Sos - Ringworm, I'm panicking.

Hello! Some months ago I found on the street a handome lil fella that was recently diagnosed with ringworm. Immediately started treatmeant for the cat, we are one week in, its going well but Im afraid to death for my house and the 2 dogs I have. Im reading online HORRENDOUS things about ringworm, like its the Plague itself, how it never leaves your home, how it keeps coming back, how hard it is to get rid of the spores. What am I gonna do? I have vaccined the cat against ringworm, and Im thinking of vaccining my dogs too in the following days but will this be enough? Is the vaccine safe for them? And ok about the home, how Im gonna clean my yard and my shed, the cat have been roaming those too. Im in full panick mode, cant sleep, dont have the money or the time to deal with an infestation as hard as people make it out to be. Please, any help and advice is more than welcomed. Thank you, thank you in advance.

Hello!  The

Hello and I'm sorry you are going through this headache. Ringworm can jump between species - even to humans - and animals with with low immunity might be more vulnerable to catching it, but fortunately dogs can be clipped and bathed more easily than cats so dont necessarily need to be given systemic drugs.  Whether anything should be done preventatively is something to discuss with your vet, but it's well worth giving them a call.  How much contact have these patients had already?  The vet will need to make a judgement call and may reccommend isolating the poorly animal, washing or removing bedding and so on.

As regards the financial situation, it sounds as if you're going through a lot and as a vet, I always found it mosy useful if I knew of any financial problems that owners were having.  This way, we could discuss charity help if applicable, or at least run through the risks involved in each of the 'less ideal' options, in order that clients could understand any risks they were taking with costs and how they might find the most cost-efficient solution given their home situation.  We often reccommend that clients treat all animals in a household.  There are lots of 'Ringworm' treatments available off-prescription, a lot of which are unlikely to work - and your vet can talk you through these.   If you search for 'ringworm' in our blog, this may also be useful. Prevention of spread is definitely better than cure - and best tackled early.  I know that your vet, who can discover the ins and outs of your household, is better placed than me to help you with this, so wishing you and your pets all the best from here.