Ringworm

harriet

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Hi eveyone. Are there any new treatments out there for ringworm? I have persians and I am suspecting they have ringworm. I brought a new cat into the house from a reputable breeder. It did not show any lesions but I noticed it scratching. I asked the breeder if she had any skin troubles going on and she said she didn't. About 14 days later a few of mine are scratching. It is not fleas or mites and I can see some skin involvement. I do not want to use Fulvicin and am trying to stay away from the old Lime-Sulphur dips as we live in a small house and the smell would drive my husband crazy
Thanks for any help.
 

sandie

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I have had to much experience with ringworm!! I have used all of the drugs available. The only thing you can do is let it go away by itself or treat it with medication. I prefer a drug called sporonox. It is VERY effective and from what I have read somewhat safer than fulvicin. I also have been using a wonderful shampoo to cut down on the spores. It is called hexadine, it is made by verbek. As goofy as this sounds, I was given a persian from a breeder and right now he has ringworm. I feel your stress!!!!
 

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I just had a kitten with ringworm (a sweet little stray I picked up from the streets). Our vet recommended use of anti-fungal cream for a week or so, but it didn't help. I guess he wasn't doing so well because he was on the streets for so long.

He then had to take Fulvicin and it all cleared up within a couple of weeks. I didn't know about any safety issues regarding this particular drug - can you elaborate a little bit, Sandie?

Anyway, one of my cats (I've found a home for the kitten since then) now has ringworm, but so far it's responding very well to the cream, so I hope we won't need oral medication.

Guess what? I think I got infected as well...
I'm using the same cream myself
I've already had ringworm in the past so I'm not very worries. It'll probably clear away in a week or two.
 
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harriet

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Thanks for the info. Sandie, who makes sporonex? Do you know if I can get it in Canada? Is it a pill ? How many times a day is it given? The reason I want to stay away from Fulvicin is that I have a pregnant queen. I think Hexadine is a iodine base shampoo. There has been recent research proving that iodine has little effect on fungi. Are you finding this shampoo that effective?

Sandie, you are sooo right! Stress is spelled, R I N G W O R M !!


BTW, Anne, my husband has family in Israel
 

sandie

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Okay, as far as the harshness on the fulvicin it is hard on the liver. If you are into herbal remedies there are several ways to reverse that. I will look up the manufacturer on the sporonox on Monday. I am sure you can get it in Canada. It is a human pharmacutical. The vet I work for called in the prescription for me. It is an oral that you give 3 days on, and 3 days off. From what I understand it absorbes into the fatty cells to fight the fungus. Both Sporonox and fulvicin work very well. However you do not use the sporonox as long. The topical creams work very well, except in cases where it is in more than one patch. In ALL my cases, it was everywhere. Especially in the Persian...it is very hard to find things under the fluff. The one kitten a year ago lost almost all of her hair. If theres any more info I can get, let me know. Like I said, I work for a vet and have all my refrences handy!!!
 

sandie

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OOPS, I forgot something. Hexadine is NOT an Iodine based shampoo. It is Chlorhexadine which is a form of bleach.It does not cure the fungus but eliminates much of the spores which are contagious. It helps to cut down on the spread and lessons healing time.
 
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harriet

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Sandie, thanks so much for all your help. If you can look into the manufacturers for me I would greatly appreciate it. My vet, who is wonderfully progressive, is unable to help me now as she is very ill
Where would I go to find Chlorhexadine? Pharmacy or vet clinic? How often do you bathe them? Thanks again.
 

sandie

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The sporonox is made by Janssen Pharmasuticals. As for the shampoo it is made by Verbek and I beleive you get it through a vet. I would look on this web page...www.kvvet.com. There are several shampoos that use chlorhedadine. One being nolvasan which is a fort dodge product. The hexadine however keeps working after you wash. I think you bathe every two days for a week or two and then once a week. I have been bathing every few days as I dont want the ringworm to spread even though he is confined to a room. Trust me, when it finally goes away it will be like a bad dream and you will be SOOOOOOO happy that you woke up.
 
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harriet

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Thanks again Sandie. I am on a mission today to get the stuff. Frankly, my cats are fine now. I use my own discovery topically on them. I caught the problem on the first spot, out of sheer luck. Which always makes it easier to conquer. I will tell you my method, but PLEASE UNDERSTAND< THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ANY TESTING DONE ON THIS PRODUCT FOR CATS!!!

If the moderators think I should post it, let me know.
 

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As long as you make it clear that this is your suggestion only and that it hasn't been tested on cats (as you have). I see nothing wrong with posting it.

Go ahead! I'm curious too
 
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harriet

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Hi. Remember what I said about this product not being tested for cats please..

I use Absorbine horse liniment topically on the cats. I first discovered this treatment when one of the barn cats where my horses are kept, developed ringworm. The staff asked me what to do? Since no one was going to be able to catch this cat every day to give it a pill, I said try soaking it with Absorbine as it has anti-fungal properties and I've used it to help clear up ringworm on horses. We did a light soaking of the cat. She was not impressed! We managed to catch her three days later and do it again. You could already see the lesions were healing. After that we couldn't get her for a week. We soaked her one last time and by the time we got her again about a week after that, she was perfectly clear!

I did not know that the cat was pregnant. The staff told me she was spayed. Two weeks after the last dosing, she gave birth to a perfectly healthy litter of three and raised them up with no problems, or ringworm


We were not convinced that the Absorbine had done it so when another domestic cat came into someone's rescue house with ringworm, we tested it again. This cat let us treat it every three days for two weeks. By the third application, the ringworm was unnoticable. It did not re-occur even with only two weeks treatment. Nor, did any other cat get it!

I have now used it on my persians. I prefer this over drugs because of the pregnant cats. I give them a bath once a week to make them feel a little better. Absorbine has a very strong liniment smell and the cats look like they have been out in a rainstorm when you are treating them.

Please remember that this is just my experiment with ringworm. It does not have the recommendation of any vet or scientific study.
 

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Hi!

Well, I think I'm going though ringworm right now with my sphynx Moo-Shoo. I have a long-haired turkish angora wanna-be that had it when she was 10 weeks old. Her ears were completely bald. It took almost three months to go away. I treated it topically with Myconizal (sp?) cream. Moo has two lesions, one on his right shoulder and one on the back of his neck. I also been treating him with the cream until I can stick him under a black light and see if it glows. If it does, bingo! It's ringworm. Also, Marina (long-haired kitty) has some fur missing again on her ears, so she's going under the light too. I got some Hexidine shampoo from Sandie who swears by it. Hopefully this will help control the number of lesions he gets. My american curl, Carly is also itching so anything is possible. Keep your fingers crossed. Good luck to you.
 

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Oh that darn ringworm can be so infectious! I actually got it myself twice
 
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harriet

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There has been some new research that proves the drug in Program Flea Control, lufenuron, eliminates ringworm. Just given in the original monthly doses. I will try to send the papers to this forum. It has to be Program though, because the others have another ingredient in them that is not safe for pregnant or young cats.

[Edited by Harriet on 01-04-2001 at 09:21 AM]
 
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harriet

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Here is the article, i hope....

Use of Lufenuron (Program) for treating fungal infections
of dogs and cats:

297 Cases (1997-1999) Excerpts taken from article in JAVMA, Vol 217, No 10,
November 15, 20000

Objective-To evaluate use of Luferuron for treating cutaneous fungal infections in dogs and cats.
Design-- Retrospective Study Procedure-Medical records were reviewed for dogs and cats that has been treated for dermatophytosis for other fungal infections by
administration of lufenuron and 18 dogs and 42 cats that were not treated and served as a control group

Results-Dogs were treated once by oral administration of
lufenuron tablets at doses ranging from 54.2 to 68.3 mg/kg (24.6 to 31.0 mg/lb of body weight.

Samples of skin, scrapings, and hair were obtained daily
from 14 dogs with dermatophytosis: mean duration from time of treatment to time of negative fungal culture results and resolution of gross lesions were 14.5 and 20.75 days, respectively. In all treated dogs, gross lesions resolved within approx 21 days. Cats were treated once by oral
administration of lufenuron suspension in doses ranging from 51.2 to 266 mg/kg (23.3 to 120.9 mg/lb.

Samples were obtained daily from 23 cats: mean durations
from time of treatment to time of negative fungal culture results and resolution of gross lesions were 8.3 and 12 days, respectively. Time to resolution of lesions in most untreated control animals was approximately 90 days.
Adverse effects of treatment were not detected.

Conclusions and clinical relevance.
Results of this study suggests that lufenuron provided an effective, convenient and rapid method of treating fungal infections in dogs and cats. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2000:217:1510-1513

Dermatophytes are classified on the basis of their
morphologic characteristics and include morphologic characteristics and include Microsporum, Trichophyton, and Epidermophyton spp all of which are pathogenic for humans and animals. Three species, M canis, M gypseum and T mentagrophytes cause most clinical cases of
dermatophytosis in dogs and cats.

Microsporum canis is the most common cause of ringworm and
is transmitted from cats and dogs to humans. Spontaneous remission of dermatophytosis in companion animals often occurs within 1 to 3 months, whereas treatment is undertaken to reduce transmission to other animals,
including human, and eradicate the infection.

Dermatomycoses that affect companion animals include nondermatophytic superficial fungal infections with organisms such as Aspergillus, Candida, Malassezia and trichosporon spp. Traditionally, fungal infections have been treated with griseofulvin and ketoconazole.

Lufenuron is classified as an insect development
inhibitor because of its ability to inhibit citin ( a poly-mer of n-acetylglucosamine) synthesis, polymerization, and deposition. It is used in veterinary medicine as a flea
control treatment, administered orally once per month.

Results:
357 dogs and cats met study criteria, Sixty animals were
untreated control and 297 animals with fungal infections had been treated with lufenuron. 71 were males, and 88 were females. 145 of these cats were mixed-breeds, 8 were Siamese, 7 were Persians, 1 was an Angora, and 1 was a
Himalayan. Ages ranged from 2 to 128 months (mean, 16.2 + - 16 months) and body weight ranged from 0.55 to 5 kg {1.2 to 11 lb; mean 3.1 + - l.l kg (6.8 = - 2.4 >lbs}).

One hundred fifty-six cats were infected with M canis and 18 of these cats had generalized infection. Three cats were infected with T mentagrophytes. Lesions were located on the head and neck (n=136), limbs (10) trunk (7), and tail (6).

In these treated cats, hair started to regrow after 5 or 6
days, and full growth was usually completed within 10 to 12 days. Mean clinical recovery time was 11.6 =m - 1.4 days. Of the 18 cats with generalized M canis infection, 14 recovered within 10 days, 2 recovered within 11 days, and 1
recovered within 14 days. One 2 month old Persian kitten
did not recover, even after 20 days.

Of the 23 cats examined individually on a daily basis by use of fungal culture, mycological cure was detected within 7 to 14 days (mean, 8.3 =- 1.2 days), whereas clinical recovery was complete within 10 to 15 days (mean, 12 =- 1.8 days). In one cat, positive culture results were obtained again 35 days after treatment; a second treatment was administered, and negative culture results were obtained for the next 8 weeks. Three cats again developed clinical signs of infection several weeks after initial remission of clinical signs; M canis was cultured from the lesions, and the cats responded well to a second treatment of lufenuron.


Discussion
Results of the study reported here indicated that
dermatophytosis persisted for 2 to 3 months in untreated animals, whereas dogs and cats that were treated with lufenuron has remission of clinical signs much more rapidly: approximately 10 to 15 days for cats and 16 to 25 days for dogs.
Furthermore, mean recovery times of dogs affected by superficial dermatomycoses were quite similar. Evaluation of results of daily mycological culture of specimens from 16 treated dogs and 23 treated cats permitted a comparison of mycological cure and clinical recovery times in these animals. In all instances, culture results were negative before clinical signs had disappeared. Differences in duration between these 2 findings ranged from 1 to 19 days for dogs and 1 to 5 days for cats.

Lufenuron appeared not to have adverse effects. Kittens that weighed as little as 0.5 kg received an entire tube (133mg) of the drug equivalent to a dose of 266 mg/kg, which is considerably larger that that typically administered for flea control, with no apparent adverse effects.

Nevertheless, approximately 5% of treated animals became
reinfected including 1 dog and 1 cat that were monitored daily by use of fungal culture. Infections reappeared at 25 to 35 days after treatment, respectively, and were successfully treated with a second dose of lufenuron.

It is not known whether these animals has become reinfected by natural exposure or were latently infected despite treatment. Nevertheless, oral administration of lufenuron appears to be effective treatment for certain cutaneous fungal infections in dogs and cats.


For a complete reading of this article refer to JAVMA,
Vol 217, No 10, November 15,2000
 
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harriet

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Here is the second article sent to me. It tries to explain the first one!!
..

Carol Johnson, DVM has written this excellent summary of
the article on using the flea control product, Program, to treat ringworm.
> --Lorraine


Science and the Breeder: Ringworm and Lufenuron by Carol
W. Johnson, DVM PhD

Microsporum canis, the most common cause of ringworm, is a
parasitic fungus that is highly adapted to cats. Once introduced into a cattery, ringworm can rapidly spread and can infect most or all of the cats in a cattery before the breeder is aware that there even is a problem. In an infected cattery, the lesions often appear to resolve in adult cats after several months and kittens often will no longer show lesions as they approach maturity. In most cases, however, these cats still harbor low levels of
fungus and serve to infect the kittens that are born into a cattery. Ringworm can also infect humans. While ringworm infections tend to be self-limiting in most adults, children and immunosuppressed individuals may develop severe infections that may take weeks or months to eradicate.

One elderly woman told me of suffering for months after her children surprised her with a purebred kitten to provide companionship during her post-kidney transplant convalescence. The kitten carried ringworm and the poor woman developed huge skin sores and lost her hair. She became quite ill from the antifungal treatment, then almost lost her transplanted kidney during the effort to get rid of the fungal infection. Children, also, can get very severe lesions and ringworm infections of the head are considered to be fairly serious by pediatricians.

Some of the biggest impediments to all catteries becoming
ringworm-free has been the expense of treatment and the limited safety of the less expensive drugs.

Griseofulvin (Fulvicin) is inexpensive and moderately effective against ringworm, but causes severe neutropenia and immunosuppression that can be fatal in up to 10% of the treated cats. Itraconazole (Sporonox) is much more effective and safer, but can cost up to $200 to treat a
cat. Those of us who claim a ringworm-free cattery have often had to spend thousands of dollars to maintain that status and treatment of a large cattery is often beyond the economic ability of some breeders.

However, an exciting recent article [Ben-Ziony Y, Arzi B. Use of lufenuron for treating fungal infections of dogs and cats: 297 cases (1997-1999) JAVMA 217(10) (Nov 15) 2000] describes what may prove to be an economically viable treatment and prevention for ringworm. A veterinarian in Israel noted that dogs and cats treated with lufenuron for flea prevention did not appear to develop ringworm, even though they were not being treated for ringworm. Lufenuron (sold in the US by Novartis under the brand name PROGRAM) is a chitin synthetase inhibitor used for flea control. Chitin is a structural molecule in the exoskeleton of insects and their eggs. After administration, lufenuron sequesters in the fat and is slowly released into blood where it is ingested by a female flea.

The drug then interferes with the production of chitin in
the eggs, which leads to the eggs drying out after they are laid. Chitin is not found in mammalian tissues, but is a structural component of the fungal cell wall.

Thus, this drug does not appear to affect mammalian enzymes and as a result has had an excellent safety record when used according to its product insert.

The Israeli clinic systematically tested lufenuron in
ringworm-infected cats and dogs. Over the 2-year period, they treated 201 cats and followed 23 on a daily basis. Most cats treated with lufenuron doses ranging from 51.2 to 266 mg/kg (23.1 to 120.9 mg/lb) cultured negative for ringworm in 8.3 days and began growing hair in 12 days. Four cats either cultured positive for ringworm or developed lesions again but responded well after a second treatment. None of the cats showed signs of toxicity.

I had some concerns regarding the safety of this treatment because the article used between 5 and 20 times the recommended dose used to treat fleas, so I called Novartis' Customer Service line and spoke with a veterinarian. He reported that Novartis had no information on the use of lufenuron for ringworm and the article took the company by surprise. Because this is off-label use, he can not recommend the drug for this indication.

However, Novartis is very excited about the article and its potential. We extensively discussed the safety data Novartis had performed for registration, and then I reviewed the safety data on the FDA website made possible through the Freedom of Information Act. Safety studies in both dogs and cats showed the drug had a wide margin of safety. Reproduction studies were performed in dogs and cats and lufenuron did not to cause toxicity or congenital defects at the doses tested.

Because this is off-label use and one article does not
prove efficacy or safety, I can not recommend lufenuron for the treatment of ringworm in cats. However, for those breeders determined to try it, I have some suggestions.

Lufenuron is sold under the brand name PROGRAM. SENTINEL
also contains lufenuron, but in addition contains milbemycin, which may be toxic when given at the overdoses suggested by the article. So do NOT use SENTINEL for ringworm. Lufenuron comes as a tablet, a suspension, or as
an injectable. The injectable lasts 6 months, but can leave a lump (granuloma) at the injection site, and this may be a consideration for show cats.

Novartis found that the tablet appears to have better efficacy than the suspension. I have not used PROGRAM, but understand that some cats do not like the taste of the suspension, so this may be a consideration when treating some cats.

If you are going to try it to see if it works on a few
cats, try to keep them separate from other ringworm- infected cats. Ringworm, like many parasitic organisms, can become drug resistant and it will do neither the breeder nor the rest of the cat fancy any good to develop Lufenuron resistant ringworm.

Similarly, once the decision to treat a cattery is made, break down, bite the bullet, and treat the whole cattery and not just a few cats. Couple treatment of cats with physically cleaning the cattery to get rid of the spores so the cats are not reinfected.

Getting rid of the problem will be cheaper in the long run than living with it and will be much less likely to generate resistant forms. Plan to treat once monthly for 2 to 3 months to make sure it is really gone. Yes, the article had good success after one treatment, but a cattery situation is very different than the average pet household.

If it works please let other breeders know! Me? I currently have a ringworm-free cattery. But I sometimes show adjacent to cats that have ringworm lesions (yes, I notice those things) and have, on occasion, brought ringworm home from the shows. So I will probably treat my show cats with the lufenuron dose recommended for fleas. At those doses it is
unlikely to hurt the cats and may help keep them from bringing ringworm home.
 

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That's very interesting! I edited the posts a litle bit to make them more readable.

Maybe I'll try and find that vet and ask him about the research.

Thanks for posting the info.
 

kittykittysick

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my new persian has ringworm, how long does it take for the cat to no longer be contageous after beign on oral medications?
 

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When I first got Trinity, I had a LONG fight with ringworm. I guess she came home from the humane society with it but it took me about two weeks to find it. She also came home with an upper respiratory inspection so I had bigger worries. I ended up getting it from her pretty bad. My vet suggested something that is somewhat unconventional but that he has seen success with. He told me to give her garlic. Yes I know garlic is bad for cats, and he did warn me about the possible bad side effects. He told me about how he used to work in a shelter and apparently when they would get in a bad case of ringworm, they would dose the cats with garlic. Over the five years that he worked there, he said he never saw any cat have any bad effects from this and it does seem to clear up the ringworm. He suggested that I go get the dietary supplements of garlic and add some to her food. I only gave her a few doses, each time emptying the contents of the gel tab into her food. I am not 100% positive that this is what made her ringworm clear up but I do know that it was within just a few days that I started seeing a major improvement.
 
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