Cats showing symptoms of ringworm are being treated.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – The Franklin County Animal Shelter is expected to stay closed for another two weeks or more. A litter of stray kittens was brought to the shelter and had ringworm, a fungal disease.

The shelter opted to treat the kittens and despite shelter workers’ best efforts to keep the area thoroughly clean, another batch of kittens at the shelter caught ringworm.

As of Tuesday, nine kittens had ringworm.

“It’s not deadly, it’s an inconvenience; it’s difficult to get rid of and it’s contagious to humans,” shelter manager Patty Lovewell said.

There’s no worm, she said.

The reason it is called ringworm, a fungal infection of the skin, is because the infected spot is circular with raised edges, she said.

The most common method of infection is from contact with infected hair because hairs, which are covered with spores that could become airborne and tend to remain in environments, are a key source for re-infecting animals and people, according to Facts About Ringworm, put out on the Internet by Newman Veterinary Medical Services.

Ringworm is in the soil and in the environment, Lovell said.

The disease doesn’t really go after healthy animals, it goes after the ones with a weaker immune system, Lovell said.

This year, there seems to be more breakouts than normal, Lovell said, because of the weather.

“We had a very, wet cool spring, a summer not as dry as usual and a wet, cool fall,” she said.

The usual spots for ringworm to develop are on an extremity, an arm, a leg, above a nose, she said.

Shelter workers are treating the cats that have symptoms and the ones that don’t are getting preventative treatment, Lovell said.

“We are also keeping an eye on the dogs,” she said. “Currently we’re not seeing any symptoms on the dogs.”

The shelter is not accepting animals or allowing animals to be adopted during this time.

“I’m exhausted,” Lovell said.

It’s the second precautionary closure of the shelter within a year. The last time was when a stray dog tested positive for parvovirus, a intestinal infection, soon after coming to the shelter.

Lovell said she and staff members are in the process of cleaning and painting the shelter.

All the rooms have been scrubbed down with a bleach and water solution and everything is being repainted.

The shelter will stay closed until all the symptoms are gone and the tests on the cats come back negative for a fungal culture, she said.

Treatment, cleanup and repainting is taxing the shelter’s financial resources. Donations of pet food, household cleaning supplies such as bleach, laundry detergent and dish detergent could be used.

Stray animals picked up by animal control officers in various towns will go to other shelters outside Franklin County, Lovell said.

Jay Animal Control Officer Larry Wright said he picked up a dog last Saturday and took it to the Kennebec Valley Humane Society in Augusta. The owner of the dog called and the pair was reunited.

Wright and Lovell said that’s why it’s important to put identification tags on animals. If the dog is licensed, Wright said, he could go to the town office and look up the owner.

Cats are la ittle bit more difficult, he said, but sometimes owners put collars on them with names, addressed and telephone numbers.

Farmington Animal Control Officer Wayne Atwood said so far he has been able to return stray animals to owners. But if he cannot locate the owner, he has a variety of shelters to contact including Skowhegan, Augusta and Fairfield.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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