Dear Cherie: While Fulvicin is not horrendously toxic, any kind of chemical we put on our pets can be potentially harmful, especially to young kittens and pups. I had a cat once that crashed from a spot-on flea product and went into in toxic shock, yet many cats tolerate such products quite well. I had to take her to emergency and she had to have a blood transfusion. My first choice in treating a problem is to go with an herbal or homeopathic remedy and only use drug therapy as a last resort.
I have never had to deal with ringworm and while it is a fungal type thing, it usually most affects those whose immune function is not up to snuff. Young kittens and pups who have immature immune systems and are not in the best condition, as is often the case with feral or abandoned kittens (and adults, too) are likely victims. Once it gets started, it can spread quite easily, so you do want to make sure it is not ringworm before you bring the new kitty home unless you have a place to isolate her and are careful with hygiene. I can understand where the kitten's foster mom is coming from...I do rescue and there are lots of times when I have to wing it in treating minor problems, but I only do so with something I have experience treating and I always try a kinder, gentler method to start with. But if that isn't working and a problem is not responding, I will find a way to get the furkid to vet to find out for sure what I am dealing with. I do find it a bit irritating that even after you offered to pay for the treatment that she can't find time to take the kitten to a vet, but then who knows what else and all she has on her plate to deal with. I am not well-versed on dealing with ringworm. I do know that when exposed to a certain kind of light or perhaps a chemical of some sort, because ringworm is a fungus (not a parasite as the name implies) it will, typically "flouresce." But I also know from chatting with listmember Nina ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) who recently had a ringworm "scare" with one of her dogs, that sometimes a ringworm infection does not present "typical" symptoms. Have you tried doing a search to find out more about ringworm and how to treat it? I do have another friend who does rescue and she took in two kittens in very poor condition that had ringworm. I don't remember what she treated them with, but they both recovered and the infection did not spread to any of her healthy kittys. Another friend took the third sibling to the two, and she did have two older kittens that seemed to be mildly affected from exposure to that kitten, with a few tiny spots appearing on their ears that went away quickly with treatment. As with the spread of FeLV, a healthy adult cat is more resistant to infection, but there is always a chance. How far away from you is the kitten? Would you be able to go there and take her to a vet if the foster mom won't cooperate? I really don't understand her attitude as when I have a good potential home for one of my rescues, I will try to walk on water if need be to do everything I can to facilitate the placement. You might try one more time to talk to her and insist that you need to know for sure what is going on with the kitten and be sure it is not something contagious that could spread to your other cats. It is her responsibility to make sure you are adopting a healthy cat, or at least made fully aware of any health problems and just what you are dealing with. You might try telling her if she is not willing to do that you could very easily find another kitten to adopt, but I know I would have a hard time doing that for fear she would say fine, go ahead, out of spite. It all depends on how desperate she is to get the kitten adopted. If it were an older cat I'd be less worried about that, but kittens are much easier to place than older cats. During kitten season, it is almost impossible to place older cats and we sometimes have more people wanting to adopt kittens than we have kittens available. If you go ahead and take the kitten now, do you have a friend or neighbor who could keep her for you for a day or two until you can get a clean bill of health from your own vet?? It's a tough call. I hope you are able to find a way to solve this without taking an undue risk. Sally in San Jose
