I found a shadowed spot on my cat’s left face while i was padding her to sleep, and i know right away about that she got ringworm. To be honest, i was not very much shocking because the house i rent does not catch sunlight often and Beef(my cat) loves stay in bathroom so much.
When we found out our kitties caught ringworm, do not panic because it is just a common fungal infection. This kind of fungal feeds on the keratin in a cats’ fur, skin and nails. At the very beginning of ringworm infection, it is quite hard to notice unless we have Wood’s Lamp(scientific equipment for diagnosing fungal infection areas) at our house. Normally when we find out something is different, the infection has already occurred for several days.
The infection developed and appear to show black dots on our cats’ skin, and then the surrounding fur begin to fall and finally show a baldest spot. To be noticed, fungal infection is nothing serious but can still be problematic. Why is that? First of all, infection area spread fast and widely, if you see one infection spot, there might be ten other spots hiding inside their fur, shaving is required to diagnose all the possible infection area and we all know cats hate that. The second factor to take into consideration is to prevent us from getting infected. Ringworm from cats can transit to the cats parents, there is a certain possibility for us to get infected as well. Thirdly, ringworm can comes and goes, after it is completely being cured, they comes back whenever they feel like to. Recurrence rate of ringworm is very high among cats, if you have a big cat family, ringworm will be your “best friend” for sure.
I have explained several reasons why we should take ringworm seriously. Ringworm infect and ‘desertifiy’ cats skin widely and quickly, the fungal can transfer from cats to human, and it may come back anytime when your cats immune system become weaker. It is one of the most common disease for cats. In the following chapter, i will talk about how we overcome it together.
There is definitely a need to mention about the causes of ringworm, who or what gives the fungal opportunity to spread and grow. There are several possible causes that might gives you an idea about how to prevent it.
1. Failing on Immune System:
This is probably the most common reason for fungal infection, in fact, all kinds of virus will have a chance to attack our cats’ health. To defend all these fungal or other virus, maintaining a good immune condition is very important. Excepting from well-distributed different kinds of nutrition for cats meal, cat parents should also be careful with the changing weather, make sure to keep your kitten warm most of the time. Building up a shelter for her/him if you keep your cat outside.
2. Wet Living Environment:
As we all know that wet habitat is the best home for fungal and virus to live and grow, if your cats’ fur always exposed to humid environment, which provides better habitat for fungal to develop. I guess that is why most cats love the sunlight so much, it makes them warm and kills certain amount of fungal at the same time.
3. Infection From Others:
If you are keeping more than one cat, if your cat have other cat friends as neighbor, then they might get infected from other cats. It is suggested to make sure if your cat is meeting someone who was vaccine injected already and looking healthy enough. If this can not be avoided, make sure to have your kitty vaccine injected regularly every year.
4. Special Cases:
Completely based on my personal experience, Beef(my cat) caught ringworm between her first and second vaccine injection, during which she is eating properly and behaving properly. There are two guessing that why she got ringworm during this period of time. The first one is right after the first vaccine, her immune system is still weak or weaker than before after the injection and that might be the reason. The second guessing is, beef might caught the fungal from veterinary hospital. Therefore i would rather choose to curing the ringworm at home instead of going to veterinary.
Now we know the most common causes of ringworm, how do we overcome it? Here are several things i tried to cure Beef’s ringworm without going to veterinary. To be noticed, i choose not to go to veterinary does not mean it is the right thing to do.
1. Antifungal Cream/Spray/Solution
Even if there is antifungal cream specifically for cats, however, i could not get any of those at that moment. Therefore i went to one of the local pharmacy and buy a antifungal cream and spray for human. It works a bit at the beginning but stopped after 3 days of applying. Occasionally, i found this dermatophytosis cream inside my shelf and decide to give it a try since they are basically similar fungal infection, surprisingly just one-time apply the black dots change to scab and after a week of application, the fur on her face starting to grow back.
2: Enough Sunlight
Make sure your cat get enough sunlight, put their nests near the window, take them out for a walk when it is sunny outside. Have them soaked under sunlight for 2-3hours a day, the fungal have nowhere to escape.
3: Well Balanced Nutrition and Vitamin
When a cat caught ringworm, that might means it needs more nutrition to defend for immune system. 75% of the meat, 10% of the organs and the left several percent of vitamin and calcium, following closely with this distribution or just simply pick the right brand of cat food.
The information above is the whole experience of Beef and me overcoming our first hope it is the last ringworm, hope this could help you through if you have no other choice than curing it at home. May you and your kitty both have a healthy and happy life ahead.