My cat's skin problem came back after antifungal cream. What's wrong?

Hi and thank you for using PetCoach. If the fungal infection is ringworm, it can take weeks to months to fully resolve. Many times treating the environment as well as the cat is needed. Keep Mia indoors may make it easier to contain the infection and prevent reinfection. The vet can look at hairs under the microscope or try to culture the fungus from Mia to assess if she still has it. Here is more information on Ringworm that may help. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=559

This looks like quite a nasty skin infection likely caused by a fungus or bacteria. I would return to your vet and asked for it to be tested to find out exactly what it is. If it is fungus it can require extensive treatment.

Hello, It would be helpful to know what your veterinarian recommended for the next step of Bella's treatment at her recheck. Fungal infections that are not responding to topical treatment often require a course of oral medications. Skin is the largest organ in the body, so it takes the longest to respond to infection treatments. Many skin infections require a full 6-8 weeks of treatment. Skin infections can also be complicated by allergies, underlying endocrine disease, or associated immune mediated or dermatological disease. This means sometimes an underlying problem may need to be addressed to fully resolve the skin issue. I hope this is helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hello. Yes, sometimes ringworm can be stubborn. If your cat has numerous lesions, or they are along the eyes and mouth, your cat should be on an oral antifungal medication. Also, cats will often lick the medication off as soon as you apply it, so it is not effective. If you are not using an Elizabethan collar, that could help prevent licking. Cases that do not respond to topical treatment often do better with a prescription oral antifungal. I would also make sure that it is actually ringworm. It may need to be rechecked by your veterinarian. Thank you

Poor Babbi! Babbi really needs to be seen by the vet if that hasn't been improving with the topical clotrimazole. She likely needs systemic medication (either oral or injectable), given the severity of the lesion. If it's not resolving, you may need a biopsy of the skin. We can sometimes see severe changes such as this with other disorders such as autoimmune skin conditions, which would be treated with immunosuppressive medication.

To differentiate mite and fungal infection, a skin scrape and hair plugs and culture are necessary. First of all the underlying cause MUST be diagnosed. After that the appropriate treatment can be given. It is quite useless and pointless to give treatment trial up to the point (if you reach that point!) the skin lesion is resolved. I would recommend to discuss it with your local veterinarian. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

This is not normal and indicates that the infection was not cleared with the original treatment. This happens frequently with fungal infections, because it often takes long-term medication to completely clear the infection. I recommend scheduling a recheck appointment with your vet. They will be able to advise on the next step in the treatment process. I hope that helps and Coda gets better soon.