Oh, and I also want to add that his appetite, pee and poop are all normal.

 

Keep up with the cream and I would even give him a dip in a lyme sulfer solution once a week. It will take 4-6 weeks for this to clear up. I am a ring worm queen after fostering 7 babies recently with ring worm!! The cream goes on AT LEAST 2 times a day and the lyme sulfer dip (which you can buy) is done once a week. For adult cats, it is a 2 person job so get help. One to hold him, one to get the solution all over his body.

Just mix the solution in a large bucket with warm water and dip the cat in it - getting every part of his body wet. Use a sponge to get his ears wet and face wet being careful not to get it in his eyes.

Dipping is important because ringworm is a fungus spore and can migrate to his extremities like tail and paws so keep a close eye on those too. It likes the cooler skin in those areas. Ringworm is common in outdoor cats so consider doing this once a month as a preventative maintenance if you allow your cat to go outside.

 

These are available from Amazon and the dip is GREAT. The shampoo is OK.

 

our violet kitten came with ringworm and passed it to the other two kittens, it just takes some time to heal.. you have to keep up with the treatments..the dip is about the best treatment option..

 

Hi Marcia,

Thank you so much for replying. So my current progress is considered normal? I just wanna make sure I am at least moving in the right direction.

I don't think they sell the dip in my country but I will try to get my hands on it asap, even if I have to get Amazon to ship it to me internationally. I think it will take at least about a week or two though...will it be too late to dip him then?

Also, after I had dip him and use a sponge to get the solution on his ears and face, do I rinse him with warm water or just let the solution dry off itself? And do I need to use a hair dryer to dry him off? I live in a humid and warm climate and it is the rainy season now...so even my vet says that it is a common time for ringworms to develop on pets

 

My cats have just got rid of their ringworm with an antifungal clotrimazole cream called Clotrimaderm. I also used an antifungal shampoo weekly, but didn't have to resort to the lime sulphur dip. Of equal importance to using the cream twice a day, is to keep the environment very clean. Get a hospital-grade antifungal cleaner to swab the floors often, and wipe down anything the cat may come in contact with.....furniture, chairs, tables, cat carrier. I covered all my upholstered furniture with sheets but washed them every few days. Also only wear clean laundered clothes once, and wash the cat bedding (blanket/towel) in water with some bleach. You have to keep this cleaning regimen up for several months (I was told 5 mos.) after the cat no longer has any ringworm lesions, to eliminate it from the environment, as the spores from lesions are very light and easily airborne and can re-infect a cat or person (especially if their immunity is down) months or even a year later. It's a nasty thing to deal with, and I've never done so much laundry in my life! Good luck!

 

Ok. I just read the instructions on the back of the bottle at Amazon.

It says that you have to bath your cat first before using the dip?

Also the image of the bottle shown above is the 4 oz bottle...so that is only good for one use? Should I get the 16 oz bottle then?

 

Sorry I keep posting new posts but I cannot find the edit button anywhere...
The brand that Marcia recommended above is indeed not available in my country...and when I try to buy the 16 oz bottle from Amazon, the shipping cost is like 50 dollars!!!

I tried searching for other brands of lime sulfur dips that is available in my country and I found one. Is this one ok? I really cannot afford to pay such high shipping costs

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Vetoquinol-411512-Lime-Sulfur-Dip/dp/B007EH46AC[/ame]

 

You will want to shampoo her with any shampoo to get the natural oils off his coat - usually shampoo then dip in the lyme sulfer dip. NO, YOU DO NOT RINSE! The dip solution needs to dry naturally on them - it will turn them orange but will dry clear. He will have a slightly cinder (burnt wood) smell afterwards. Use a collar so they don't lick at it too, although I found the cats take a few licks then stop. It is a very nasty process but necessary (wear gloves and an apron as this stuff stains terribly. And, no, it's not too late at all. It's effective and works pretty quickly killing the spores. You will see progress when the hair starts growing back but keep up with the cream on the bald spots.

Once dipped, I put them in a carrier to dry so they don't track it all over the house. You could put a low hair dryer on them in the carrier to keep them warm. It will take several hours for it to dry.

 

Hi Christine!
Awww....poor little Snowy...
That looks like it would be very uncomfortable...
I looked at the sulfur dip you linked to, and that looks fine to get!
I hope Snowy improves quickly!
(((HUGS))) for you!
Sharon

 

Just a little update about Snowy...

We went back to the vet yesterday evening. Good news is the ringworm behind his ears has pretty much cleared up.

But bad news is it has spread to the neck now. But the spores near his neck are still quite small (the ones behind his ears were quite big), so hopefully it will clear up soon They had to shave the area around his neck so he looks quite bald now...

Also, the vet said I used too much of the ointment and thus there is a lot of flaking in his ears now...so I gotta learn to use less
I thought better more than less but it apparently backfired...

His front legs are also quite red because he keeps using them to scratch his neck apparently. The vet gave me some cream to help reduce the itchiness and redness on his legs. This was all because I like to take off his collar for a couple of hours a day coz he just seems so miserable wearing it. So now he has to wear the collar all the time

The vet also prescribed oral medication this time round. But it was so hard trying to get him to swallow the pills. This morning, it tool 3 of us to finally get him to swallow the pills and my pants got ripped in the process too. Pill pockets are not available in my country but I will try using butter to coat it first before giving it to him tonight.

To make things worse, the only pet shop that sells lime sulfur solution in my country (I've called and went to at least 10 pet shops yesterday) said that they are currently out of it. They said a new shipment will be coming in next month so I will have to wait till then

 

When I had to give my cat antibiotic pills for the 3 separate infections she had at once (typical cat) I found that the easiest method was to kneel down with her in between my legs facing away from me. She couldn't retreat because my feet were in the way, so then I could stop her from going forward by holding her neck with one hand, then tilting her head back and pushing the pill in from the side of her mouth with the other hand.

On the other hand, if you give the tablet crushed up in something, it's always much easier. If the vet says it's ok, and your cat can tolerate (and likes) cheese, we've found that a small ball of cheese with the crushed tablet inside can work wonders.

 

Well his neck is currently inflamed from all the scratching he did...so I don't think I would wanna hold his neck now.

But I did think of mixing the medicine into his wet food tonight (it's in capsule form and I can easily take it apart to mix the powder into his food). But the vet said it is really bitter though. Do you think adding maybe a bit of sugar water will help to dilute the taste?

 

Cats don't taste the same things we do. I'm pretty sure they have a very reduced capacity to taste "sweet" - in fact they may have zero ability to taste sweet, so I don't think sugar water is the way to go. It might also be harmful to give him sugar, as cats don't really metabolize sugars the way we do.

You should also never just cram a pill into a cat's mouth and force it to take the pill dry. Imagine how you would feel, trying to swallow a pill dry - that's how it feels to the cat. The pill can adhere to their esophagus and cause chemical burns. The cat can also become adept at "hiding" the pill in its mouth instead of swallowing, and will spit it out later. If you HAVE to pill a cat "dry", you should always have a syringe with water handy to squirt some water into the cat's mouth immediately after giving the pill. It's just like it is for humans - we usually take our pills with liquid.

Do you have access to soft cheese, or a cheese product like Velveeta? You can use soft cheese to make a makeshift Pill Pocket. Squish a bit up and wrap the pill in it, and make two or three other small "balls" of the cheese with no pill in them. Give your cat the cheese-pill, and then rapidly offer a few of the other cheese balls. Hopefully he'll be SO eager to snarf up the newly offered cheese balls that he won't chew the pill one and will swallow it whole - and so won't notice the pill! I do that with my cat's medication - I learned the trick here:

Pilling Cats (and Dogs) and Erosive Esophagitis Compounded Flavored Liquid Alternatives Transdermal Medications by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM

Dr. Pierson uses Pill Pockets, but I think a soft product like cheese will work as well.

You can also try opening a capsule and mixing a small amount of the powder into a small amount of wet food, and see if Snowy "notices" and refuses to eat. For many years I gave my cat her pills/supplements by mixing them into her raw food and she never really noticed, but now she's on a coated tablet that can't be crushed - so Pill Pockets it is.

Good luck!

 

Lakotawolf, thank you so much for your advice. I wished I had read it sooner
But the pill is quite big though...about an inch long...will it be too big to hide it in soft cheese? I think I will try coating it with butter next. And I will definitely have a syringe of water with me from now on.

I am really sad and stressed now. I mixed the pill with some sugar water earlier on and managed to make him swallow most of it. But Snowy seems really down now. His appetite has also decreased a lot. He barely ate his wet food just now All he do is curl up in his bed...

I wonder if it is because of the stress of making him take the pill? Up till last night, his appetite was still really good after all. I tried calling the vet to ask if I can stop giving him the pill but alas it was her day off

 

Poor baby! What an awful ordeal for all of you. Unfortunately ringworm is very common in outside cats and it can spread to people and other animals very quickly. I hope all is calm soon.

 

Marcia, Snowy in an indoor cat. I think he got the ringworm because he wasn't dried off properly in his last bath. I always call the groomer to my house and he tends to come when I am still at work. After his last bath, his fur was still quite damp when I came back from work. Plus, the weather is really humid and wet now since its the rainy season. So I think that was the cause
And luckily, I think I am immune to it since I haven't caught it yet till now.

I really wanna cry now. Snowy ate quite a bit of his wet food just now and I was so happy. I also managed to make him swallow the pill successfully by coating it with butter first this morning and about an hour ago after he had his dinner. But just a few moments ago, he actually puked
There goes his dinner...and most probably the medicine as well.
And he is all lethargic again now...

I called the vet just now to ask about the medicine and she said it is an anti-biotic to help kill the fungal infection from the inside. So she said I have to keep on giving it for at least 10 days. But I am really in a dilemma now. Snowy just seems so miserable and his appetite to eat has been really low ever since he started eating this medicine. Should I stop giving him the pill??? Can I just rely on the antifungal gel alone?

 

Marcia, Snowy in an indoor cat. I think he got the ringworm because he wasn't dried off properly in his last bath. (...)

I called the vet just now to ask about the medicine and she said it is an anti-biotic to help kill the fungal infection from the inside. So she said I have to keep on giving it for at least 10 days

My cats had ringworm when they were kittens (probably caught at the rescue), and there are a couple of things that seem a bit different to me in your case:

1. Ringworm is a fungal infection. You don't get it just because it's wet or cold. Your cat may get exposed to it e.g. from other cats, from infected surfaces, from us. If the groomer was there than you might want to ask the groomer if other cats that were groomed before had it and if the instruments were cleaned properly.
Theoretically you could bring it e.g. on your feet or hands, but unless you had contact with other animals outdoors or caught it yourself somehow, it's unlikely. It's really rare for an indoor-only cat to get Ringworm. In my case, they were infected in a shelter or rescue or during transportation from the shelter to the rescue.

3. I'd ask the vet exactly what medication is prescribed. Antibiotics work against bacteria, not against fungus. Fungal medications work against Ringworm. Traditional medication was griseofulvin, but as it caused a lot of bad side effects especially in cats, the more recent ones like Itraconazole is preferred. It carries some risks but is far safer than griseofulvin. Itraconazole is actually the most effective from what I read, but here is a caveat - while patented liquid Sporanox is very effective, it comes in human size bottles - way too much for cats and expensive, so it has to be compounded for cats. If it is compounded from human caplets, it's fine, but many pharmacies compound it from bulk chemical and in this form it's near useless, there was even a letter from one US state's veterinary board to pharmacy board to stop doing it. I think it took my cats much longer to shake ringworm because the vet didn't know it until I found the information., then she switched to fluconazole which doesn't have this problem. In Europe, there is a pet version of it - Itrafungol, so this is the most effective medication for Ringworm. It's a liquid, not pills.

There is also Fluconazole and couple of others. As far as I know they all come in doses for humans, so for cats they usually need to be compounded (or you may need to cut the pill). My vet dialed the prescription to the local compounding pharmacy which compounded it into a tuna-flavored liquid. My cats loved it - they thought it was a treat and run to me to give it to them.

At any rate - all of the anti-fungal meds as far as I know are human meds so vet clinics don't usually carry them, they give/dial prescription to human pharmacies. Since your vet had and it's not intrafungol (which is a liquid), I think you should ask the vet what exactly the medication is. I might be wrong or it might be different in your country, but I'd find out exactly what it is. The meds are usually prescribed for longer period too.

I don't know of any anti-fungal meds that come in pills and are sold by vet clinic - maybe it's just in the US. But you really should know what you are giving to your cats.

Anti-fungal medications affect the liver, so vets normally check the blood every couple of weeks to make sure it's OK.



Here is more information you may find useful:
Signs & Treatment of Ringworm Infections in Cats | VCA Animal Hospitals
There are number of conditions that mimic Ringworm, so it's not enough for the vet to just look at it. Normally they do a skin culture and/or look at it under UV light (some 60% of Ringworm glows). This slide show has a picture of various skin conditions in cats:
Cat Skin-Problem Pictures: Lice, Fleas, Ringworms, Ear Mites, and More

 

Hi there,
I'm just wondering if you've got a name of that pill, that way you (or some of us here) can look it up and see if perhaps there are othr alternatives or treatments that can help Snowy?

I'm also considering that maybe it wasn't really a bath and the dampness that caused Snowy to get ringworm, but the groomer might have used tools previously used on other cats that had ringworm but wasn't aware of it? Just something to consider, so poor Snowy isn't re-infected in the future.

 

Hi again Christine,
I unfortunately don't have anything to add...
I just want to send some (((HUGS))) your way, and some more Healing Prayers for Snowy, and don't beat yourself up over any 'mistakes', many of us have been through 'the school of hard knocks', and have had to learn from our 'oopsies'!!
Never doubt...You ARE a good pet parent!
Little Snowy, without you, would have had slim chances, on his own....
YOU have made a Huge difference in his life!!
Sharon

 

Thank you to everyone who has replied. To be honest, I was really shocked too when the vet said it was ringworm. She didn't do any culture or use a UV light. She just said it was ringworm because there were round scaly rashes behind his ears and on his neck. The ones behind his ears were quite big, but the ones on his neck were still quite small. Prior to going to the vet, I didn't notice any hair loss. It was only after we have shaved the hair behind his ears and necks were we able to see the round rashes.

The medicine I got was a compounded one. She gave me 24 pills to be taken twice daily. This is the prescription:

I live in Indonesia so some of the composition listed might not be the same as those in the US.

Even though I was really worried after he puked last night, he pooped quite a lot this morning and ate quite a lot for breakfast too! I fed him the pill again about an hour ago (I read that giving oral medication seems to be have better effect than just applying the gel) and he has yet to puke so far!!! He is sleeping now behind my couch. And his ears do seem to be doing much better this morning. I really hope he will recover soon. It just pains me to see him like this

 

Hang in there Sweetie! You'll make it!
(((HUGS)))
sharon

 

Snowy just puked again. God I really wanna cry now. Even though he ate a bit this morning, he hardly ate his dinner just now. I fed him his medicine at around 10 pm, and just now around midnight, he puked. But unlike last night where his puke was brown and mushy (which I assume was his dinner), the puke just now was orange and very liquidy. Should I just stop giving him the pill even though it seems to be working???

 

Christine,
What is the name of the medicine you're giving him??
It would really help us, to help you, and Snowy...
I'm so sorry you're both going through this...
(((HUGS)))
Sharon

 

Its the compound medicine that I posted abova Sharon. Only that one pill

 

Do you think you can ask your vet to switch over ketoconazole to something else or have the vet also prescribe an anti-emetic drug to help with Snowy's vomiting issue? Or ask the pharmacy?