Did you know? Ringworm...

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Sycamore Chins

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
750
Location
Fayetteville, NC
There are various species of 'ringworm' that affect common household pets.
These include:
Microsporum canis - mostly found in cats (surprisingly) and dogs, *rarely* found in rodents (reports of guinea pigs, and the occasional prairie dog or chinchilla)
Microsporum gypseum - mostly found in dogs, followed by cats, and rodents
Trichophyton mentagrophytes - found in dogs, cats, and rodents (commonly transmitted to dogs and cats by digging in rodent burrows)

Only ~50% of Microsporum canis will fluoresce when exposed to a Wood's Lamp (Black light). The other species do not!

The point: Using a Wood's lamp is pretty much a useless diagnostic in our rodents!

The best diagnostics:
1) A culture on the hair follicles from the affected area - this can be easily done at most vet hospitals but can take some time (up to 2 weeks) for results since fungus is slow-growing.
2) Examination of the affected hairs under a microscope, using a stain, looking for the fungal spores.

I've attached an excellent journal article on fungal diseases in rodents.
It also includes drugs for more serious treatments, but there is a thread here on CnH with the basic treatment.

(And if anyone finds an article that they want to read but can't access (have to pay or something) let me know - I have access through two universities to various journals and could probably get anything between the two!)
 

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  • Fungal Diseases.pdf
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Alicyn, I am going to move this to the article forum, so that it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. We're really trying to build up a good reference section there and this is very helpful information.
 
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