I foster a lot of ringworm cats and kittens, but that’s not all I foster. This winter I was asked to foster & tame two older feral kittens. One, Calvin, became friendly faster than the other so after 6 weeks with me, he was sent back to the shelter. Eight days later, I got notified that he had “hair loss” on his ears but they weren’t sure what it was.
I grabbed my supplies (which included supplies to do both a blacklight exam and a hair examination). Sure enough, it was ringworm.
Now, it would be easy to suggest that he MUST have gotten ringworm in my house because of all the ringworm I’ve had. But there’s a problem with that right now.
- Calvin came to me after my annual break from fostering. During this break, I do a deep cleaning of my foster rooms. Nothing is spared from being cleaned and I sanitize multiple times.
- I did not have anything with ringworm at any time that he was with me. The only cats that I had were mine, and there was no socialization between them.
- His sister, Apple, was still with me, and did not have ringworm. I also cultured her to be positive and she cultured negative.
- Calvin had been with me for 6 weeks. If he had gotten ringworm at my house, he should have showed signs sooner. He had surgery at the shelter so any hair loss would have been spotted at that time.
No, Calvin did not get ringworm in my house. He likely got in in surgery. He was neutered 2 days after he returned, about 5-6 days before the hair loss became evident.
It can be easy for ringworm to spread in surgeries that focus on spay/neutering. Often, multiple cats are being prepped at one time so the veterinarian spends most of their time in surgery rather than waiting for cats to be prepped.
And shaving causes microtrauma, which makes it easier for ringworm to spread. If they didn’t clean the clippers between cats, it is possible for an ringworm to spread.
But if things had been different, I would likely have been considered the source for the ringworm. To my knowledge, I’ve never had a cat get ringworm in my house except through direct contact with an infected cat (which is how my cat Minx got ringworm shortly after I got her–because she snuck into the foster room when I wasn’t looking).
The irony/coincidence of the situation is not lost on me: the kitten I was fostering immediately got ringworm after he was returned from the shelter. But after reviewing all the information, that seems to be the case.
So Calvin returned to me so he can be treated for ringworm.