Ringworm in multiple cat household - update 9/27

[Lizzie]

Thanks, everyone, for telling me about your living nightmares and rather gleefully looking forward to me posting pictures of multiple wet cats!! Well, I wondered how I was going to lose that last 10 pounds that seemed to be sitting around my middle and not wanting to budge, guess it will all go from cleaning and cat baths. I'm not going to do this alone, even though it will cost me. I know a tech who can subdue any cat and I will hire her to come and help me. I'd rather lose the money than my arms.

[jenluckenbach]

I feel SO bad for you, but I made it through and so shall you.

Program flea tablets!

1 large dog sized tablet per cat. They are palatable and 9 out of 10 will simply eat it. (broken up into about 4 pieces) Or mix with food for the subborn ones. Or just pop the pieces like any other pill.

So hopefully your ferals will enjoy the taste and just EAT it!

Wash your hands with Betadine!! Soap and water is not enough.

Bathe any cat with lesions. Malaseb shampoo once a week for a month.

[jenluckenbach]

Any type of fungal (over the counter) cream "for athelte's foot/jock itch" on all lesions twice a day for a month.

Bleach is the only cleaner that will kill the fungus/spores. So even though I understand how you feel about the smell (and believe me I DO!) bleach all hard surfaces! over and over again!

[emily_the_spoiled]

They have bleach products that don't smell like regular bleach. I wonder if those would do the trick for you?

[Lizzie]

In order to use bleach, I'd have to wear a ventilator night and day, which would scare the cats and be very uncomfortable to sleep in. I will order a grapefruit seed extract product online, it's very concentrated and I will have to hope it will work.

As I looked down at my three purchases at the PCC checkout today, I had to smile. Heavy duty cleaner to spray on the furniture and carpets. A lime (20c cheaper than a lemon) for juice to put on my ringworm. And a box of chocolate chip cookies to help me cope. Tea, cookies and PT to help me through the coming miseries and frustrations, which is much better than facing this alone.

[Reachoutrescue]

Good luck Lizzie! I am having a heck of a time here! My vet gave me Miconazole...an antifungal cream...I am almost low so I went to walgreens and picked up som Clotrimazole...generic for Lotrimin. I asked the pharmacist if it was just like Miconazole, she said yes. So you should try that. Just make sure you wear rubber gloves while appling it or when touching your cat. Trust me I know how you feel!! The vet said it can take months to heal ringworm, and it can come back. I hope you and I make it through this...unsick!

[Lizzie]

I just called my vet's office to ask the tech if she will be available to come and help me with baths and found out that they don't recommend full baths, especially on kittens, unless they have lesions all over. They scrub the area with chlorhexidine, apply a topical anti-fungal, and prescribe an oral anti-fungal.

There are two things about this that are upsetting me far more than the work, etc. One is that Cattulus will be separated from his brother for at least a month, and those two are very closely bonded. He's also an intensely loving and sociable cat, so isolation is going to be hard on him. Of course, his brother may get it too and I'm having all 3 kittens checked this afternoon.

The other is that I can't take in Beans or Leda until the house is clear.

[critters]

1 large dog sized tablet per cat. They are palatable and 9 out of 10 will simply eat it. (broken up into about 4 pieces)

LOL. My monsters didn't read that book--only 1 of them will just snarf it. The others, however, don't mind if they're crushed and mixed into canned food.

I haven't finished all the posts, but bleach is your friend!!

[doolittleky]

Lizzie, It has been so long ago when I had it with my multianiaml household that i don't remember it so clearly as the ones that have had it recently. I do remember how expensive it was for me because i had to treat all my animals( cats and dogs) with Fulvicin which is very expensive. They were on it for over a month and maybe longer. I was jsut about to see if my doctor at the time would prescribe it to me so i could get it cheaper since it was costing me so much from the vet. About that time I finally got rid of it. I also used Conafite as the topical. I was very lucky that I didn't get it when they had it because i was always rubbing my face all over them. I did have it after that once when I had a smaller outbreak and I just used the conafite on it and it went away.

Good luck. I know it is very frustrating!
Melissa

[Lizzie]

I just spent the last two hours at the vet with all three kittens then had to leave them in their carriers in my car while I set up a room for them. I feel really terrible that I had to move my frail and very elderly Ginger into a smaller bedroom, out of the room she's pretty much lived in for months. She lost her lovely long low sofa too, where she could eat as well as sleep. But I couldn't put three very active kittens in the smaller bedroom for a month, that would have been cruel also. There was no perfect solution. Anyway, I had to clean Ginger's new bedroom thoroughly first, put in new bedding and move her over. Then clean her room and set it up for the kittens.

After discussion with the vet, we decided that it was safer to treat all three kittens, even though two of them show no sign of ring worm. Better to treat them all, even though the medication can be hard on the liver, than discover just as Cattulus is almost well that the other two have signs of it. I will check all the other cats daily, looking for signs. They are all much older, so not in the most vulnerable category, and have survived years in a shelter.

Clean, treat, check and hope. Time for a cuppa and one of those cookies.

[catmandu]

Knock on Wood, noringworms at the Found Cat hotel.
Good luck with your Cats.