What the heck is this circular rash type thing on my back?

[MooseLooseAboutTheHoose]

I’m googling and it’s saying things like Lyme’s disease and Ringworm 😱 What do you think it looks like? What should I put on it?

Photos aren’t great as it’s in the centre of my back and difficult to reach!!!

6 months? The poor guy 😢 I’ll keep an eye out, but nothing else on my body so far, other than 2 insect bites on my legs which are definitely insect bites.

Can you get ringworm from insect bites? 🙈

It's not vesicular - it doesn't look at all herpetic. And also herpetic eczema aka eczema herpeticum is a medical emergency and looks like this:
https://dermnetnz.org/topics/eczema-herpeticum

It does look like this too doesn’t it! Annoying there doesn’t seem to be a known cause for it. Thankfully I don’t have any holidays left where I was hoping to jump into swimwear in case a rash does start spreading!

I’ve had Lyme it’s not that. Ringworm definitely. You know what worked for me to get rid of it? Coconut oil. Nothing else did. But a few days of rubbing on coconut oil and it vanished. Get the good stuff that is white in a jar. I didn’t know what it was, but looking back 💯 got it from the gym.

Ringworm. I used to get it when I was run down. Always in the same place. Nothing to do with animals in my case.

I had this exact same thing on my stomach many years ago - I had it for about 9 months then it went away by itself!! I was young and naive at the time and didn’t bother seeing anyone about it so never got to the bottom of it but it looked exactly the same, I think it is ringworm

I’m definitely going through a really stressful time at the moment, both work and a personal matter so that might not be helping either 🫤

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice all! I’ll be into the pharmacy 1st thing before work so will update ye on the outcome… we should start taking bets, ringworm vs pityriasis rosea! 😅

i know ringworm sounds awful, but you are better off it being that rather than pityriasis. I had the latter and my whole body felt like very rough sandpaper for about 5 months. Ringworm usually clears up really quickly with fungicidal cream.

Ringworm really does have bad connotations doesn’t it? Out of the 2 it’s definitely seems to be the easier one to treat. The pityriasis doesn’t even seem to have a treatment really. How awful it takes so long to clear, you and a PP son both had it for 5/6 months 🫤

Let’s hope it’s ringworm or something less serious again… could honestly do without this at the moment, it’s just another bloody thing I don’t want or need to be dealing with 🥴

Sorry to be a Debbie downer but I had a patch of ringworm on my leg (where my cats rub on me!) and it took 6 months to go. Visit a pharmacist rather than GP.

I should double check that it isn't the halo effect of a tick bite, even if your son couldn't see the central bite - you will need antibiotics if it is a tick, and they're more common now even in town parks. Show the pharmacist your photos.

I got a herald spot, followed by a rash (psoriasis Rosa) when I had Covid back in March 2020. It cleared on its own completely after 3 weeks and was painless

I’m going to show the pharmacist my whole back whether they want to see it or not 😅

A good reminder to never go in a hot tub. Or a bacterial swamp as my biologist mate calls it 🤢

A possibility is lichen planus - I used to get it sometimes back in my teens.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lichen-planus/

@MooseLooseAboutTheHoose this is so weird. My son got one of these, started out small (pinkie fingernail size) on his back. We also have piggies. It git bigger, went to pharmacy, said ringworm, got clotrimazole, didn't help at all. Another less circular patch appeared. Then sone more. Went to GP, another cream. Didn't work. Had a spray, and another cream. Whole back covered by then, and most of front. Few patches on legs. Ended up with a "shampoo" body wash, used daily and cleared up within 2 weeks (had gone on for months by then)

Like most people here - team ringworm.

I am prone to getting them, seems to run in my family (my dad used to get them on his back), and I get them when I am stressed or run down. If it is in the middle of the back then it might be caused by rubbing of your bra strap during sweaty conditions. It would be best to wash your bra as much as possible at 60 degrees, and try not to rub/scratch the rash.

I have my own way of dealing with them - I buy a dandruff shampoo called ‘Selsun’ and I use it to wash once/twice a day, then treat the rash with 2% Canesten three times a day. It takes a while to go (a couple of weeks), and you have to treat for a week after you can’t see the rash, it just pops up again if you don’t!

I hate them - so itchy!

I would say ringworm, you could have got it from anywhere really. Have you tried on any tops in a shop or from delivery’s? It’s that contagious if someone else had tried it on with ringworm and then you did it spreads. It was rife at my daughter’s secondary school , about 20 percent of her year had it at one point, started off from a Turkish barbers shop and just spread like wild fire . Pharmacist can treat it

It could well be ringworm, but I have also had round patches very like that caused by insect bites, especially on my legs and trunk. I would probably see a GP rather the pharmacist, as the GP will be more experienced with skin rashes, but if it is ringworm may also be more willing to prescribe the right antifungal (I find pharmacists offer Daktarin for anything and everything, but there’s a different antifungal GPs prescribe for ringworm, I forget its name, begins with f I think).

Anyway, I’ve a few times had patches exactly like this and seen GPs who all said ringworm tends not to be red inside the ring. They turned out to be insect bite reactions which took a while to fade. So it’s not a definite match for ringworm and worth checking out further at the GP IMO.

Terbinafine! Better antifungal for potential ringworm.

@MooseLooseAboutTheHoose

NOT necessarily ringworm hen, if you get a chance before you flash yer all to the pharmacist, other possibilities are here

It does look like ringworm.

You can transfer fungal infections on clothing (as I did once).

I had a similar rash and it was dermatitis heptaformis caused by coeliac disease.

I have a seemingly identical circular rash on my leg. It's been there about 6 weeks now.
Dr Google told me it might be ringworm so I went to a pharmacist. It doesn't itch or hurt and it blanches. It hasn't changed at all in 6 weeks. The pharmacist said it couldn't be ringworm because it doesn't itch. She thought it was eczema. I do get eczema but this is different.
She sold me some anti fungal stuff and said I would see a difference within 3 days if it was ringworm. I used the cream for 2 weeks and NADA. I'm now using some betnovate but after 5 days it's unchanged and betnovate would have cleared it.

I am avoiding GP as I have so many medical conditions I try to only go if desperate.