# Ringworm?!



## Hope Love Beauty (Apr 6, 2008)

Hi everyone!

I am so distraught right now. I have had my kitten for a week and I think he has ringworm! I took him to the vet on monday and we noticed a little black dot on Aiden's ear, which has grown astronomically. 

I called her back today and she said that if it is ringworm that we will have to do a lime sulphur dip and the little guy is going to have to be shaved. Its so depressing!

Here are some pictures of the spots. What do you all think!?









This is the first picture I have of the spot. I noticed it the day after I brought the little guy home. Its small, but there. It was sort of scabby looking or like a bruise.










This picture I took last night. The uppermost encircled area shows the biggest welt on little Aiden's skin. It is a big, crusty black area with little hair around it. This was a little dot at first, but has grown astronomically in the few days hes been here with me. The dot right below this one just started to show about 2 days ago. Its much lighter and smaller than the other,but something tells me it will continue to grow. The third circle I marked shows a hairless area I discovered last night. Its shown in more detail below.










It is small, but there are three little scaly dots on his skin right there. There is no hair growing in the area surrounding it.

So... Im pretty sure I have a ringworm infected kitten on my hands. Unless you all think it looks like something else. Im going to go back to my vet on Monday to have him dipped/shaven, which will cost me about $305.... ugh! 

Does anyone know of things I should do in the meantime. Ive read online that I will basically have to tear my house apart with cleaning supplies, which Im not too excited about. But it must be done! Anything else?!


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## HersheysKiss (Apr 12, 2007)

To me it just looks like your kitten has been scratching his ear a little to hard. Especially the one not on the ear. It lookes more like a line than a circular pattern from the picture. But then again the scratching could be because the spots on the ear itch. 

I had a cat with ringworm years ago and they did a skin scraping and culture to diagnose it. Unfortuanelty at that point we already knew it was ringworm because I got it as well as my husband. The vet just gave me some anti fungal medication in a pill form and a topical to put on the affected area. My cat was also a long haired cat.

Have they done a skin scraping to diagnose that it is truely ringworm?


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

I would have a culture done before you spend all that on shaving and dipping. The culture will take two or three weeks. In the meantime, you can treat it with a topical anti-fungal if you want -- mitroconazole (sp?) -- which isn't terribly effective, but isn't terribly expensive either.

Ringworm really isn't panic city as some make it out to be. Frankly, it's often self-limiting. There are ringworm spores all about us in the environment all the time, so the extreme cleaning you think you need to do is a bit over-the-top, in my opinion. Cats most often contract ringworm when their defenses are compromised by somethiing else; perhaps something like the stress of going to a new home.

Those spots look very much like something my Mellie comes down with periodically. I had all the tests done the first time around; all were negative. Though I suspect she might be prone to mange, as when she had it the first time, its disappearance coincided roughly with her first dose of Revolution in the spring. And each time she's had it since the first time it's been less and less.

It is a little troublesome how fast those spots developed; it may very well be ringworm. But I'd do the culture before spending all that money on the dip. What you can do in the meantime is -- if you can find one small enough to fit a kitten -- is put on an e-collar to prevent scratching. Just in case that's the real cause.


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## Hope Love Beauty (Apr 6, 2008)

They did take some hairs from the first spot and are growing a culture. I will not know for another week though and the vet told me to call if it got bigger/spread. So, I did and she says that it sounds like that is what it is. She wants to actually SEE him before doing the dipping though to confirm it.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

OK. I'd recommend waiting for the culture. A vet can't diagnose ringworm by visual examination.


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## Hope Love Beauty (Apr 6, 2008)

I suppose I should. Still, I am just worried about it spreading even more. It only took a week to go from one tiny area to three bigger ones. I guess the worry wart mom in me is thinking "OH CRAP!!! MUST FIX ASAP!"


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Ya, I know. All of us feel the same when our cats aren't well. There is a blacklight test which will show instantly ONE strain of ringworm fungus. Perhaps you could ask your vet to do that if it hasn't been done yet. The way that works is that if that particular strain is present, then it glows under the blacklight. So if you get a glow, then you've got a positive. However, if there's no glow, then you do NOT have a negative.


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## OsnobunnieO (Jun 28, 2004)

doesn't really strike me as ringwormy looking. Usually its more of a hairless area, sometimes crusty. Those just looks like your kitten has been scratching.

Won't hurt to have it cultured and it may turn out to be ringworm, but I wouldn't be worried about it just yet.

Also, there are MANY options other than the lyme dips. Oral antifungals, topicals and shampoos (NOT the dip) all seem to work really well. I've never actually seen a pet who has had to resort to the dips because they didn't respond to any of the other treatments we've tried.


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## Hope Love Beauty (Apr 6, 2008)

Well, the areas are crusty and hairless... I guess it is hard to tell in the pictures, but the discolored dots are actually scabs. The third picture i posted with the little brown dots have very little hair around them and the little there is seems to be very thin. I might try to get pictures that are closer up than what I provided. 

Can you give me some names of the antifungals, topicals, and shampoos that seem to work? I can bring it up with me vet.


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## drjean (Jan 6, 2004)

Topical: miconazole (any athlete's foot cream will work)
Shampoo: chlorhexidine (Nolvasan)
Oral meds: ketoconazole, itraconazole, griseofulvin

It does not take a week for the culture; 3 days max. Since the lesions are (so far) confined to the ears, you might want to use the topical until you get the results. Concentrate on the outer edges of the lesions, ringworm starts in the middle and grows outwards, just like a fairy ring in the lawn. The actively growing fungus is on the edges.

If the lesions spread to other areas--especially areas that he could lick--then more aggressive treatment is needed. However, in practice, while I saw LOTS of ringworm, I never had to resort to the lime-sulfur dip. It is way too nasty, none of us wanted to do it!

Ringworm is self-limiting to a large extent, but it can take a while. I had a kitten who gave it to my older cats (and me!). It took the old girls a full year to be completely free of lesions. They were never uncomfortable so I never had to get aggressive about it.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

drjean said:


> It does not take a week for the culture; 3 days max. .


Sorry, but MY vet would disagree with this. She would say that a definitive positive could be achieved in _as little as three days_ but a definitive negative could not be achieved unless the culture was grown out to three weeks. And that's where I got my information from. And that's what they did with Mellie's culture. I'll gladly provide the clinic number if you'd like to discuss it with her.


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## drjean (Jan 6, 2004)

In *practical* terms, the result that matters is that initial positive, because then you know to start treatment. 

When I was in practice I kept the cultures for 3 weeks, but if the media didn't turn red in the first few days, I didn't have to worry about ringworm. After that, other airborne fungi will grow, and while they are entertaining in a gross sort of way, they aren't ringworm!


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

drjean said:


> In *practical* terms, ....


I guess that's why it's called a "practice" ... with practice you learn to know when to go by the book and when not. :lol: 

I should mention that my vet called before two weeks was up and said nothing had grown yet....though she did keep the culture for the full three weeks.


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## Hope Love Beauty (Apr 6, 2008)

Dr. Jean,
Ill try to get a topical cream tonight at the grocery store. Hopefully that will help in the meantime til I get to the vets office again this upcoming Monday. Also, in your opinion does this look like ringworm?! Im just curious if its like what youve seen before...


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## drjean (Jan 6, 2004)

It's really hard to tell from photos, but it looks like it could be ringworm, and is certainly behaving that way. Typically it is a flat, bald spot with grayish flakey skin. However, as was very correctly pointed out, you can't tell just by looking...although if you've seen dozens of cases, you can make a pretty good guess. (Or unless it is on your own arm, is perfectly round, bright red, has a raised ring around the edge, and itches like the devil--then you know for sure! Ack!!) :lol: Fortunately it doesn't seem to be half as annoying to the cats!


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## Hope Love Beauty (Apr 6, 2008)

Gotcha. I took some better pictures of it today. Not that it helps because as you said you cannot tell just by looking at pictures, but still. I figured it could not hurt.










































I know theyre random sizes, but I just cropped out the parts of the photo that showed what I was talking about. Also, in the last picture you can definitely see the difference between Aiden's fully covered ear and the patchy, balding one.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Oh, yes, you can definitely see the roundness in those pictures. Much better pictures. I didn't see that at all in Mellie's case.


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## The_saints (Mar 16, 2008)

The best way to tell ring worm from the eye is touch
I had a cat have hair loss and thought that what is was.
My vet said when I took her in look at it it does look like it but touch it
rimgworm does look and feel like a ring even on cats 
touch the main spot and if it feel crusty and feel like a perfect circle then you probly have ringworm if not it could be something else but have them do a culture to make sure my cat turned out to have a nervous habbit
And you will most likly get it if it is ring worm


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## drjean (Jan 6, 2004)

The only way to *know* if it is ringworm is either by culture or by Woods lamp (if it is the particular strain that fluoresces). Other methods, or simply experience seeing hundreds of them, will give you a clue, but not a diagnosis.


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## nanook (Jun 12, 2005)

I don't know what to tell you about the ringworm other than what others have said but... what a beautiful kitty you've got there! :heart


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## Hope Love Beauty (Apr 6, 2008)

Hi! Its been awhile guys. I just remembered I created this thread. Anyways, in case anyone was wondering little Aiden did have ringworm. He had 3 lime sulfur treatments which cleared it all up for us. =)


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Good to hear. Thanks for the update.


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