My kitten gave me ringworm!!?

Question

We got a new kitten about 3 weeks ago. Well, all of a sudden me and my two daughters have ringworm!! Bad too....I have it in three different places and my older daughter has in in 4. My younger daughter is just developing it on her face. HELP!! Will this clear up on its own or is there something that I have to do. The vet wanted over $100 to treat both my cats so I am looking for a cheaper, at home kind thing. Thanks

Hey Lou Lou....ring worm is a fungus not a worm....moron. There is NOTHING trying to eat me. Jeeze...and yes, I already got the fungus cream from Walmart to treat myself and my daughters....what I'm asking is how do I treat the kitten to stop her from spreading it to us.

Thing is...She has not ringworm spots!! So it's kinda hard for me to treat her with the topical stuff that I am treating us with. But it has to be from her. No one in our house has ever had ringworm before and three weeks after we get her we all got it.....it has to be her.

Answer 1

I had this problem too. My vet gave me a shampoo called Malaseb. I had to bathe both my cats twice a week until about two weeks after the visible signs of ringworm were gone. It took us about six months to get rid of it because it was getting passed from my kitten to my cat to me, but I think this is probably an unusual situation. It shouldn't take you that long if you are diligent about keeping everything clean and everyone treated.

I also applied a topical to them and me. You can use anything on yourself but you have to be careful which one you use on a cat. I think it is the lotrimin that is safe and effecitive for them. The vet should give you the shampoo without a problem. It's like $15 and on my two cats it lasted about three months. Good luck to you!

Answer 2

Fast Ringworm Cure?

Answer 3

You can treat yourself topically or get oral meds from your doctor. As for the kitten, if you want to be sure she has ringworm before treating her 1. have the vet check her with a wood's lamp - basically a black light. If she glows, she definately has ringworm and needs to be treated. If she does not glow, that does not rule it out, as there are strains that do not show up under the wood's lamp. 2. your vet can do a fungal culture called a DTM. It takes 2 - 3 weeks for the culture to grow out. It can then be checked under the microscope to determine if she is positive or negative.

Since you and your daughters already have it, either 1. she gave it to you or 2. she did not have it, but someone has probably given it to her by now. So, I would save my money on diagnostics and go straight to treatment.

Treatment: 1. lyme sulfur dips. Very smelly but very effective. Dips must be done once a week for 5 - 8 weeks. We offer to do the dips at our hospital for a fee, but you can purchase the concentrate and dip at home if you want. 2. Oral medication. Quite pricey, but also effective. Must maintain on meds for 6 - 8 weeks. Has the potential to cause anemia, so some basic bloodwork would be recommended before starting and after one week on the meds.
For most effective treatment, combine the dips and the oral meds.

The fungus is on the cat's hair. You can't disinfect hair, which is why the treatments are so involved and have to be done for so long. You will also need to do extremely thorough cleaning and washing of everything with bleach solution or else you are wasting your time treating yourself or your cat because you risk reinfection.

Answer 4

No, it won't clear up on its own. Ringworm is a fungus. You need to go buy some anti-fungal cream from Wal-Mart or something and start applying it to all the spots. You also need to make sure to NOT scratch. Scratching spreads it. I don't know what you can safely use on cats for ringworm, but I'm sure if you search for 'home remedies for cats with ringworm' on google it will give you plenty of information.

Answer 5

Cats you will have to pay the vet. As for you and your daughters the cheap way out is a athletes foot cream ex:Lotrimin. Because both athletes foot and ringworm are both fungus it will take care of it for you. When ever I get ringworm I use it and it take a couple days and its gone. But you have to put it on atleast daily or it will not work. Good Luck.

Answer 6

You need a vet to treat the cats, but you can treat yourself with any athlete's foot cream like Tinactin or Lotrimin. It's the same fungus as athlete's foot.

Ringworm is extremely contagious and you may need to quarantine the cat in a cage or in a bathroom until it passes. All surfaces need to be thoroughly cleaned with disinfectant or misted with a weak bleach/water solution.

It's a pain in the butt, but it's not deadly or anything. Just a nuisance. Good luck- I've had it many, many times.

EDIT: You can't see it on the cat. That's why you need the meds from the vet. That's also why you need to bleach- it hangs around and around and around!!!

Answer 7

For yourselves, you might want to get something guaranteed to work, from a doctor. I've gotten ringworm from dogs I worked with at a local rescue, and the ointment the doctor gave me, cleared it up within a week.

$100 for treatment of 2 cats, really isn't that expensive, in my opinion (just spent $73 on my cat, for vaccinations).

Answer 8

I think you should either look for another vet, or go with his suggestion, your unlikey to even know if what you use is able to work if you are not monitered, at least this way you will be healthy and not waste money doing it.

It will not clear up on its own and could get worse, it needs to be treated and the sooner, the better.

I know its a lot of money, and if I were in your shoes I'd be struggling to afford it, (I am on minimum wage so I know where your comming from) but get it sorted, pay the bill, dont mess with your health, or that of your childrens, you will never forgive yourself if something goes wrong.

Answer 9

If you can't see spots on her and know she's carrying it, you'll need to do the sulpher baths, that gets into all the skin areas and will help control it. The baths stink to high heaven, but they work.

Keep treating yourselves, it'll go away. When I looked online to see what sort of treatments to do for ringworm you woulnd't believe how many sites on wrestling, judo and kids paytimes were involved---it's apparently very VERY common in human to human transfer!!!

Answer 10

Ringworm is easy to cure. Take your daughters to their regular physcian and he can give them med. You all will need to apply this medicine a few times a day. My doctor gave me some samples, which I still have some left over. Ask the doctor if the human meds will work on your cats, they most likely will, and they will cost a lot less and you wont have to spend the money on the vet to tell you the same thing. Keep your kids out of school and don't go to work, it is spreadable as you can already tell. I got it and spread it to my younger cousin and such. Good luck and it is easy to cure, just ask for samples from your human doctor.