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Anybody know anything about RINGWORM


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Hi everyone!

My new baby girl Liberty, came home from the humane society with a nasty case of ringworm on her little black and white face. My vet gave me a bottle of betadine scrub and instructions to wash her in it once a week. I don't think it is working.

I was at my mother's and she had a little accident with leftover spaghetti sauce (cool thankfully) in the trashcan and I had to give her a bath. The only shampoo available was Selson Blue. It seemed to dry her little bumps up. Has anyone ever heard of this before? I know ringworm is a fungus and Selson Blue treats fungus but is it safe to use on Liberty frequently?

 

Any other suggestions on treating this?

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I haven't ever heard of that working before, but I guess it could work since it treats fungus.

 

Has he given you any antifungal meds since the other stuff didn't work? That might help too. How long has she had it? How many times have you used the betadine? I think it can take a few times to work.

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lol this may sound gross, but my mom swears that Vagasil will get rid of ringworm. I have never had ringworm or known anyone with it, so I cant back that up. But I have heard it from a few different peeps. That said, I dont know the dangers of that on a dog.

 

I've also heard stuff like Tinactin (anti fungal cream for feet I believe) will work as well. Again, I dont know about on dogs.

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Thanks,

I did some research and found that Ringworm is the exact same fungus as a yeast infection, jock itch, and athletes foot. Selson blue, Lamisil, Lotrimin and yes--Monastat, have all been used!

I've used the betadine four times now--with no results. I called my vet (who is wonderful in most cases) and he said betadine can take over six weeks to work. I think I am going to rotate between it and the selson blue. I've been using Monastat as a topical and it seems to keep her from itching at it. He did give me some topical Aminax ointment but she runs when she sees me holding it--I'm afraid it either burnes or I might have got it in her eye :rolleyes:

I'll let you know if it works....

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  • 4 years later...

Hi all! I am having a bad time with a case of ringworm on my pup Dexter. I have been using monistat on it and it has been spreading. When I took him to the vet the vet told me that it usually goes away on it's own. I am just worried it it going to get really bad. I also have a medicated shampoo from the vet that I have been using. Any advice would be greatly welcomed.

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The same drug in the flea control product Program (lufenuron) can be used to effectively treat ringworm. However, the oral form is used and at a very different dose and dosing schedule than as for flea control. This dose and schedule can be looked up by your vet. Most effective treatment I've ever found.

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You can try lime sulfur dips- unpleasant but very effective. Use it once weekly. In addition we use Resiketochlor daily. And bad cases will get fluconazole for a month or so.

 

How do you know it is ringworm? Has your vet identified the exact species? I ask because many times we see dogs with "ringworm" that really have other issues such as pyoderma, or demodex. Most often ringworm is self limiting but other conditions may not be.

 

Our dermatologists do not recommend lefenuron (Program).

 

Here is a good website This is geared towards cats in a shelter environment (ground zero for ringworm cases) but it will help to educate you ;)

 

HTH,

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Are you sure its not mange- ? My friend had a puppy and the vet misdiagnosed it as having an allergy, but it really had mange- so make sure your vet does a scraping- or go to a different vet and get them to analyze it. I'm not sure if the program drops for fleas will kill ringworm since ringworm is not worm or insect- it's a fungus you need a fungicide.

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Ok, you asked............

 

I was a good samaritan long ago and rescued a pregnant cat from our lot at work. I took her home and kept her segregated from my other cats. She had six kittens. When they were about 3 or 4 weeks old I was baffled by these bald scaly spots on them. Vet diagnosed ringworm. Mom must be a carrier. Like many species, the young and old are more suceptible. Long story short I ended up with all kittens infected and my three cats!! What a nightmare. constant vacuuming, bleaching, and medicating. The kittens got the sulphur dips and I had some topical stuff to put on the areas too. My three cats got the topical and anti-fungal meds. Then one of my cats almost died from the oral antifungals. Shut down his liver (which I was told could happen as antifungals are very hard on the liver).

 

I ended up having to keep the kittens for an extra four weeks because i did not want to adopt out the problem.

 

Because it is spore born in stays around! I had several recurrances in my cats long after the initial round. at one point my vet had me put the cats on Interferon (immune system booster). For the rest of his life one of my cats would break out with ringworm whenever he got stressed.

 

I even ended up getting it on my arm too.

 

So, one good deed ended up costing my over $1500 in just meds and vet bills. There is no way to measure the time and stress it caused.

 

But I don't want to scare you. My vet kept reminding me that it really wasn't a big deal. Its mostly cosmetic. And my sitution was at the extreme end of the spectrum.

 

I found the sulphur dips worked best and vacuum any surface you cannot bleach. Get rid of the bag or filter.

 

Good luck!

 

Jennifer

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Ringworm isn't a serious life threatening issue. Its just a pain in the butt. Even untreated it will just run its course. But it is prudent to take preventative measures. I really didn't mean to freak anyone out. A healthy immune system is the best defense.

 

Jennifer

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Here are pictures of his eye....it used to be a small pencil eraser size dot and it has grown to this...there is also a small spot on his front leg...you may be able to see it to.

 

Jennifer...you didn't freak me out...I am just concerned about all my other animals and my 4 yr old son.

post-12259-076703400 1318381981_thumb.jpg

post-12259-046367200 1318381982_thumb.jpg

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NO way you can diagnose that as ringworm based on appearance alone. You need to have a skin scrape done & cytology wouldn't hurt either. It is much more likely it is demodex mites or even a small scrape that has spread into a contact reaction to the miconazole. Your vet should have done a simple fungal culture before diagnosing ringworm.

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I'm with everybody else - get a scraping so you know what you have to deal with.

 

I had a problem with regular mange last year and I know that the holistic vet said in his book to use prescription Selsun Blue. That it would clear it right up. I didn't try it. We went with Revolution instead and that worked.

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Rinworm can be diagnosed without a scraping. They use a special light called a Woods lamp.

 

Be careful with Preven tick collars! Especially on a pup.

 

Jennifer

 

Only certain strains of one species (Microsporum canis) can be diagnosed with a woods lamp (there are many many species- 4 or 5 that we commonly deal with in dogs & cats) so it is not really useful unless it is a positive result. It is also easy to get a false positive because people look for anything that will fluoresce and flakes of skin & medications can do so even in the absence ringworm.

 

A fungal culture is the best way to diagnose ringworm not a skin scrape. Hair from the edges of the affected area are plucked then inoculated into a special gel and after 2-4 weeks suspicious areas of growth are examined under the microscope to determine the species.

 

A skin scrape & hair pluck (done properly) will diagnose demodex. Cytologies will diagnose bacterial & yeast infections as well as give clues to other issues such as a contact reaction (highly inflammatory lesion in the absence of bacteria or yeast).

 

Bottom line for the OP is we can all guess but even my bosses (who have been practicing Veterinary Dermatologists for almost 20 years) would not look at that lesion & be able to tell you. They could give a better guess surely but when you go to the doctor you don't really want him/her to guess (& take your money for it) when there are several simple & cheap tests that can help to narrow the field first.

 

JMO,

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If you go with the an oral anti fungal, I'd be adding Milk Thistle for liver support.

Lily the lgd was diagnosed with something similar to ring worm (the did the culture and hair pluck tests) and they gave her oral anti fungals but wouldn't prescribe it without giving her milk thistle too.

Cured her pretty quickly.

 

Recently Raven had some issues with allergies. Really looked like the picture of your pups eye. She lost all the hair around both eyes. Took her to the vet but since I thought it was a reaction to allergies I had put her on oral pred. before I took her to the vet. (she suffers from allergies every year) and they cleared up the issue. But as soon as I stopped the oral pred. it came back.

 

The vet told me that had it been ring worm or demodex it would of gotten worse with the pred. as you are knocking the immune system down with steroids. Long story short, she's now gotten a long acting shot of steroids and her eyes are clearing up but it's taking a long time.

 

I have not seen ringworm around the eyes like that, Really, only my 2 legged kid ever had ringworm and it cleared up with lotrimin, the athletes foot cream.

 

Is your dog itchy? If it were me I'd sure want a culture done to know exactly what your dealing with.

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