Kitten with Ringworm

carlo_shannon

Hi All

Looking for any practical advice.

Partner and I just got a 4 month old kitten. We got him from a lady who told us her family is allergic and cant keep him.

Took him to the Vet and he has ringworm. On Vets advice he is now in quarantine in our dining room on antibiotics. He has to stay there for 3 to 5 weeks. Vet says he is very contagious to other animals and people.Its been 4 days and hes crying the house down with loneliness.
We see him in the morning, at lunch and when we get home from work. We are wearing gloves handling him and cleaning constantly.

So ...anyone any experience of this? How do you amuse a kitten left on its own in a room? Its at the stage where if we open the door to the room hes on the other side ready to bolt....poor guy ...any other advice on how to handle him or prevent us getting ringworm too is welcome

/CS

Nody

Welcome to a world of pain; for starters I'm assuming you're also cleaning out his toilet, replacing all litter; wash his bed on high temperature etc. daily (if not add it to the routine). Now a happy kitten is a tired kitten; hence things such as laser dots, "da bird" toys and similar are great tools to help tire him out. Other things that he can play with himself which are highly recommended are ping pong balls, plastic balls with bells in them, paper balls (replace as needed) but also making him have to work for his kibble (empty plastic 500ml bottle with small holes etc.) to keep him busy for a while both mentally and physically. As for you getting ringworm; cleaning your hands is the key obviously as well as being careful around their litter and be warned it can take a while to get it out his system.

carlo_shannon

Thanks - lot of good ideas there we hadnt thought of. We arent cleaning his bedding daily yet. That is to prevent re infection i take it?
Time to get myself to a shop for those toys you suggest!

Nody

carlo_shannon wrote: »

Thanks - lot of good ideas there we hadnt thought of. We arent cleaning his bedding daily yet. That is to prevent re infection i take it?

Yup; same reason to replace the litter daily etc. even if it's a pain, scrubbing the floor etc. to make sure the worms have no way / limited way to come back. Bad news is you can end up having to do the cycle multiple times as not all worms die (and kittens can only be dozed up so heavily).

Mooooo

If the sun does eventually decide to appear take it outside for a while, sunlight would help.

the beer revolu

Ring worm isn't caused by a worm, it's a fungal skin infection.

To be honest, I wouldn't be that worried about catching it. I had it years ago. One place, on my torso. A prescription cream cleared it up in a couple of weeks.

Maybe it can be more severe but in my case it was very much a minor problem.

ganmo

the beer revolu wrote: »

Ring worm isn't caused by a worm, it's a fungal skin infection.

To be honest, I wouldn't be that worried about catching it. I had it years ago. One place, on my torso. A prescription cream cleared it up in a couple of weeks.

Maybe it can be more severe but in my case it was very much a minor problem.

I know someone who nearly lost their foot from undiagnosed ringworm. But ya normally it’s just a skin irritation treated with anti fungal

Cherry Blossom

My westie had ringworm years ago when I only had one dog. I treated it with iodine because of its location, right between the eyes. There was no need to confine her to one room or anything like that but maybe it's because the op has other pets. As said it's a fungal infection not an actual worm.