sadness

Thank you Dr. Palmini for publicly answering these questions.
We do appreciate that.

I must offer another point of view from the veterinary community. When I heard about the mass extermination of 23 cats at the IMHS shelter, my first reaction was disbelief, then horror, then anger. Disbelief that anyone would consider euthanasia as a treatment of choice for a group of cats, of which only 3 (of the 20) had skin lesions that presumably were cultured positive for ringworm. Horror that the other 20 cats were never cultured at all and were assumed to be “in the process of incubating ringworm” and were therefore sent to their death. Anger that a shelter, which has been a part of our community for about 30 years, and is privately funded through grants and public donations from this very same community, would make such a horrendous decision without the benefit of an appeal to the community for help and perhaps even soliciting a second opinion from one of the other veterinarians in the community. All of the veterinarians along the 285 corridor donate to the IMHS on a regular basis either with their time, or money, or by providing pro bono and/or discounted veterinary services, or sponsorship of fund raising activities. Speaking for myself and perhaps for all of us, we would have done anything at all to prevent this tragedy from occurring had we known that it was going to occur. True transparency is letting people know about events before, during and after they occur; not just after.
These cats did not need to be euthanized. Ringworm is a very treatable condition in both animals and people. It is not a lethal disease. The fungal spores are ubiquitous in the environment. They are in the soil, where many times people can contract ringworm from gardening and children can get it from playing in the dirt. The spores can also be carried on the haircoats of dogs and cats and not cause any lesions or symptoms on the pets but can be spread to other pets and people. In fact, people with ringworm lesions that they contracted from other sources can pass the infection on to their own pets! Ringworm is most common in puppies and kittens and in stressed animals, such as those housed in a shelter or kennel with poor husbandry and or overcrowded conditions. Adult animals are less likely to get the disease even if they have been exposed to another pet that is infected with the fungus. Animals that have already had exposure to ringworm seem to develop some immunity to it, and even if they develop the infection again, the lesion will be smaller and resolve more quickly. This also appears to be the case in many people. Many animals and people that are exposed to the spores never even develop lesions. In my almost 30 years of practicing veterinary medicine, I have successfully treated many cases of ringworm in both dogs and cats. There are many new drug protocols available now that do not require daily medication be administered to cats. Nor is it necessary to constantly dip or shampoo these pets.
What I find ironic is that the cat that developed the first lesion was from outside of the community from another shelter in Denver, presumably sent to the IMHS to avoid euthanasia at that shelter. Then it was euthanized here anyway. Perhaps someone in our community would have been willing to give that first cat a home and treat it had they known of its situation (death vs. adoption and treatment). There are many pet owners in our community who are able to assume the “risks” of housing and treating a dog or cat for ringworm. I have rarely ever had a pet owner who took care of a ringworm infested animal have all their other pets also develop serious lesions. It will happen from time to time, but it is not common. I have never heard of “neighborhood outbreaks of the disease” that resulted from someone treating their ringworm infected pet. Perhaps some epidemiologists could comment on that for us.
There is a standard protocol in veterinary medicine known as the brush technique to culture seemingly normal cats for ringworm. A brand new toothbrush is used on each cat and is brushed through the hair coat of the cat and the bristles are allowed to inoculate the culture media several times. Cultures take about 3-5 days to be read, at which time a determination can be made if a cat is actively carrying the disease. The 20 cats that were asymptomatic for lesions should have been cultured and if they were negative on the first go around, they could have been placed in a home situation as a “possibly infected cat”, but perhaps they were never going to get the infection anyway. Again, if the community had been notified of the problem at the shelter, I believe people would have stepped forward to help. When it becomes a death vs. foster temporarily situation, people will come forward to help. The three cats that had lesions could have gone to foster homes that were experienced in taking any necessary precautions to avoid exposing the cats to “all the neighborhood children.”
Historically, IMHS has always had cases of ringworm appear in the animals that were housed at the shelter. Many of these were carried in by the kittens and puppies that came to the shelter. All animal shelters are always battling ringworm. It is always going to come back, especially in shelter environments such as what currently exists at the IMHS shelter (older, less desirable materials for flooring, cages, etc; lack of proper dedicated isolation rooms, movement between the people that come to look at the pets in the different areas) Unfortunately, our small community does not have the resources to build a facility that has just opened to replace the old Table Mountain Shelter. And that may always be the case up here. How will IMHS handle the next outbreak??
I also have concerns about the timing of this latest outbreak of ringworm at the shelter and the recent change at the shelter of using pellets that are mass produced to be burned in pellet stoves as a form of litter in the litter boxes. This was done about 3 weeks before the outbreak. Did anyone at IMHS research whether pellet stove pellets could be a source of fungal spores?? Since they are produced from dead pine trees (some of which are beetle killed and all of us in CO know how the beetles and fungus work together to kill the trees), are they treated with a fungistat? Is it good to expose cats to chemically treated pellet stove pellets??
And why is it the cats that are always persecuted? What if this had been 23 dogs? Would they have all been euthanized like the cats were? Why were litters of kittens euthanized by IMHS in 2009 because they had ringworm??
I was told by two different board members that the decision to euthanize was either financial (the shelter would have been closed for 2-3 months while the cats were treated there, but yet they could not be treated successfully there anyway). Or it was a liability issue (we can’t have these cats out in our community being treated because it is a public health issue and everyone out there in the community is going to get ringworm and sue us). Or it was ethical (look at all the other animals we are going to be able to save and adopt out if we can get rid of these cats and decontaminate the shelter and reopen quicker).
Consider this scenario - once it was determined that the shelter had once again housed a pet that had ringworm and was going to need to be disinfected anyway whether the cats stayed at the facility or not becomes unimportant. The cats should all have been cultured, an appeal sent out to the community for help. People that volunteered to house these cats could have signed a waiver that they understood there was a risk involved in exposing themselves to a cat that had been exposed to a cat that had ringworm lesions, etc, etc. Granted this would have taken a bit of time and effort, but we would have saved 23 innocent lives. Isn’t that what the Humane Societies are all about?? Taking in the strays and the homeless and the huge number of abandoned and relinquished pets and doing everything possible to place them in loving permanent homes?? Some of those 23 cats that were euthanized were most likely specifically relinquished to IMHS because they are known as a “no kill or low kill shelter”, which means that their cat had a greater chance of being placed into a home. How would these people feel now if they knew what happened to their cat??

Thank you for your post Dr. Johnson. You certainly spoke for me and for many others in our community.

Thank You Dr. Johnson, another valuable perspective. For what it's worth I think you are right.

Thank you for your post Dr. Johnson. You certainly spoke for me and for many others in our community.

Me too. I'm definitely still upset about this.

I am happy to see all the vets giving us their expert opinions.

Thank you!

I'm with Lori 100% on this.

I doubt I will ever trust IMHS again. It is sad that cats are considered so expendable. I believe that had the shelter killed all of its dogs there would have been a community outcry so loud it would have hit CNN. Cats, what the heck, just make a very long butt-covering announcement after the murder--no crime there.

I really thought that when the current management took over at IMHS things were better. I guess not.

Yes Dr. Johnson - I was the foster parent for the litter of kittens who were euthanized because they had ringworm (this is their photo as my Avatar). I would have gladly taken them back and treated them, using my own money, if I had just been given the opportunity. Thank you so much for adding your thoughts.

I hope the board members are hearing that perhaps another vet's opinion on this topic should be considered and their policy revamped. Is there a physician that can also chime in on the effects on humans of ringworm?

I remember having ringworm as a child - I can't remember the treatment but it was cleared up very quickly..............don't know how it would affect an adult but it wasn't bad as a child.

I had a bump on my hand that was bothering me about a year or so ago - saw the doctor and he diagnosed ringworm. We don't know where it came from but applying a topical cream for a few weeks was all that I had to do. No one else in the family was affected.