Spotting A Ringworm Dog
Ringworm is a fungus and is extremely contagious. Infected dogs with ringworm can infect other types of animals and people. It is easily passed from people to pet or pet to people. A ringworm dog is treatable. Knowing the signs and symptoms is extremely important in sharing your home and surroundings with animals and friends.
How do you spot a ringworm dog? This fungus lives in hair follicles resulting in hair being broken off. Thereby, ringworm is seen through patches of missing hair in dogs. The skin with the missing hair looks circular with raised edges and may have a pale spot in the center. The skin may also become red, scaly or crusty and becomes itchy to uncomfortable for the dog. The dog than begins itching the area spreading their infection to other parts of their own body. In people, ringworm is a red circular rash with healthy skin in the center. Here again, itching the rash area in people will result in spreading as well. Ringworm also can be spread through bedding and blankets in both dogs and people.
What should I do if I believe my dog has ringworm? Go to your vet immediately. The vet will diagnose the fungus by taking a scraping of the skin and testing it. The test results may take between one and two weeks. Also, your vet may use a special ultraviolet light to look at the rash area. There is a gestation period of ten days between exposure and occurrence. The vet will suggest the best treatment for your ringworm dog. There are different methods of treatment available for dog ringworm. The treatment is easy to do and requires persistence. Staying on top of what needs to be done at home, with family and dog is important. This will remedy the situation fairly quickly. If not, re-infestation can occur at anytime.
First, you and your dog should start the recommended treatment by your vet. The vet may prescribe a shampoo, cream or even medication. If medication is required, the medication should be given daily as instructed by your vet. Creams are an alternative, but are not usually successful due to the ease of your dog’s rubbing and or licking the cream away. The other alternative is using an antifungal shampoo. Usually more than one shampoo treatment will be required to rid your dog’s ringworm situation. Shampooing will remove fungus spores from the hair. The shampooing treatment over all parts of the dog’s body will help in eliminating the upcoming fungus spores as well.
Now, it is also important to treat your home for ringworm. A must do is wash the dog’s bedding with hot water and bleach everyday. Don’t become infected yourself, avoid direct contact with your ringworn dog. If you have more than one pet, treat them all as well. Shampooing the other pets without ringworm will not harm them, Once the symptoms subside in your dog, get the vet to retest your dog’s hair to verify that the fungus has been terminated.
Ringworm Cat Information
Mary, a neighbor discovered a six week old stray kitten in her back yard. The kitten was sick and hungry. Mary loves pets and decided to keep this kitten along with her dog. The kitten was taken to her vet and was given medication for a cold. After several trips to the vet office, the kitten seemed to be recovering. In the interim, Mary noticed a ring shaped rash on her skin and thought that it was ringworm. She returned to the vet with the kitten to convince the vet that the kitten had ringworm and should be treated. What had happened was the kitten did have ringworm that went un-diagnosed by the vet during her first few visits. This is what can happen with ringworm cat treatments and humans.
Ringworm is a fungus. Ringworm can be passed from person to animal, from infected animal to animal and from animal to person or even from the soil! This is how Mary’s kitten got ringworm or maybe the kitten’s mother had it and passed it along. In time, the ringworm appearance normally shows up as round lesions missing hair on animals. Also, these lesions might have scaly skin in the center commonly located on the ears, tail or head of a cat. Some fungus will not be circular in shape and can spread to the lips, nose, face and chin. Ringworm can be hard to identify in early stages and can be sometimes diagnosed as an auto immune disease as in the case of Mary’s malnourished kitten. The kitten had thinning of the hair in front of the ears only which is common in cats that are malnourished. Long story short, Mary now had ringworm which did spread to her dog and other concerns in her household.
The ringworm cat treatment is a team effort with the pet owner and the vet. Depending on the size of the lesions, a small isolated lesion might only require an antifungal cream. For severe cases of ringworm, oral medication is possible or a prescribe lime sulfur dip. The dips can temporarily turn the cat’s hair to a yellowish color. Also available is an antifungal shampoo. Best options are with your vet’s suggested method of treatment and complete follow up.
Once your cat has ringworm, drastic procedures are required to contain the spread of ringworm. Ringworm can spread for example through fabric, bedding or other items like mats etc. All these contacted items by your cat need to be washed with hot water and bleach daily. Everything your cat is sleeping on daily should be washed daily with hot water and bleach. It can be very difficult to wash fabric on your furniture daily. A suggestion is to cover the cats sleeping areas and furniture with washable sheets that will be washed daily. If the cat’s bed is being used, it should be washed in hot water and bleach daily. Keep you and your family members contact to a very minimum at all times is extremely important to confine ringworm spreading. Do change and wash your bedding in hot water and bleach daily. Any other pets in the household should be treated even thou no signs of ringworm is apparent. When will these measures end? The treatment is ongoing until two negative lab tests of your cat’s results indicate the cat is ringworm free than you are good to go!
Ringworm Creams
What kind of ringworm cream should I be using. Using an anti-fugal cream is the most effective treatment for human ringworm. Since ringworm is extremely contagious and is a fungal infection, it shows on the skin as a red ring shaped rash. The center of the rash might look healthy with the outer edges of the ring being raised and crusty. The rash does get itchy and is not painful. The discomfort occurs from the itching of the area.
Ringworm is not an insect or worm but a type of fungus. Anti-fungus creams are used to treat the human infection. Dips and shampoos are used for pet treatments. Typical treatments for humans are creams and at times oral medication if the infection is throughout the body. Most of the ringworm kinds can be cured using over the counter medication. Athlete’s foot found on the feet and jock itch found in the groin area is known as ringworm. Athlete’s foot and jock itch require more then over the counter remedies. Clotrimazole or miconazole ingredients are found in the ointments and creams available without a prescription usually. Lotrimin, Micatin, Monistat and Tinactin are brand name anti-fungal creams that may use clotrimazole or micronazole ingredients. Name brand Lamisil contains terbinafine, a drug that is used for treating fungus. Firstly, the rash area needs to be washed with soap and water and dried completely before any type of cream is applied. When applying the anti-fungal cream, apply to the rash spreading the cream beyond the border of the rash. Don’t forget not to stop with the medication because the symptoms have disappeared or decreased in size. In most cases, the treatment is continued usually from two to four weeks in duration.
What happens if I am not having success with my self treatment? If the rash has had no improvements within a two week period, it’s time to seek a medical doctor. The doctor will have different medications that can be prescribe in order to assist the ringworm infection. Allylamines is medication that can be used which comes in a gel, pill or cream form.
Ringworm can also be visible in the scalp or under the nails aswell. Fungal nail infections are usually hard to cure. The fungal nail infections can attack the skin under the nail, the finger or toe nails. You may have success with an anti-fungal lotion, cream or nail polish available without a prescription. The best method can be from your doctor using an anti-fungal pill. The anti-fungal pill is most effective with ringworm of the scalp also. There is prescription creams available for ringworm of the scalp treatments. What is happening is the fungus affects the hair and at times causes the hair to fall out leaving circular patches of missing hair.
Ringworm Remedies
Ringworm is treatable. It is a infection. It is a fungus which appears as a circle shaped rash located on the skin area. Animals can get ringworm to. Ringworm remedies for pets are different than it is for humans.
Treating ringworm in pets is more difficult than humans. Ringworm being highly contagious can spread through contact with bedding and blankets. Washing the infected items is a must using hot water and bleach. Make sure that the ringworm spot is covered by a band-aid or by clothes to reduce ringworm transmission. Ringworm is itchy. Do not itch it. Ringworm can spread fairly easily to different parts of the body by scratching. There is a ten day incubation period with ringworm. Therefore, it will take ten days to show any symptoms or signs.
What should you do if you suspect you have ringworm. Go to your doctor to get a diagnosis thou some people treat ringworm using over the counter treatments. Jock itch and athlete’s foot is closely related to ringworm being a type of fungal infection called “Tinea”. In most cases, jock itch and athlete’s foot is easily treated using over the counter medications sought at any drug store. Since the fungus is only closely related, you may need a prescription from your doctor. If you have ringworm that has spread to other parts of the body, your doctor might prescribe oral medication. Normally, creams get rid of ringworm fairly easily.
Different home remedies to treat ringworm effectively are using raw papaya. The fruit is sliced and rubbed on the rash(es). Another home remedy is using different pastes made separately from butea seeds, mustard seeds or cassia leaves. Some people swear that rubbing a little bit of straight bleach on the rash gets rid of ringworm aswell.
Curing ringworm for good is up to you. The ringworm remedies are fairly easy. You must follow the doctor’s instructions and medication instructions to the letter. If you notice that your rash is gone and the treatment time is not up, don’t stop taking the medication. The rash may look like it disappeared and itchy symptoms are gone, the ringworm is not totally gone. If you stop the treatment prematurely, than in most cases the rash will likely return. It is still contagious and can still be spread. If you don’t see the spot, still cover the ringworm area and limit your contact with pets and other people. If you don’t, the ringworm does spread more than in the beginning stages.
Infected Ringworm Humans Exposed
The word worm is in the name ringworm and yet ringworm is no way caused by a worm or any kind of insect. Ringworm is a fungus infection which can affect animals as well as humans – ringworm humans. A tell-tale red ring which can appear on the infected person’s skin area was coined ringworm.
Ringworm in humans is seen as red circular rashes with healthy skin in the center area. The edges of the rashes are usually raised. It can affect the scalp as well as many parts of the body.
Scalp ringworm can be visible by a small pimple that tends to increase in size. You may note that the scalp might develop rings of rashes similar to ones viewed on different parts of the body. Ringworm scalp is easily seen due to patches of temporary hair baldness. The hair breaks off because the hair is infected and brittle.
Can ringworm appear on human feet? The answer is yes and is known as athlete’s foot. It does not have the same red ring rashes. The treatment for athlete’s foot is accomplished with over the counter medication.
Is ringworm contagious? It definitely is. By contacting with infested clothing, bedding or with scratching ringworm can spread throughout the body.
Direct contact with infected ringworm humans or animals is one way a person gets ringworm. Contacting objects that are infected by animals or humans that have ringworm can cause you to get ringworm. If you have ringworm, avoid your rash from coming into contact with other people or pets. You do not want to spread the infection.
Itching causes the ringworm to spread to different parts of your body. The fungus is spread by scratching the rash and touching or scratching other parts of your body. The rash is not painful but the itching and self control of the itching can be difficult. The treatment will reduce the itching but you have to be strong until this occurs. The itchiness with be at its peak between the third and fifth day. The rash will be still visible at this time thou the treatment has commenced. The symptoms will begin to subside thereafter.
Ringworm has an incubation 10 day period. Therefore, ringworm symptoms will develop 10 days after being exposed. A antifungal cream or prescribe medication will be required by a medical care person once the fungus has been diagnosed. The antifungal cream is the best course of treatment. The cream is applied twice a day on the infected area depending on the cream used. Also, cover the spot or spots with clothing or with a band-aid. Do make sure that the treatment continues for the total time frame suggested by your doctor even thou the rash(s) have disappeared. All house hold fabrics or bedding that has come in contact with the rash should be washed using hot water and bleach. If the uncovered rash does contact with any of your house hold items again, wash everything once again using bleach and hot water.
Ringworm will linger if not treated properly. You have to be diligent. The continuing with the cream for the prescribed time frame is critical to your recovery. The daily changing of the band-aid or clothing at the rash area is mandatory for a speedy recovery.
