Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I adopted 2 kittens from a shelter Dec 19 and one of them (Dexter) has a ringworm patch (confirmed w/ vet tests). The vet recommended dipping both in the lime-sulpher once a week for 4 weeks, and he also put Dexter on an oral med. I had them confined to one room to keep them away from my other cats, so I'm not worried about the whole house being contaminated. I am concerned about when I can let them out of the contaminated room. It is a guest room which I was also using as storage, so it has a lot of stuff in it that I can't totally disinfect. I'm not worried about that, I can keep it closed off for the 18 months of contamination. My question is, how do I know when the kittens are no longer carrying the ringworm? Is the fungal test the only way? If I test them, and wait 2 weeks, will they just get reinfected from being in that room? I have another room I can temporarily keep them in, but I can't let it get infected because the other cats do go in there sometimes. I couldn't find any info on the web about how to tell when the RW fungus is dead. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Hi There,

Usually, a cat with ringworm is considered contagious as long as they have the lesions. I'm not sure that a cat with only one ringworm patch absolutely needs to be dipped....where I work we would just put the kitten on oral meds and sometimes topical meds. All vets are different, however, and they are most comfortable with what they have been using for treatment.

One word of caution......there can still be ringworm spores throughout your house even with the kittens being isolated. The spores have a way of getting into the enviornment. Thankfully, however, most people and cats do not seem susceptible to the fungus. I have gotten it a few times from our feline patients, but have been exposed to it many, many times.

Good luck with your kittens and please keep us updated on how they do.

Regards,
PHKitkat