The Fungus Amongus

Last Saturday when I got home from work and took off my clothes, I found a perfectly circular scaly red patch on my arm and thought "Oh no, RINGWORM"!  It's not unusual in my line of work to find it ever so often but it's never fun.  Since we were fostering Pearl I was especially worrisome because persian cats are more prone to the fungus.  The next day I did a butt load of laundry, deep cleaned the house, took the dogs for a walk and sat down on the couch and saw the back of Pearls head...and her two patches of circular hairloss on her ears.  It must of literally fell out while we were on our walk!

The following day I brought Pearl in to be looked at by a vet, and after they gowned up they turned off the lights and checked her with a woodslamp.  Pretty much her whole body fluoresced which equals ringworm.  Luckily we have a really nice Rinworm quarantine at my job where we successfully treat it.  I cried a little, gave her a sulfur lyme dip bath then went home to enjoy the rest of my day off (and by that I mean deep cleaning and doing loads of laundry again!).

The very next day was great!  We went and saw a Blazers game with my pops, and they won!  Got home to crawl into bed for my 6am shift the following day and when I went to give Stan a belly rub there it was.  Yup, you guessed it...ringworm :(  I freaked out, I cried, then I brought Stan to bed. 

I took a personal day off on Thursday to go to the vet  for antifungal meds and my own Lime Sulfer dip and the vet counted 9 ringworm lesions on Stan.  Poor Stan the Man looked so itchy and uncomfortable.  When I got home all 3 of the kids got a medicated bath leaving the house smelling like rotten eggs.  I put anything made of fabric (blankets, beds, rugs, curtains, dog toys) into a garbage bag and brought 8 loads to the laundromat to make certain everything got washed in hot water.  I deep cleaned the house (again) but this time had a lint roller, swiffers, and bleach to try and get every single ringworm spore either gone or killed!  Lots of work!.  Since I can't quarantine Stan (we tried), he's basically quarantined in the tiled floor living room.  He gets meds every day for 2 weeks, and Blue and Slim get bathes twice a week at the same time Stan gets them.  Every blanket that they touch is washed every day, and the Swiffer has become our daily friend. 

Tomorrow will be 1 week full week of treatment, and we're already starting to see improvement in Stan.  His lesions appear to be drying up, and even though it's a lot of work the daily cleaning rituals are becoming routine!  I come in contact with ringworm a LOT, but this strain that Pearl has is something else!  Not only do me, Pearl and Stan have it but my coworker got it at the same time as I did, and brought it home to her dog! 

Pearl the Persian should be renamed Pearl the Ringworm Spore!

Wish us a speedy recovery and a ringworm free home!!