Help my cat has ringworm

[GeorgieTK]

As the title says really my cat has just been diagnosed with ringworm. I picked him up from the cattery and he had a bald patch. Vet tested it and it's come back as ringworm. He's about to start treatment but I'm stressing myself out slightly about all the cleaning and already thinking about the thought of him reinfecting himself once he's finished treatment. Anyone got any experience or positive stories?

My first cat had ringworm, all I did was treat him with the cream I was prescribed making sure I was wearing the gloves the vet gave me.

I don’t recall any frantic cleaning or anything

Oh god! We’ve just got over ring worm. Took forever to get rid of, the medication is six weeks in total with one week on one week off. Her bald patches were only small so think we caught it early but it’s taking forever to grow back. My other cat never caught it though! The vet said there’s a medicated wash that’s great but I don’t think I could wash my cat so didn’t even try and attempt it!

Cream! There’s a cream? We paid over £90 for a bit of medicine!

He's been prescribed oral meds and twice weekly wipe downs with an antifungal shampoo. It was the vet that suggested all the cleaning and then the Internet suggests the same to get rid of the spores!

Excellent that your other cat never caught it! How much cleaning did you do? If any?

I just washed all the bedding and blankets weekly and hovered and disinfected the skirting boards in the main rooms daily, so not much more than usual.

How are you going to wash your cat? I laughed at the vet when he suggested it to me, is your cat quite docile?

No he's not docile although he doesn't mind being wet. I can see it not working though and having to give up on those though. I just told the vet I'd give it a try!

Ringworm is athlete's foot's close cousin. I havs fostered scores of kittens over the last few years with ringworm and not had it transfer to one of our 8 adult cats.

The medication works extremely well. The cream is good for individual patches. More systemic ringworm usually requires liquid medication on a week on/week off pattern, it is expensive but it does the trick.

I have used a medicated wash too. Usually I will make up a small solution and dab it onto the affected areas, let it sit for 20 minutes then wash it off. The cream is definitely the easiest.

Obviously careful personal hand hygiene and changing bedding are necessary but fumigating the entire house has never been necessary despite what the internet says. I have had non-affected foster kittens immediately after previous ringworm kittens with no new infections. I would expect an outbreak to be gone or largely resolved once treated within a month.

Thanks @TheLongRider that's reassuring!

Just thought I'd update that I've managed to do a wipe down with the diluted shampoo and he tolerated it ok! Yay! It might help he doesn't mind being wet and often comes in from outside looking like a drowned rat