his room.
I did not swiffer the walls, and I did not pack everything away. I used a lot of Rescue, though, and machine washed everything in hot water constantly; also dried it on hot.
I, too, had an enormous expensive cat tree that is just fantastic. I sprayed it down with Rescue a couple of times and also vacuumed it a couple of times. Experts are divided about whether sunshine actually kills ringworm. Dr. Moriello, who you will see mentioned here, is the expert to follow. If you Google her, all kinds of great information will come up. Most of her advice is for rescue facilities, however. But you can take what you like and leave the rest.
Anyway, I sprayed pillows and the short scratching posts and then threw them out in the sunshine for hours. If it might help, then why not.
 

dli2509

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2022
Messages
35
Purraise
45
I assume you already got culture results back, and it’s definitely ringworm. That must be how you got the oral med. Listen, if it’s only one spot, you’re in great shape. Also the fact that the kitten has only been with you 1 week is fantastic. I had a similar situation: a new cat and only three small spots on his ears. I did sequester him, but spent about 3 hours a day with him in his room.
I did not swiffer the walls, and I did not pack everything away. I used a lot of Rescue, though, and machine washed everything in hot water constantly; also dried it on hot.
I, too, had an enormous expensive cat tree that is just fantastic. I sprayed it down with Rescue a couple of times and also vacuumed it a couple of times. Experts are divided about whether sunshine actually kills ringworm. Dr. Moriello, who you will see mentioned here, is the expert to follow. If you Google her, all kinds of great information will come up. Most of her advice is for rescue facilities, however. But you can take what you like and leave the rest.
Anyway, I sprayed pillows and the short scratching posts and then threw them out in the sunshine for hours. If it might help, then why not.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
 

Jebel321

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Sep 4, 2022
Messages
8
Purraise
7
As someone who has just started dealing with ringworm and is still vacillating between panic and crying and cleaning, I just wanted to check in on this thread and see how those of you dealing with ringworm the last couple of months are doing. Have you won the war or still working towards defeat of ringworm? Thanks!
 

dli2509

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2022
Messages
35
Purraise
45
As someone who has just started dealing with ringworm and is still vacillating between panic and crying and cleaning, I just wanted to check in on this thread and see how those of you dealing with ringworm the last couple of months are doing. Have you won the war or still working towards defeat of ringworm? Thanks!
Here is my very recent experience with ringworm. Hang in there and don't freak out too much, it will be ok. Ringworm? 12 week old kitten
 

JacquieM

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 3, 2022
Messages
96
Purraise
17
As someone who has just started dealing with ringworm and is still vacillating between panic and crying and cleaning, I just wanted to check in on this thread and see how those of you dealing with ringworm the last couple of months are doing. Have you won the war or still working towards defeat of ringworm? Thanks!
Hi there. We’re doing great. Ringworm is gone. I had a scare when I thought it was back, but turns out my cat has regular, minor skin issues. Nothing requiring treatment. I do know a woman in my neighborhood whose kitten had ringworm; it was then gone for a year, but suddenly returned!! That’s disturbing. Merlin has been clear about 6 months.
 

SandraToth

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Dec 9, 2022
Messages
3
Purraise
0
As someone who has just started dealing with ringworm and is still vacillating between panic and crying and cleaning, I just wanted to check in on this thread and see how those of you dealing with ringworm the last couple of months are doing. Have you won the war or still working towards defeat of ringworm? Thanks!
I'm new on the forum and was reading through the posts. We've been dealing with it since about mid-September and I'm still periodically vacillating between panic, crying and cleaning. Some days I can take a deep breath and cope and other days I just feel so frustrated. The worse part for me right now is that my senior cat now has it, and I don't want to risk her health using the oral meds on her, so I don't know how we'll ever get rid of it. All I can think to do is treat the cats that I can with the oral meds, treat her topically/lime sulfur and keep cleaning, cleaning & cleaning. So for me, still working towards the defeat of ringworm. How are you holding up?
 

mrsgreenjeens

Every Life Should Have Nine Cats
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
16,391
Purraise
7,130
Location
Arizona
I'm new on the forum and was reading through the posts. We've been dealing with it since about mid-September and I'm still periodically vacillating between panic, crying and cleaning. Some days I can take a deep breath and cope and other days I just feel so frustrated. The worse part for me right now is that my senior cat now has it, and I don't want to risk her health using the oral meds on her, so I don't know how we'll ever get rid of it. All I can think to do is treat the cats that I can with the oral meds, treat her topically/lime sulfur and keep cleaning, cleaning & cleaning. So for me, still working towards the defeat of ringworm. How are you holding up?
Did your Vet advise not giving your senior cat the oral meds, or is this just YOU worrying? There is more than one oral med that can be used, so maybe that's an option?
 
Top