Hi
Please don't feel bad as an owner; you clearly aren't and you have done the best you could with the knowledge and information you had. Ringworm can really get into your head. You are in good company. Please don't apologise.
I've had ringworm coming back and I've found out the hard way just how long spores can stay live to cause reinfections as well as in how many ways they can be passed on (including via the clothes you wear when handling piggies) to cause reinfections.
Only that I have put all those tough lessons together with others learned from cases here on the forum, including experiences from which treatments are more effective and which are not. I have tried to really think things through systematically in terms of a comprehensive and effective hygiene regime from start to finish and then I have tried to compile it all in our step by step ringworm guide that takes you through the whole battle.
When I wrote the guide there was just no advice on the crucial hygiene aspect anywhere and interest was generally more in how cheaply people could get away with home DIY treatment, which generally resulted in long running battles and messes that ultimately cost them more than if they had invested in good quality treatment and put in the hard work.
What most vets and owners are sadly not aware of is that ringworm is not so much about treatment of the affected patches but it is essentially a war against the spores and it is basically much more of a hygiene battle than an illness issue in order to get on top it. It is usually the gaps in the hygiene that trip most owners up and that turn ringworn into such a soul-crushing endless saga.
If your rescue can give you a portion of imaverol for a first dip, that is great but ideally the start of treatment should coincide with a cage and cage furniture deep clean with F10 (as the disinfectant that is the most effective in our own collective experience) so you start with all the environmental spores out of the way as well, which really cuts down on the risk of further patches a week or two later.
Change the bedding and give all the housing a wipe while your piggies are drying off after every dip so you start each time with zero spores and a minimal reinfection risk. I know very well what a pain it is but ringworm is the one health issue where it is worth throwing the bathtub after the kitchen sink for a relatively short time for the sake of long term peace of mind and where it really doesn't pay to cut corners or skimp.
Unfortunately, it takes 10-14 days between infection and acute outbreak with ringworm. The regular dips and any oral treatment can break the cycle in those patches that have not yet become acute and visible. Once the patches are out, they have to run their course. The highly infectious spores are only spread by the acute patches, but they are shed in their thousands and all it takes is one single spore to start a new round.
A second deep clean at the end of the ringworm treatment coinciding with one last bath means that no further spores are carried across and that you can restart with a totally clean slate. This last bath and deep clean are crucial in our experience in order to minimise the risk of a recurrance. Using different bedding/housing during treatment or re-starting with totally new bedding and housing can help, especially in cases of a long running saga or with people who are dealing with ringworm piggies on a more regular basis.
Make sure that you really cover the whole body of the piggies with your dip and that the cage, its contents and its surroundings are all totally free of spores.
The good news is that this time you will hopefully have a manic fortnight but that after that you are free of ringworm or can cap it before it can really take off. Just concentrate on the light at the end of the tunnel to get through it. I promise you, it will never, ever get as bad as this ever again!
PS: After the first bout of ringworm (which was the worst since I transmitted it to another group via my pullover) I washed my cheap fleecy spare 'ringworm' bed covers from Primark and the grotty cotton towels for underlay at 90 C (the fleeces are big enough for my hospital cage that shrinking doesn't matter) and submerged any second-hand plastic 'ringworm' housing completely in a bucket with F10 concentrate and water mix to dry in the sun afterwards. Then I put it all away in a bag in the attic so I only had to dig my ringworm stuff out again for my quarantine cage in an area that can be easily wiped down and disinfected around the treatment cage in a different room to my other piggies. I still have that bag with my old ringworm stuff although I haven't had any ringworm for 8 years now - touch F10-soaked wood!
I would recommend that you do the same with your ringworm bedding in case there is one rogue spore that has escaped but this time you will have everything in hand (disinfectant and treatment) to step in asap so it will never get near as bad again even if you are unlucky. I would also recommend that you continue using a less strong concentration of F10 for cage cleaning or a stronger mix for another deep clean once a month as well as giving your housing a regular wipe, just to minimise any risks of returns.
I sincerely hope that this helps you.
PS: There have obviously been some bad experiences with itrafungol so vets are more reluctant to prescribe it unless everything else fails these days than they used to. Personally, none of my piggies has ever had a problem with it.
The same also goes with cisapride which only came in after zantac (ranitidine) was withdrawn from the market. Cisapride has much more secondary risks of serious side effects and it should only be used with consideration. Sadly, the human demand for ranitidine by far outstrips production so it is very difficult for vets to get hold of it even though it is more effective for bloating in guinea pigs etc. than cisapride.
Thanks in advance x
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Will keep you informed! x
