Cats and ringworm

Ringworm can be passed from cats to dogs and also to people.
I'd get the kitten to the vet ASAP, the treatment is a creme i believe but not sure, there was a thread on here a while ago, about it try a search.

If the kitten has ringworm you really need to get it sorted. My folks rescued a kitten from the side of the dual carriageway last year and before long their other cat had it and so did the entire family! It took a couple of months to get everybody clear at the same time. It can be an awful nuisance so it's important to nip it in the bud.

Ringworm - first, it's not a worm infestation, it's a fungal infection. It's very common in young animals with compromised immune systems, e.g. a kitten who's been doing it tough.

The fungus spores infest the hair shaft, and make it brittle, causing the hair to fall off at the skin in circular lesions. They usually aren't that itchy or irritating, except maybe as the hair starts to break off and the lesion begins to form.

Ringworm can be transferred to other animals and to people - you are particularly prone to it if you have a compromised immune system and if there's a scratch or wound on your skin. Treatment in people is topical application of an anti-fungal cream like canestan.

The vet will identify the ringworm using a woods lamp - there are a number of different kinds of ringworm, but some flouresce under a woods lamp which is how it'll be identified.

Treatment of ringworm is a combination of things - generally, build the kitten up - the best food, a ready supply of fresh water, keep it warm and dry and indoors. The fungus spores will be shed from the ringworm sites, so it's best to keep the kitten in one room and hoover regularly.

Ringworm will usually resolve itself, even without treatment, in about four to six weeks, but animals can be reinfected with the fungal spores from their own bedding, so it's important to keep them quarantined to one area that you can hoover, or mop, regularly; also use bedding that you can wash regularly. It's also important to treat the infection, because if the kitten is really immunocompromised it needs all the help it can get to shake the infection, because reinfection can be persistent and cause a chronic case.

Other treatments include an anti-fungal shampoo, topical creams, or an oral medication like griseofulvin. (There's something about griseofulvin being soluble in fat, so you need to get a teaspoonful of something like double cream into the kitten before giving the meds.) The topical creams work well on dogs, but with cats, who wash themselves, it will depend on where the lesions are. You may be better off with an antifungal shampoo bath once or twice a week for a few weeks with a cat. Oral medications for ringworm are quite harsh, and on a small kitten who's been a bit poorly, I'm not sure your vet will recommend them.

Basically, take a trip to your vet and see what they say about a treatment. Ringworm can be a real pain in the bum to get rid of, but any poor kitten with ringworm surrendered to a shelter will be put to sleep, because it's persistent and you have to observe a quarantine and administer meds, which involves more resources than most shelters are willing to give to one kitten.

I commiserate with you, OP, but don't be too thrown by it. I currently have a pup with ringworm in the house with my six cats, we've been treating the pup with a topical cream (canestan). He's quarantined in a bathroom with a baby gate so he can see the cats but can't mix with them. The cats aren't showing any signs of infection so that's all gone well, but the pup was pretty low in himself when I got him - emaciated, flea-riddled, worm-riddled and with a huge bald ringworm patch under his jaw, two on his elbow, a fourth forming on his side and the other half has noticed another one on his bum. The one under his jaw has healed since we started cream treatment and we'll get there eventually. Just takes time and patience!