News


2011-03-04
That dreaded RINGWORM problem


 From: Christine 

Sent: 03 March 2011 01:29 PM
To: mijoy@wam.co.za
Subject: Hallo there

 

I saw your blog on the ringworm.(Omlope) 

Thank you so much for all your advice. That is really helping.

My 2 yorkies of 1.5 years old both got ringworm. I suspect it happend at the new doggy palour I took them to for about 3 months now.

It’s an absolute disaster. I took them to the vet only when the dry spots were bigger and the hair fell out. I didnt know anything about ringworm before then.

 

I have been treating them for a week now. Microbial (or something like that) tablets twice a day. Me and my husband bath them twice a week with Pyoderm dog shampoo. The vet gave that to us. I massage the shampoo into there hair and leave it on for 10 min before rinsing.

Then I also use a ointment from the vet once a day. Everyday before I re-apply a new layer of ointment, I clean the wounds with a wet detol cloth. No improvement yet. I am also concerned as I dont know if I am picking up al the spots throug the long hair.

What other medications were you talking about?

Am i just impatient and should I wait longer?

Or is there anything else I can do?

 

You are welcome to post this on that internet article.

 

Thanks so much, I will appreciate your advice a lot.

 

Kind Regards

Christine F

 

 

Hi there Christine

 

In the majority of cases of ringworm these days Microcidal is ineffective.  The ringworm seems to be resilient to Microcidal.  There is a liquid medication, you would have to ask your vet or Doctor for a script.  It is called Sporanex and there is also another one available as well. These are both humans medication, but work brilliantly. Pretty expensive, but if your ringworm is like most of the other people’s that have written to me, you are wasting your time with microcidal. They all used Microcidal and it did nothing for their problem.  If you buy this liquid and treat, you will treat every single day for at least 4 weeks. Do not let anyone tell you differently. Microcidal should be a 6 weeks course, so use the liquid for at least 4 weeks. Do not stop giving it to your dogs, until you see the fur regrowing into the bare patches and then continue to treat a few more days.

 

If you do this religously, you should rid yourself of the problem .

 

Detol unfortunately will do nothing for ringworm. If you are going to clean the ringworm like you are doing, you would have to use an anti-fungal wash of sorts.  I personally would leave them alone.  Treat with the ointment twice daily. Do not groom or brush your dogs at this stage, because by doing this you could very well spread the spores and those spores will develop into lesions. 

 

Make very sure you sterilise your home and furniture, carpets, dog bedding the works. No easy task and regularly.  The problem with ringworm, every hair the dog drops from those lesions, has spores on it and those spores survive for two years or thereabouts. You can ask your vet for F10. You mix it up and spray your furniture, curtains, everything it will not discolour or stain.  Spray everywhere your dogs are.  Vacuum thoroughly. Tiled areas, wash with jik in the water. Heat will also destroy the spores. So if you wash bedding etc, make sure it is dried in the full sun or put into a tumble dryer on hot .  Ringworm spores thrive in moist damp areas.  You need to disinfect on a daily basis as well unfortunately. Ridding your pets of ringworm is not an easy thing to do.

 

If you suspect it is the parlour, you should tell them. They would not want to pass this problem onto all their clients.  I have heard of people before picking up ringworm at parlours, three cases to be precise.

 

I wish you well.  I have not heard of anyone with the problem for quite a few months. Just remember that ringworm is also contagious to humans and other fur bearing animals. Young children are also very prone to picking up the problem from their pets.

 

Take care.

Keep me posted.

All the other people who wrote to us with their problems, have all treated the problem with success.

Best of luck

Joyce