Animal Welfare Professionals

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  • 1.  Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-27-2019 05:01 PM

    Whether you were at the Million Cat Challenge webcast on ringworm with Laura Mullen, Shelter Medicine Outreach Manager at the San Francisco SPCA, or you just have questions about managing ringworm in shelters, this is the place for follow-up and discussion! Laura will be stopping by to answer your questions. :)

    Background: In many shelters, ringworm can lead to devastating consequences. However, it does not have to — with proper protocols, it can be safely treated and cured.  

    The San Francisco SPCA saves over 350 animals with ringworm every year. Wanting to do more, they created the SPORE (Shelters Preventing Outbreaks of Ringworm through Education) program in 2013 to teach others how to better detect, treat, and manage ringworm in their shelter.  

    In this webcast,, Laura  outlined research-based protocols that are in use there and examined how those same concepts apply to a variety of different shelters and rescues. She also took a look at a new pilot foster program for ringworm animals called the Finishing School Foster Program that fosters out ringworm animals at the end of their treatment, freeing up space in the shelter to help more animals in need.

    (In case you missed it, it will be on the Million Cat website within a few days of the live event!)


    #ringworm


  • 2.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-27-2019 05:43 PM
      |   view attached

    Here's a copy of Laura Mullen's PowerPoint deck (pdf format).



  • 3.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-28-2019 07:39 AM

    Hi - where can I find the additional question and answers from this webinar that we didn't get to during the presentation?  Thanks!



  • 4.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-28-2019 08:20 AM

    Hi @kittenville - thank you for watching!  Laura will be here over the next few days answering your questions from the webcast.  If you have a particular question, please post it here and we'll get to it ASAP!



  • 5.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-28-2019 11:36 AM

    Great - thanks!



  • 6.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-28-2019 11:43 AM

    Is there an age where kittens are too young for lime sulfer dip/spray?  Our only (so far) encounter with ringworm as a foster was with kittens and their mom - babies were 10 days old when we noticed hair loss that was determined to be ringworm.  We did topical cream for them and baths with anti-fungal shampoo from our vet.  Once they were 5 weeks old and eating food we added the oral Itrafungol for them.  I fully understand that there is a difference between my 6 kittens and their mom in one foster home and the 400+ kittens you may see at a shelter in a year.  So wondering at what age you recommend the lime sulfer dips?



  • 7.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-28-2019 05:04 PM

    Hello Kittenville,

    great question. I have dipped queens with litters as young as 7 days old. We put the queen on Itraconazole, and the kittens will receive a little through her milk. Keep the kittens (and mom) on twice weekly dips. If mom allows, separate kittens from mom, while providing them ample heat support, for 15-20 minutes to allow lime-Sulfur to coat and dry on hair. Most moms enjoy the small break. If stressed keep family together and mom will probably groom the kittens post-dip which is ok, grooming will also mechanically reduce spores from the kittens’ hair coat, reducing chances of infection. At 4 weeks of age we culture and start on oral Itraconazole. We have had some litters avoid infection by doing dips early on and treating mom (and environment!). Other litters have cured quite quickly after the start of oral treatment and mainly had minimal focal lesions. 

    There is actually not much difference between my cats in the shelter and your family in your bathroom. We are all saving lives and providing a safe place for families to grow and cure from this fungal infection. Thank you for treating that family and saving those kittens. 

    Best,

    Laura



  • 8.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-30-2019 12:21 PM

    Hello Everyone and thank you so much for tuning in last Wednesday and learning facts to help us fight this stubborn fungal offender.  I received a list of questions that we did not have time to answer on Wednesday, so I put them all together to answer in one post, but this forum said my post was too long.  I did not want to attach a document for you to have to download/view, so I will be submitting the responses over a series of two posts.  Please continue to ask these great questions.  We can all learn from them.

    --Part One--

    Differences between Wood’s lamps and black lights:

    The true Wood’s lamps shine a slightly more powerful light that is great for monitoring response to treatment and preferred for examining animals finishing treatment.  Wood’s lamps are much more expensive and most shelters and rescues will be put off by the price.  Keep an eye on Ebay, I have seen a few Wood’s lamps go for a much reduced price.  Black lights are excellent screening tools that can capture new lesions well (as they will be much brighter than lesions at the end of treatment).  An example of a great affordable screening black light for shelters/rescues is this one put out by Burmax that you can find on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Fantasea-Woods-Lamp-by-Burmax/dp/B001MP0PKC  I have had many shelters purchase this and it has been a great screening tool and once you become more familiar with it, it can be used to help screen post-treatment cats and is much better than not using any light.  You just have to practice and get your eyes more familiar with finding those hairs on the hair coat.

    Carrier vs early lesion

    I do not really believe in ‘carrier’ cats.  A cat can come in exposed and have spores on the hair, but a sporicidal dip (lime-sulfur or Peroxiwash) will kill all spores on contact and if there is not an active lesion present, then more spores will not be produced.  If a cat came in with some sort of history of exposure and was Wood’s negative and when I cultured it grew to a P3 after 7 days.  I would re-Wood’s lamp the cat.  If it was an early lesion that I did not catch at the first exam, there should be Wood’s positive evidence on the hair shafts after 7 days.  If I was still unsure I would culture the cat again and let it remain in quarantine for 7 more days.  While in quarantine the cat has received multiple sporicidal baths, and no exposure to active spores, so the second culture should be completely negative and that will let us know that the spores were only on the hair coat upon entry and not an active infection

    House 4 kittens separately?

    For my 4 kittens in the box example.  I would house the Wood’s positive kitten directly into positive isolation housing and will probably find him a friend his size to pair up with for the next 8 weeks.  The other three Wood’s negative kittens would remain together in quarantine housing awaiting their culture results.  Keeping kittens together during their early development is essential to raising adoptable cats.  We not only have to treat them medically, but also behaviorally and emotionally.

    Does ringworm actually kill cat/kitten?

    Ringworm is not fatal, it is just a fungus, and given normal environment and immune system, it will self-cure. The only way for an animal to die from ringworm is ending up in a shelter without a plan.

    Medication harmful later in life?

    Studies have shown that Itraconazole, Terbinafine and lime-sulfur are not proven to be harmful to post-treatment animals later in life.  There are some other medications that used to be used, like Griseofulvacin, that did prove to have the potential be harmful to the kidneys and liver, but all studies have said that Itraconazole and Terbinafine are safe to use on animals of all ages.

     



  • 9.  RE: Follow-up: Fighting Fungus with Facts!

    Posted 03-30-2019 12:23 PM

    --Part Two--

    What if no spare bathroom or hardwood floor room?

    It is ideal to have a separate location where a door can be closed in order to avoid risk and exposure to other animals and environmental contamination in the house.  However, there are times when we cannot do the ideal and have to deal with reality of what we have.  The most important thing for you to do is keep on top of topical therapy (lime-sulfur) so that the spore release is kept to a minimum.  Remember that spore are not ‘air-borne’ but rather ‘hair-borne’ adhering to things like dust and hair.  So routinely using things like Swiffer products to continually collect the dust and hair will keep your environmental containment more successful.  Also some people feel better about covering the enclosure’s sides and top, just leaving the front open, it helps to keep more dust and debris in the enclosure.  Also if you are worried about resident animal exposure, you could always give them a protective sporicidal dip a few times during the foster period.

    Is housing cultures at room temperature OK?

    Yes, they will grow at room temperature, in a drawer, but depending on how warm or cold your room is, the spores may take longer to inoculate.  For instance, I can culture one animal on two different cultures and store one at 85 degrees and one at room temp (70 degrees).  I will see the start of growth on the warmer culture starting about day 4-5 and it would probably take until day 7-8 on the room temperature culture.  They will yield the same results, but you will get slightly faster ones with it being warmer. In my shelter, I need to check my cultures on day 6 to determine their next steps, so I have found that this works best for our program.

    Why 21 days consecutive vs pulsing, OK for smaller than 2 #s

    In the presentation I talked about the fact that Itraconazole builds up in the fat layer and kittens do not have that much fat to store the Itraconazole.  We found that the 21 consecutive days worked for some kittens that came with minimal lesions, but most of our kittens come in with multiple lesions and the more of a spore load they came in with, the least successful the consecutive day treatment plan was.  We are still giving only 21 days, but just splitting it up by week.  We also found that pulsing the medication week on/week off helped with some GI upset that sometimes happens at the beginning of treatment.  But really, do what works for you.  As long as you have some way to confirm they are cured, then keep doing what you are doing.  Thank you for treating!

    Accel strength for ringworm cleaning

    We use 1:16 with a contact time of 5 minutes. 

    Cleaning cat trees after exposure

    Remove cat hair with brush.  Apply Accel 1:16, allow to dry in sun (UV rays help kill spores).  Use for adult non-contagious housing.  Avoid re-using in kitten housing.

    Wood’s lamp screening only vs use of cultures

    I have worked with a few shelters that use solely Wood’s lamp screening and do not use cultures.  I think it is OK, especially if it has been working for you.  You just need to be sure that you fully know how to use it.  There are some times that my animals are culturally cleared, but upon Wood’s lamp exam, they have an adherence of florescence at the tips of their hairs (kind of looks like fiber optics) and so if you are waiting for the hair to be completely clear of glow, the animal might stay longer in isolation than needed.  The Wood’s lamp is a fabulous tool if you know how to use it correctly.  With the correct guide and knowledge, I don’t see why you can’t use it as a tool to gage cure.  Since my program is large and my administration wants ‘proof’ that the animal is cured, we have to rely on cultures to back up our treatment progress.  Cultures are not that pricy, but you need to have staff to interpret it and if you have been successful without the use of them, then save your money and keep saving lives.  But if you find that some animals are going through your treatment without being fully cured and then re-infecting themselves and others (in post-adoptive homes or at adoption center), you might be asked to better confirm that the animals are cured before putting up for adoption and then you would want to utilize cultures to back up your treatment plan.

     

    Please continue to ask questions if you have them, I will be checking this forum over the next few days so I do not miss anyone's response.

    Thank you!!

    -Laura