Ringworm treatment in cats

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Thomas Johnson — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:39:03 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Todd"]

[quote user="Thomas Johnson"]Possibly, but ringworm is self-limiting so it may just be that they got better on their own?[/quote]

True, but the art, if not the science, is "say something, do something, give something".

So in the meantime it spreads to a partner or, arguably, to a patient and YOU said do nothing......

And if it, by chance, although it only happens once in a million or whatever, it persists or spreads to the scalp then you will be condemned for doing nothing.....

[/quote]

I would never say do nothing, but there are some pretty effective treatments available over the counter at a pharmacy, and if you've told them to use something unproven rather than going to get a licensed treatment and then they spread it to a partner or a patient...

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Anthony Todd — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 09:49:10 GMT

[quote user="Thomas Johnson"]Possibly, but ringworm is self-limiting so it may just be that they got better on their own?[/quote]

True, but the art, if not the science, is "say something, do something, give something".

So in the meantime it spreads to a partner or, arguably, to a patient and YOU said do nothing......

And if it, by chance, although it only happens once in a million or whatever, it persists or spreads to the scalp then you will be condemned for doing nothing.....

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Thomas Johnson — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 09:08:39 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Todd"]

PS. I still believe tincture of iodine will clear up localised ringworm on people [or staff].

[/quote]

Possibly, but ringworm is self-limiting so it may just be that they got better on their own?

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Anthony Todd — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 11:57:51 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]I have has at least one client who requested euthanasia on the doctors recommendation because he'd forgotten to ask the simple question: 'who got it first the child or the cat'? It turned out the child caught it school and gave it to the cat!![/quote]

Yes, happened to me, even remember the clients address, well the road anyway.

Used to happen too when clients got salmonella diarrhoea.

Didn't bump that animal but owner was unimpressed and I reckon it was put down somewhere else.

PS. I still believe tincture of iodine will clear up localised ringworm on people [or staff].

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Anthony Todd — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 20:42:10 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]We took a brushing from its coat and found it was an asymptomatic carrier.[/quote]

I remember one cat that got lesions again and again with lesions and was FIV +ve.

How common are carriers and are they always longhaired?

I don't think I've ever had it;

I thought people became immune after one infection, is that so?

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 18:56:55 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Todd"]Lesions on the owner or family member are a good diagnostic tool [/quote]Visions of more requests for examination of bare breasts come to mind!!

Hopefully it be diagnosed before we get there. I have has at least one client who requested euthanasia on the doctors recommendation because he'd forgotten to ask the simple question: 'who got it first the child or the cat'? It turned out the child caught it school and gave it to the cat!!

[quote user="Anthony Todd"]That was before someone sampled long-haired entrants at a show and found a large percentage were carriers, I think the figure was 70%.[/quote]We had one multi-cat household where all the cats got recurrent ringworm lesions bar one. We took a brushing from its coat and found it was an asymptomatic carrier.

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Lindsey Edwards — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 18:01:32 GMT

Steri-7 is being promoted for both environmental and topical treatment in cattle and horses and anecdotally in small animals. For localised small lesions I tend to treat with topical fungicidal ointment and restricted handling. Found compliance with itrafungal less then ideal from both patient and client, reserved for generalised cases or where owner more anxious to comply than risk infection.

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Anthony Todd — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:39:52 GMT

Lesions on the owner or family member are a good diagnostic tool as they are for sarcoptic mange; inside of forearms and neck are the classic sites.

I advised tincture of iodine topically for the nurses for ringworm which seemed to work.

When I vetted in at cat shows suspect lesions on show cats were a nightmare as the breeder/exhibitor was banned for X months and coraled in a special area in full public view.

The ire, rage, abuse and bad feeling created when a cat was refused because of a lesion that could have been anything had to be experienced.

That was before someone sampled long-haired entrants at a show and found a large percentage were carriers, I think the figure was 70%.

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Rebecca MacMillan — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:28:09 GMT

That seems sensible to me!

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:19:42 GMT

[quote user="Rebecca Benge"]When would you do your first repeat culture[/quote]I would culture, if I was going to, once there was an apparent clinical cure and complete hair re-growth. In reality most people don't come back after the suggested course and I don't recall a single recurrence. But I would advise them of this and note it so if it does recur they can't blame you!

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Rebecca MacMillan — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:09:06 GMT

[quote user="Adi Nell"]

Itraconazole is grand (safe, effective, well-tolerated), but you may need to extend the normal 5-week treatment cycle. I'd repeat the culture after the third week of the cycle (that's after the second week on rx...) and continue to use the Itrafungol week on/week off until a month after a negative culture.

[/quote]

Just digging up old posts for info... I didn't quite follow this bit. When would you do your first repeat culture? I read this to say that you would usually do 3 weeks on meds and 3 weeks off (alternating) and would aim to repeat the culture just after the second week on itraconazole, is that right? (then you do another week off and another week on to complete 5 week treatment cycle).

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Jillian Hall — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:34:45 GMT

What about dogs? Cascade would suggest we use the product licenced in another species ie Itrafungol, however the doses work out very large and very expensive. A colleague just had a case confirmed by histopathology. Do we go Itraconazole or griseofulvin in that situation? (also complicated by an immunocompromised owner).

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Julian Earl — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:52:17 GMT

I'm surprised by the comments re. griseofulvin. It's wonderful stuff, and without any other medication lesions reliably improve within seven days in my experience without any other medication. As long as the owner is prepared to give quarter of a 125mg tablet for weeks, I have no problem with it. As for the cascade, does it distinguish tablets from liquid?

[quote user="Kate Richardson"]

One of my cats (persian!) had quite severe chronic ringworm (that's why I ended up with her- sucker!) I managed it with Itrafungol, fully clipped her regularly and treated house intermittently with Trigene spray- didn't damage furniture/carpets etc. 2 of my other cats developed small lesions which I suspect were ringworm (but as a true vet didn't actually test them of course!) which fully resolved with no treatment. I have never developed lesions, but suspect am probably immune to it by now anyway!

[/quote]

I wouldn't rely on immunity if I were you. I caught it on my arm years ago, and it cleared with Canestan, but it re-occurred about six months later further up my arm. Eighteen months after that I developed a lesion on my thigh. Six months later, I developed another lesion just a few cm from the original thigh lesion - I assume that ithe fungus had persisted on a pair of trousers and I became re-infected at a near-identical site.

Griseofulvin finally got rid of the damn thing, though the drug can cause severe headaches.

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Kate Richardson — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:29:44 GMT

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Bob Russell — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:10:58 GMT

Thanks - I almost go out of my way not to diagnose ringworm - probably goes back to the days when the treatment was worse than the condition! I was planning to treat but in the past it has been a struggle to clear the infection (until it was ready to go on its own!).

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Aurelijus vet — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:06:56 GMT

We successfully used Imaverol for the treatment ringworms cats.Usually before using imaverol for cats we cuting hair.

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Adi Nell — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:40:08 GMT

Hi, Bob,

The problem in many people's eyes is the zoonotic risk, and what you have done to educate the owners and what steps you've taken to reduce the risk as far as possible. I'd discuss the fomites in the home and the persistence of the spores for quite long periods in the environment.The cat will probably self-cure, but it might not and you'd then have lost time when you might have been treating it.

That said, I suspect many cats get ringworm and are never diagnosed, and don't pass the infection on to their owners. It's just that sod's law dictates that the ones we see as vets will give ringworm to the whole family - and you might be blamed....

I treat the ones I diagnose - the risk of treatment is small and the benefits are great. You might want to discuss clipping and bathing the cat, too, but I usually only do that in cases that don't clear up as expected.

Hope that helps?

Adi.

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Bob Russell — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:14:23 GMT

Sorry if this has already been dealt with elsewhere!

I have a 13 week old Maine Coon kitten with a small area of hair loss close to its eye. Hairs amazingly are fluorescing under u/v and has come back positive on dermaphyte test therefore it seems fair to diagnose ringworm!

The lesion has not progressed and no one in the household has problems or are high risk for ringworm.

I have told the owners that ringworm is usually self-limiting in kittens (eventually) so how pushy should I be at recommending treatment? (the cat does not go outside) and if so which treatment is best?

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Rob Loxley — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:52:42 GMT

[quote user="Adi Nell"]If it's a Persian then all bets are off and you need to break out the clippers....[/quote]

Are people clipping all cats as a routine? Makes shampooing and drying cat much easier, but beware the environmental contamination of the practice after doing this, especially if you hoover up without a very well-filtered hoover and so create a lovely mist of fungus in the air...!

The FAB advice, as previously referred to, is definitely worth a read: http://www.fabcats.org/owners/skin/ringworm.html

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Kate Dawes — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:24:52 GMT

[quote user="Adi Nell"]Imaverol works well as an environmental disinfectant and is generally non-staining or bleaching. It's a useful shampoo, too.[/quote]

Do you use imaverol in cases of feline ringworm? It was suggested to me to use for environmental control in a difficult case (persian!) recently, but on the FAB website it mentions "some reports of fatal toxic reactions following its use" (though I think they mean when used as a dip rather than for environmental control). Enough to put me off it though!

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:08:23 GMT

[quote user="Adi Nell"]

Oh, no, please let's not get into the working hours thing on this thread, too! Enough!

[/quote]

Calm down, calm down - it was a joke!

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Adi Nell — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:33:16 GMT

Hi, All,

Oh, no, please let's not get into the working hours thing on this thread, too! Enough!

Imaverol works well as an environmental disinfectant and is generally non-staining or bleaching. It's a useful shampoo, too. It's also worth remembering that Malaseb is licenced as "an aid in" the treatment of dermatophytosis, as far as I remember - the literature shows it speeding up the time to clinical cure, but NOT to mycological cure.

If it's a Persian then all bets are off and you need to break out the clippers....

Good luck!

Adi

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Vikki Halliday LLB — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:41:29 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

I don't think it's strange debating fungicides at midnight - I am on call you see and unable to go out have a drink etc........................

[/quote]

We are all slightly mad debating anything at midnight, but then if we all work 50 hour weeks plus on call, when else would we do it?

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:02:57 GMT

[quote user="nobbygonzo"]

Thanks Michael. Don't you think its a little strange that we are considering fungicides at this hour? Its not just me then.

Like your thread, by the way, and agree with your last comment! Think the previous post just came across in a way that wasn't intended, thats all. Do think that some things can't be fixed in such a simplistic way as 'if you don't like it, don't do it', financial constraints and all.

Toyed with posting again on your thread but like to be a pacifist!

Anyway, musn't deviate from the topic...

[/quote]

I don't think it's strange debating fungicides at midnight - I am on call you see and unable to go out have a drink etc........................

Being a pacifist is no fun - join in over there. We'll get into trouble for going off topic here!

Re: Ringworm treatment in cats

Karen Eggleton — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:58:47 GMT

Thanks Michael. Don't you think its a little strange that we are considering fungicides at this hour? Its not just me then.

Toyed with posting again on your thread but like to be a pacifist!

Anyway, musn't deviate from the topic...