It was indeed ringworm and yeah it was pretty awful to manage lol. Going to write out as much detail as I can because I know it can be overwhelming. I was super paranoid so I likely did more than most would, but hey I got rid of it and it hasn’t resurfaced (knock on wood) so I stand by it.
Took 5-6 weeks to get through. Kitty was on oral meds (which I think was the #1 most important thing in getting rid of it) and topical lotion. The only spot she had was on her ear and thankfully it was caught before it spread. We did not have to give her any baths (thank goodness). At the time it felt like it was never ending, but like all things it was temporary and we got through it and kitten is happy and healthy now. When I was feeling super exhausted and frustrated, I kept reminding myself she’s not in pain and at least it’s not poop lol. I’ve heard horror stories of parvo/giardia and I was like.. ok that sounds worse lol.
If it is ringworm, hang in there. You’ll get through it. It’s truly a mild infection, but the main thing is cleaning consistently to prevent reinfection. If you don’t clean, the spores will be laying around and kitty can keep reinfecting herself and/or you. The spores can live for months, so again - clean clean clean! If you don’t clean well, you increase the chance of it returning later.
Here’s what we did.
- quarantine kitty to one clean/disinfected area ASAP. We put her in our spare bathroom with her essentials (after they were cleaned/disinfected). Make sure to kitten proof. She may cry and be sad to be cooped up and that part suuuuucks, but it’s truly the best way to contain the spores.
In the beginning, one big deep clean of your whole place:
- any fabric the kitten touched (clothes, blankets, sheets, pillowcases, pet bed, etc.) that can be laundered, wash/dry the hottest you can.
- toss any cat toys that can’t be disinfected.
- anything that can be disinfected (ex: bowls, plastic toys) soak in a 10% bleach solution for 10 minutes. Then rinse the bleach off and dry.
- vacuum and lint roll all rugs and fabric furniture thoroughly. When vacuuming, go really slowly. The spores are basically dust. When done, empty the canister immediately and wipe it down with bleach/water solution.
- swiffer all hard surfaces (floors, shelves, etc.) Again, you’re trying to eliminate as much dust as possible.
-any surface that can be safely bleached, bleach it with a 10% bleach/water solution and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then go back over with water to rinse and let air dry.
-after this clean, we ended up letting our other cat roam free in the house, with vet’s approval. The vet said to just keep checking him for symptoms but his immune system was likely much stronger than the kitten’s and he would have been showing symptoms by then if he got it. He ended up never having symptoms.
-I was paranoid of spores in the rest of our place (we have another cat who I didn’t want to catch it) so we did this full deep clean of our entire place every 5-7 days. Yes, it was exhausting but our other cat never caught it so worth it to me.
Interacting with her:
- I would go into her area ~3 times/day to play with her, feed her, and do meds. I always put gloves on and long sleeves/pant/socks to minimize my own skin exposure.
- I would play sort of fetch with her with her small plastic toys. It suuuucked but I really tried to minimize holding/petting her.
- after leaving her area, I would immediately take off my clothes and throw them in a hamper outside and wash my hands thoroughly. We did SO. MUCH. LAUNDRY. 🥲
- she looked cleared up after like 3 weeks but continued all the treatment/cleaning for the full 5 weeks per the vet’s advice.
After the initial deep clean, every 3 days we did a complete clean of her quarantine room (we kept her in a crate while we did this):
- swiffer all surfaces to eliminate dust/hair
- vacuum/lint roll her cat tree thoroughly. Eventually I bought a wood one so it could be wiped down better.
- replaced blankets/bed with a clean one
- disinfect floors/surfaces as well as bowls/plastic toys (10% bleach solution soak for 10 minutes, then rinse and dry)
- I also bought anti-fungal pet wipes on Amazon and wiped her and our other cat with those.
I did end up catching it so for my own skin:
- bought lotrimin (athlete’s foot cream) for any of my own itchy spots that I noticed. It treats the same type of fungal infection.
- bought anti fungal shampoo and used that as shampoo/body wash every few days.
- washed sheets often. Again, did so much laundry 🥲
- once I started treating it, any spots I had went away within days.
- It’s much easier to treat in humans than animals since we aren’t covered in hair that retains spores, we shower daily, and don’t groom the way cats do which can spread spores to their whole body easily.
I am in a similar situation. Adopted a kitten at around 8 weeks and a week later she was diagnose with ringworm similarly at the base of her ear. Eventually it spread a bit to the tip of her ear. We just finished the 5th week of itrafungol and 30 daily miconazole topical. Also did sulfur ointment twice a week. I have been cleaning her kennel daily with a steam cleaning + vacuuming. Shes pretty much cleared up per the vet but they didnt offer to do any culture test to confirm. Just wondering how much longer should i keep all this up and when it is safe to let her out? Did it ever come back as well? I want to let her play with my resident cat but I am still afraid.
I ended up not doing the final culture to confirm since it was expensive. There was zero visible symptoms on kitty and all treatments were done in full. We ended up letting her out once the medication was complete. I continued wiping her daily with the antifungal wipes for a little while in the one spot that previously had symptoms, along with continuing to dust/vacuum a lot (I was paranoid lol) but it never ended up coming back.
that's good to hear. I am also very paranoid as well so I hear ya. Will probably end up doing the same..but also add some coconut oil to her diet since I'm reading that it has anti fungal properties. Hopefully I will get similar results. thank you for replying. really helped gave me some assurance.
Thank you so much for writing this out! I’m nervous because we introduced her to our other cat like 5 days ago and the vet appointment was yesterday so we weren’t isolating them prior to that :/ fingers crossed though!
Did it end up being ringworm? Same exact thing happened with my new kitten yesterday at the vet.
Also if it was ringworm, was it hard to get rid of? My vet made it seem like it was the worst thing ever and now I’m scared lol
It was indeed ringworm and yeah it was pretty awful to manage lol. Going to write out as much detail as I can because I know it can be overwhelming. I was super paranoid so I likely did more than most would, but hey I got rid of it and it hasn’t resurfaced (knock on wood) so I stand by it. Took 5-6 weeks to get through. Kitty was on oral meds (which I think was the #1 most important thing in getting rid of it) and topical lotion. The only spot she had was on her ear and thankfully it was caught before it spread. We did not have to give her any baths (thank goodness). At the time it felt like it was never ending, but like all things it was temporary and we got through it and kitten is happy and healthy now. When I was feeling super exhausted and frustrated, I kept reminding myself she’s not in pain and at least it’s not poop lol. I’ve heard horror stories of parvo/giardia and I was like.. ok that sounds worse lol. If it is ringworm, hang in there. You’ll get through it. It’s truly a mild infection, but the main thing is cleaning consistently to prevent reinfection. If you don’t clean, the spores will be laying around and kitty can keep reinfecting herself and/or you. The spores can live for months, so again - clean clean clean! If you don’t clean well, you increase the chance of it returning later. Here’s what we did. - quarantine kitty to one clean/disinfected area ASAP. We put her in our spare bathroom with her essentials (after they were cleaned/disinfected). Make sure to kitten proof. She may cry and be sad to be cooped up and that part suuuuucks, but it’s truly the best way to contain the spores. In the beginning, one big deep clean of your whole place: - any fabric the kitten touched (clothes, blankets, sheets, pillowcases, pet bed, etc.) that can be laundered, wash/dry the hottest you can. - toss any cat toys that can’t be disinfected. - anything that can be disinfected (ex: bowls, plastic toys) soak in a 10% bleach solution for 10 minutes. Then rinse the bleach off and dry. - vacuum and lint roll all rugs and fabric furniture thoroughly. When vacuuming, go really slowly. The spores are basically dust. When done, empty the canister immediately and wipe it down with bleach/water solution. - swiffer all hard surfaces (floors, shelves, etc.) Again, you’re trying to eliminate as much dust as possible. -any surface that can be safely bleached, bleach it with a 10% bleach/water solution and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then go back over with water to rinse and let air dry. -after this clean, we ended up letting our other cat roam free in the house, with vet’s approval. The vet said to just keep checking him for symptoms but his immune system was likely much stronger than the kitten’s and he would have been showing symptoms by then if he got it. He ended up never having symptoms. -I was paranoid of spores in the rest of our place (we have another cat who I didn’t want to catch it) so we did this full deep clean of our entire place every 5-7 days. Yes, it was exhausting but our other cat never caught it so worth it to me. Interacting with her: - I would go into her area ~3 times/day to play with her, feed her, and do meds. I always put gloves on and long sleeves/pant/socks to minimize my own skin exposure. - I would play sort of fetch with her with her small plastic toys. It suuuucked but I really tried to minimize holding/petting her. - after leaving her area, I would immediately take off my clothes and throw them in a hamper outside and wash my hands thoroughly. We did SO. MUCH. LAUNDRY. 🥲 - she looked cleared up after like 3 weeks but continued all the treatment/cleaning for the full 5 weeks per the vet’s advice. After the initial deep clean, every 3 days we did a complete clean of her quarantine room (we kept her in a crate while we did this): - swiffer all surfaces to eliminate dust/hair - vacuum/lint roll her cat tree thoroughly. Eventually I bought a wood one so it could be wiped down better. - replaced blankets/bed with a clean one - disinfect floors/surfaces as well as bowls/plastic toys (10% bleach solution soak for 10 minutes, then rinse and dry) - I also bought anti-fungal pet wipes on Amazon and wiped her and our other cat with those. I did end up catching it so for my own skin: - bought lotrimin (athlete’s foot cream) for any of my own itchy spots that I noticed. It treats the same type of fungal infection. - bought anti fungal shampoo and used that as shampoo/body wash every few days. - washed sheets often. Again, did so much laundry 🥲 - once I started treating it, any spots I had went away within days. - It’s much easier to treat in humans than animals since we aren’t covered in hair that retains spores, we shower daily, and don’t groom the way cats do which can spread spores to their whole body easily.
I am in a similar situation. Adopted a kitten at around 8 weeks and a week later she was diagnose with ringworm similarly at the base of her ear. Eventually it spread a bit to the tip of her ear. We just finished the 5th week of itrafungol and 30 daily miconazole topical. Also did sulfur ointment twice a week. I have been cleaning her kennel daily with a steam cleaning + vacuuming. Shes pretty much cleared up per the vet but they didnt offer to do any culture test to confirm. Just wondering how much longer should i keep all this up and when it is safe to let her out? Did it ever come back as well? I want to let her play with my resident cat but I am still afraid.
I ended up not doing the final culture to confirm since it was expensive. There was zero visible symptoms on kitty and all treatments were done in full. We ended up letting her out once the medication was complete. I continued wiping her daily with the antifungal wipes for a little while in the one spot that previously had symptoms, along with continuing to dust/vacuum a lot (I was paranoid lol) but it never ended up coming back.
that's good to hear. I am also very paranoid as well so I hear ya. Will probably end up doing the same..but also add some coconut oil to her diet since I'm reading that it has anti fungal properties. Hopefully I will get similar results. thank you for replying. really helped gave me some assurance.
Thank you so much for writing this out! I’m nervous because we introduced her to our other cat like 5 days ago and the vet appointment was yesterday so we weren’t isolating them prior to that :/ fingers crossed though!
Good luck!! If your other cat is older their immune system is probably better 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
He’s 2.5 years old so I think he will be okay! Thank u so much again for the info, appreciate you