Ringworm Diaries

[MaineFLoon]

Hello all. New to the forums.

So to jump right into it, a few weeks ago I picked up 2 new Maine Coon kittens from a breeder. I knew prior to getting them they'd been treated for ringworm, and I waited until they had a negative culture to pick them up.


So I immediately quarantined them pending a negative culture from my own vet. Unfortunately that came back positive for one of the cats.


It was during this time I noticed one of them was panting after heavy play. Having never seen that before I took her in immediately. She had an x-ray and at the end of that they diagnosed her with lungworm - indirectly as they hadn't actually tested for lungworm. So she was to begin steroid treatments to deal with any lung inflamation. Which also meant her immune system wouldn't be as good at battling the ringworm, and also meant I couldn't begin the lime sulfur dips.


Flash forward about a week, I took her in for a second opinion from a specialist I trust very much. He said she was perfectly healthy, nothing wrong with the lungs, but at least 5-7 of her ribs had been broken (prior to me receiving her) and her panting was likely due to pain and being out of shape. Stop the steroids, begin lime sulfur dips immediately.


But by this point she's got little ringworm spots popping up all up and down her back. And now the other cat has it too. Sweet!


So far nobody else in the house has developed ringworm. I use a hazmat suit to deal with them during the day. We've started the lime sulfur dips, but I'm starting to lose the faith. I took them to get a culture done last week. Of corse it showed up positive for both, which I expected, but it's still demoralizing.

My treatment for the past few weeks has been:
* Every 7 days, dip.
* Vacuum carpet, bleach the bathroom
* repeat

Now after this culture I'm moving up to twice a week, and vacuuming and bleaching daily. But I'd like some advice from those of you who have lived this nightmare.

Even though we're pouring the lime sulfur solution over them, it doesn't really feel like it's getting fully to their skin. I mean their fur is designed to be resistant, but I'm paranoid that I'm wasting my time by not even getting most of the solution to the skin. Is there a better way to apply the solution to ensure it's soaking them to the skin?

Also, should I confine them to the bathroom during the entire next month to ensure they aren't re-contaminated from the carpet? The vet says that's extreme and re-contamination is not so easy by just encountering a spore in the carpet, after all we encounter spores daily outside, but like I said - paranoid.

Help? Happy thoughts?

[jckkerrison]

What a shame you should have such a rough start with your babes but also that poor little thing having ribs broken,how did the breeder explain that one.....?
I haven't experienced ringworm with any of my animals but working at a vets know people who have & I know it takes a while to clear I also know we have the type of cats whose coats are harder to deal with,before you spray babes{thats how we recommend you do it} rub their coats up the wrong way & wet them from the base back up or yep agree you really won't be getting to the bottom of things if you just spray on top & try to rub it in & no wouldn't confine them either because you still have to treat house their bedding etc while they have it so why make them miserable & agree with the vet there but can understand how you feel also but as long as you wash your hands etc after handling them {which you would do anyway because of pure hygiene even if they didn't have this} you should be fine,in fact the only time I can remember anyone in a household also having ringworm was when it turned out they had actually passed it on to the animal not the other way round so try & relax know it will get better especially if you can get them sprayed properly & look forward to negative cultures coming back.....xxx

[Weasel]

Having had something similar with an Old English Sheepdog, and having caught ringworm myself a few years back and knowing how hard it us to shift, could I suggest something radical?
As they are still kittens, and their fur grows fast, have you thought about shaving them? They would look dreadful and they would need to be kept in a warm room till they got fur back, but you would be certain the chemicals were getting to the skin. You would also be able to see all the bare skin to make sure you got all the patches.
Personally, I think turning the bathroom into kitty heaven would be a good idea, especially as you could maintain the temperature for the bald kittens more easily and you could keep the infection in one place.
What has the vet suggested doing about the ribs? Surely some pain relief at least might be possible?

i would also wear rubbed disposable gloves when handling them until they are clear, it can whizz through a family in no time, as we discovered to our cost.

[MaineFLoon]

Nobody is sure how the ribs were broken. I have no doubt it was an accident and the breeder was understandably upset to hear about it. But animals hide pain so I'm not terribly surprised it went unnoticed and written off as a personality trait. Now that she's healed she's become and even bigger terror than boy kitty.

The bathroom they're in right now is the master bath. It's quite spacious, it's not a tiny guest bathroom. I'd love them to have a larger area to run around in, but they're still small(ish) kittens so I think they'll be OK there. I just need this to be over with at this point. Even if it's unlikely for them to be reinfected from the carpet, it's a doubt I don't want to have when it takes a month to see the results of your efforts at fighting this thing.

We've decided to give them a short crop shave. Not down to the skin, but enough to make it so that we don't have to massage in the solution to ensure it's reaching the skin.

[Weasel]

If it helps, we had to take Sid two weeks early due to the breeder's Mum being very ill and the cats needing to be put into a cattery. In that 2 week period we had planned to have all the windows and doors in our house replaced ND to have a week away in a posh hotel. Sidney spent most of the time, except when we had windows in a room, in a large crate I use for sick guinea pigs! We got a bed, bowls and a small litter tray in it and the hotel were fine about having him there - they sleep so much when they are little that it sort of worked ok. We just made a massive fuss of him when he was awake. So, I think a whole bathroom will work fine. (I was glad this time, though, to have the holiday BEFORE collecting Ava as this time we went abroad!)

As for the fur, Ava is almost bald in comparison to Sid in his full coat, so a close crop won't make any appreciable difference to their quality of life, it will just make your life and medicating them easier. Also, you will have the funniest baby pictures! Sid got ear mites (or came with them) and managed to cover himself with the ear drops so he had to have a significant number of baths when he was little. I hope the after-bath and after-blow-dry picture cheers you up - they are genuinely the same kitten!

Good luck with this, it sounds a complete pain. Keep us posted!

[MaineFLoon]

We shaved both cats last night: Just their backs and sides, which is what we were spending the most time on. Didn't want to risk clipping skin in the trickier areas.

1 week into their latest cultures and they are both negative, which is hopeful. Usually by this time 'something' has started growing, but so far it's clean. Fingers crossed.