Bloody buggering shitting ringworm. AIBU to be pissed off with CPL? And HEELP!

[Invizicat]

So, we adopt a gorgeous but very shy Cats Protection League mog. He'e been fostered by a mad cat lady multi-cat owner. (She told us that she has up to 60 cats a year go through her home.) The Cats were sharing bedding and free roaming through the house.

2 weeks in our little boy is just coming out of his shell but also has developed itchy ears. £200 of vet visits and treatment, a month later we have a confirmation that he has ringworm. In the meantime he has passed it on to me. . I have questions.

First, we have bleached every stationary surface and object in the house. We have steam cleaned and fungicided every carpet and curtain and hot washed all bedding and clothing and poor little mog is quarantined in one room. Presumably we have to keep him out of the clean zone until he's symptom free, yes? But what I'm confused about is that as he's passed on the lurgy to me, presumably I then re-contaminate every room I go into. (DH has got very uncuddly for some reason. ) Do I have to sleep in the utility room too? If not, how is the cleaning effective? Genuine question.

Secondly, if we had known our lovely boy was bringing this little gift with him we genuinely wouldn't have taken him on. Unfortunately his free month's insurance was up before diagnosis. Considering it's cost us an arm (literally) a leg and an ear so far what should I fairly expect CPL to do? Anything at all? Offer to share the vet's bill? Refund our fee? (I have informed them as they'll obviously need to prevent it being passed on to others but have heard nothing back.)

Anyone been ringwormed and come out the other side? Any tips for getting liquid medicine down a nervous cat without traumatising him?

Oh help.

Are you recieving ringworm treatment too?. I'd imagine you'll have to keep bleaching and hot washing until your both symptom free.

Personally I wouldn't pursue cpl, they do an excellent job relying on charity for a species not as universally liked as dogs. I doubt very much they would have let him go with ringworm if they realised he had it.

Liquid meds can go in food, little tins of gourmet pate are available in the pound shops on 3 for £1. It might go down easier in something yummy.

Our rescue cat that we picked up 20 years ago (and who we had for 19 years) came with ringworm.

He was taken in by the vets overnight, sedated, shaved and bathed. Then we had a bottle of stuff to bathe him with daily for a week, if I recall.

I don't remember having to take particular precautions apart from washing hands and bedding well. But we were lucky that he didn't pass it on to us.

He did scratch us deeply down our arms when we tried bathing him each day. THat was no fun.

Thanks Fluffy. Yes, I've got the cream from the chemist for me and I am putting his medicine in yummy food for him, but the vet said it was less effective this way and we should really be squirting it down his throat.

Marnie we have the shampoo stuff as a precautionary measure for the dog so we have the joy of wet dog twice a week too. Vet said shaving both cat and dog and me was a last resort.

Did they ineffective or less effective?. Big difference.

It's worse for shy cats, fluffy cat would just fight his way out and give you a fuck off look but previous cats would have been skittish for days.

Less, Fluffy. Which is why I haven't yet held mog down in rugby tackle and battled with a syringe. But I just want it to act as effectively as possible.

Whether or not to pursue CPL.

I'm really in two minds because I realise they are good charity and this one lady was doing a great service for cats that perhaps nobody else in our town is willing to do, but I felt quite uncomfortable about the conditions at the fosterers house. It was very catty , musty and grimy, the sheer numbers of cats there in close proximity - it really was ideal conditions for fungal spores to thrive. The number of cats going through that one home must mean that many others cats are picking up and passing on ringworm having shared that bedding or cushion. I can't believe mine was the first.

CPL charge a fee and ask for a donation to cover the cost of neutering, vacs etc (fair enough), but I feel they therefore also have a responsibility to ensure that the cats they sell are healthy. If I don't make a bit of a fuss then will they do anything about it?

How about you complain about it but make it clear you are concerned about conditions more than money?.

Neutering and a set of vaccinations must've cost them more than the adoption fee.

I'm soft though, I donated £100 to the BUAV last year by accident right before we moved house and couldn't bring myself to asking for £90 of it back.

That's pretty much what I've done Fluffy. (Polite email explaining the situation and saying obviously they'll be wanting to take measures to ensure the infection isn't passed on). I'm just a bit that I haven't had a response.

Ringworm is a bugger as it's so damn contagious. A lot of shelters, probably even some in the UK, routinely put down all cats with ringworm, even though it's not a particularly serious condition for the cats themselves, as it goes through rescues like wildfire. Thankfully it seems CPL don't. But if a shelter/rescue doesn't, then this sort of thing will happen sometimes. Lesser of two evils I would say.

I've just had ringworm in my madcatlady multicat household. Thankfully it was only mild and just a bit of ointment got rid of it and I managed to contain it.

And yes it would be nice if they could reply to your email, and they probably will, but all CPL branches are run by volunteers, often with other jobs, and they are very, very stressed and busy.

They put them down CatNeuterer ?

Point taken. I'll just keep on taking the medicine and stop grumbling.

Athletes foot cream works really well on humans and animals. I had a horse come with it and it worked great. If you want it immediately gone from you you could try the canesten tablet thing for thrush - that should clear it in one go. Bloody animals eh?!

You have my sympathies. My previous cat caught this at a groomer we took her to as she had a few mats I couldn't comb out. Long story and a lot of money later i ended up having to get her shaved and had to change vets. Once we did that it started to clear up within a week. We gave her meds with a syringe instead of topical stuff which didn't seem to work. A lot of hoovering and washing of fabrics and we had to keep her in one or two rooms which I found the hardest as I felt so guilty but it did go within a week once we went to a better vet and got her shaved as she had long hair. Initially I found it as stressful as i did when dd and I got nits once as you worry it will never go but it will

Hi... Late to the thread having only just discovered the forum for mad cat people!!

My husband rescued a kitten in November (2 months old) with everything wrong with her including ring worm... It was exhausting: bathing, bleaching, steam cleaning, meds, vet trips, etc for 2 months!! Our spare room was like a hospital theatre and despite all of our precautions I caught the lurgy!! I used a standard antifungal cream and kept the area covered with lose clothing that I then hot washed.
It was bloody hard work caring for her (she had other problems too) but she's now the sweetest, most loving little beast I've ever encountered!

Use Lamisil on the cat and on you. Bath/shower yourself (not cat!) with tea tree products - I use Original Source. Wash laundry on 60. Not much else can be done really. It will go. I've been there in my mad cat lady unofficial rescue household.

Lamsil is forgive my French pissing in the wind, take it from one who knows in humans you need to use canestan cream, your doctor will need to prescribe it or you will need to 'develop thrush' to buy it from the chemist. It depends on which type of ringworm it is, if it is microsporum canis the intrafungol you are using is very effective. If trycophytonmentagrotphytes you are probably going to need to bath the cat in imaverol to get this under control.

If your cat is quarantined, your clean area will be fine - the main risk is spores travelling in shed hair so ringworm in humans tends to need direct contact to spread (as we don't tend to shed hairs).

Re: compensation etc from CP - they gave you 1 months insurance, it's your job as a responsible owner to a) continue the insurance or b) ensure you have a financial cushion to cover all vets bills. You chose not to continue insurance despite adopting a cat with an unknown history. ALL shelter cats are a risk for ringworm. The cat is your responsibility.

Ooh more activity. Hello

Thanks for the recent comments and to update for those kind enough to contribute: I think we are through the worst [touches wood and then carefully washes hands in case the cat's been there].

I did get a eventually get a reply from CPL but I wasn't too impressed with their reaction - basically outright denial. I emphasised that I was informing them because they'd obviously need to take some precautions in the multi-cat household where dcat had been fostered (and I wasn't wanting any compensation.) Their response was Well, we haven't had any problems so it must have come from you. I pointed out this was unlikely as DMog had symptoms within days of coming to us from them, we'd never allowed him out and had never previously had ringworm but I was just met with a repeated 'Well, we don't have any problems..' [Actually, CPL lady, you do now.]

I wasn't left with great confidence that they would even change the bedding that DMog had been using. Not very impressed.

As for us, DMog has been on Intrafungol and his symptoms appear to have gone with hair growing back in all the right places. Hooray for drugs! He's still quarantined and pretty desperate to be a family cat but I'm following the rules to the last letter and he's still banished. No way do I want to spend another week bleaching the house! I'm using Lamisil and my symptoms have also cleared up too so hopefully we nipped it in the bud.

Oh, and SunshineandShadows you're completely correct to say that as a responsible owner we are responsible for the vets bills or insurance, of course. My great mistake was not renewing the insurance and there's only myself to blame for that. (Interesting though that the insurance paperwork only came through yesterday for the policy which expired more than a month ago. I'm not sure if I could actually have renewed the insurance before I had any policy details, but that's all by the by. I didn't and I paid the price.)