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Cats' Ringworm And Your Children
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Ringworm is quite common in cats, especially those that are not groomed or looked after well enough. However, even the most cared-for cats can get ringworm because it is so infectious.
However, ringworm is not caused by a worm. Sorry, for telling you how to suck eggs, if you already knew that, but a great deal of people do not.
Ringworm is really a fungus known as dermatophytosis and is extremely contagious for most animals including humans. Cats often pass it on to every other whilst rubbing and pass it onto humans during grooming or stroking.
Not only that, but once you have the infection on your hands, you may get ringworm on your body wherever you touch yourself or you may pass it onto someone else, another cat or your dog.
If you notice the tell-tale catherine-wheel shaped mark on your cat, you must take it to the vet immediately for treatment.
Similarly, if you or your kids pick up the infection, you must see a GP or dermatologist. You ought to see an improvement in a few days and complete recovery within a week or so, although treatment may continue for a fortnight to make certain complete recovery.
Occasionally, you might not see the ring-like mark, but if your cat or child is itching or scratching in one spot and there are no fleas, suspect ringworm. Being a fungus, spores will drop off the host all over the house and might even be blown about in the aircon system. This could easily infect every living thing in the house, so it is nasty.
Therefore, if you think that something is wrong, but you cannot explain it, suspect ringworm, be on the look out for the signs and see to it as soon as it shows itself.
When you have your cat on your lap, inspect it for signs of ringworm. These are very frequently on the head, where it has nuzzled a cat.
Look around the eyes, the ears and on the paws for balding spots, the ring mark or just red, flakey dry skin. The cat may lick it or scratch the area often and there might be dandruff.
The first thing to do is put on gloves and inspect the cat for fleas. If you do not see a large infestation of fleas, your cat almost certainly has ringworm so get it to the vet as soon as possible.
In the meantime, isolate it from your children and do not touch the patch, although it might already be too late.
The treatment for ringworm in cats is fairly easy. It normally involves washing your cat every other day and applying anti-fungal cream once or two times a day to the infected patches wearing rubber gloves.
Applying the cream is not difficult, but a lot of cats actually hate being washed, so this could become difficult. If your cat hates water, put it in a pillow case and fasten it at its throat with an old flea collar. This should prevent the cat from clawing you and running away.
A similar treatment should be undergone by each member of the family, but you will merely exchange your standard soap and shampoo for an anti-fungal one for a fortnight.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with feline distemper vaccination. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at Distemper Vaccines
Article submitted Wednesday, June 08, 2011 & read 144 times.
Owen Jones writes on many subjects and is currently running several websites. He was born in Wales but now lives in northern, rural Thailand.
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