Ring worm symptoms
I get a lot of questions about ring worm and how it shows up and what the symptoms are in animals – sometimes I diagnose the owners too – if they come in (or their children come in) with similar symptoms!
There is a lot of misconceptions about ring worm and any zoonotic disease for that matter – many owners are aghast that they can catch anything from their beloved pets. But that is the truth, there are more than a handful of what we vets call zoonotic (animal borne diseases that infect humans) diseases. Ring worm is one of the more common and easily identifiable ones.
What is ring worm anyway?
Ring worm is the common name used for a type of fungal infection. There are 3 major types of ring worm – Microsporum, Trychophyton and Epidermophyton. The first 2 are the ones which infect animals whilst the third Epidermophyton usually only causes problems in humans (athlete’s foot/tinea). Microsporum canis is by far the most common ring worm found on dogs and cats. It can also be spread to humans. That’s the bad news, the good news is that unless the animal is immune suppressed, ring worm generally runs its own course in a matter of 6-8 weeks and the symptoms resolve on its own with or without treatment. Having said that, most vets opt to treat ring worm in the animals that have it so as to stop further spread to owners or other animals and to ensure adequate control of the disease.
What are the symptoms?
Patches of hair loss which look like circular scaly areas with raised edges. In most cases, ring worm is not itchy. The ring worm actually works its way outwards from the initial point of contact hence the circular zone looks to be expanding (the innermost area of the lesion is the area already healing and the outermost raised area is the area where the ring worm is the most active). Ring worm generally appears as spots around the head, ears, tail and feet of animals. The symptoms an animal shows can be very variable. Some animals show little or no hair loss at all and seem relatively unperturbed whilst others have marked hair loss with pronounced scaly lesions which can extend to the whole body.
How does your vet diagnose ring worm?
Microsporum canis shows up with a yellow-green fluorescence when you shine a UV lamp on it. Vets call this the Wood’s lamp and the lesions infected with this particular type of ring worm will ‘glow’. To rule out ring worm definitively, a ‘toothbrush’ test is conducted where the hairs around the area are given a good brushing over and the bristles of the brush sent away for fungal culture.
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