07/07/2023
Ringworm Ringworm Ringworm….
What is ringworm? It's a fungus similar to athlete's foot or a yeast infection. It’s NOT actually a worm. Athletes foot is just Ringworm on the feet!
Take a look at this article by Denver Kittens, we couldn’t put it any better ourselves!
🐈⬛ https://www.denverkittens.com/post/we-need-to-stop-freaking-out-about-ringworm 🐈⬛
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▪️ Thismorning one of our litters of foster kitties broke with ringworm. It’s a litter of three, and currently only 1 of them has one little spot on her leg! (First Photo)
Our foster informed us as soon as she saw something was off and we got over there with Itrafungol asap to begin treatment on the whole litter thismorning! Since our amazing foster was so vigilant and treatment began so quick this little love will only have a very mild case of ringworm and it will likely clear up very quickly!
Now keep in mind this litter of 3 have been with us for over a month! They’ve completed their intake hold, They haven’t attended any in person events, haven’t been exposed to any other animals in or out of the home, and all of the foster supplies provided were brand new for a brand new foster! According to Ringworm research it should only be about 7-21 days for a cat to break with symptoms…. So why they have broke with it at over 30 days we unfortunately just can’t understand!
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▪️ Now let’s talk about the adorable little grey kitty in the second photo, Scott! Sweet Scott came into rescue, completed his 14 day intake hold, and went on to be adopted! The photo of him on the kitty tree looking awfully handsome was the evening before his adoption😍
10 days after his adoption, and almost 30 days after having entered rescue, we received a message about how he was doing great but there’s a couple scabs on his ears now and we should “Check our foster to make sure they’re ‘actually’ taking care of them”. (A lovely implication!) At that time we resent over the free after adoption exam provided at adoption, and said we’d check the rest of the litter not knowing what it may be at the time. (Thankfully are the rest of the litter never got it!) and we asked that they keep us updated after a vet appointment.
Then 7 days later (17 days after adoption) Sweet Scott’s adoptive family send a photo of Scott absolutely COVERED in ringworm in the bathtub. (3rd photo) Accompanying the photo was the text “Think you guys knowingly sold me a sick cat. Will take to vet tomorrow nd keep you updated.” (A vet appointment that would never happen) Upon receiving the text we realized that they had not taken him to see a vet since knowing about the scabbing 7 days prior, they had not provided timely medical care to our adopted baby, and now it’s progressed far along to the point where his whole body was covered in it.
Within an hour of the text we had an email asking if we take returns. To which we immediately responded YES absolutely! We were thrilled to get our kitten back knowing that the second he was back with us we could begin the medical treatment this adopter neglected to provide. The next day we picked Scott up and got him started on his treatment! Within 2 hours of picking Scott up we received an email asking for us to replace him with a “healthy kitten”.
Now, personally we couldn’t bring ourselves to give another kitten to a family who failed to provide timely medical care. Scott’s road to recovery will be a lot longer than the kitten who broke with RW while in our care. This family discarded him like trash. We provide after adoption support. We provide an exam. We provide insurance. We provide meds when necessary. But to them, Scott wasn’t worth a FREE after adoption exam. Scott wasn’t worth Rescue provided pet insurance. Scott wasn’t worth their time. Scott wasn’t worth saving.
Ringworm, while annoying, is VERY low on this list of severe medical issues for a kitten. What if it was an allergic reaction? What if it was calci virus? What if it was panleuk? What if it was something serious or deadly. What if this was a life or death situation and they failed to provide what was needed…. Luckily, this was -just- ringworm! But if they’re unwilling to treat an easy thing, we can only imagine that anything worse would have been ignored too, and we can’t bare that thought.
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The reality of rescue is NOT cute fluffy kittens who come in and immediately get to go home and live perfectly healthy happy lives. The reality of cat rescue is sickness. It’s ringworm and hair loss. It’s kitten sneezes and watery, goopy, runny, eyes. It’s injuries and calci virus. Its the dreaded panleuk. It’s fleas and ear mites and actual worms. It’s late nights of giving fluids and syringe feeding kittens when they’re too weak to eat on their own. It’s doing everything you can to make sure you give these little guys their best chance at forever. It’s never knowing when an animal is going to break with something at any time despite any best effort to keep them healthy.
As much as we would love to be able to guarantee no animal ever goes home with any sort of illness, that’s simply not the reality. We can’t prevent ringworm. We can’t prevent incubating illnesses from breaking at any given time - but what we can do is guarantee that when they do break we will provide them with any treatment necessary for them to get back to healthy. That’s what rescue is about.
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For anyone who does think 4 weeks of treatment IS worth it…. Scott, as well as the litter of three are available for foster to adopt! They are all absolute sweethearts and all are fully vetted. They’re in perfect health despite a little bit of ringworm/athletes foot. We will provide all medical care for them while they’re undergoing treatment! Treatment for this is alternating weeks of itrafungol. (7 days on, 7 days off, 7 days on, 7 days off) Scott is about to finish off his first week!
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‼️Typically an experience with an adopter such as this is something that would be kept as something we share with only other rescue groups to alert them of poor adopters. However, due to this adopters erratic behavior we feel it necessary to share here with you all so you can all be vigilant in looking for any fake MHM pages while we deal with this legally! If you see a fake page, please report it to us and to whichever social media outlet you find it on!‼️
