Welcome to January's Case of the Month! This month we'll see another case involving a fungus.

ANOTHER FUNGUS AMONG US

HISTORY

Chewy was a 2-year old cat who came to us for a skin problem. He'd had a rash and hair loss around his head for about a month. It seemed to get better for a while, then came back.

PHYSICAL FINDINGS

Chewy was normal on his exam except for a few scabby areas on his head. He had hair missing, and a red rim around the irritated areas.

TREATMENT

Chewy's skin appeared very much like Joey's last month, except the skin itself seemed a little more irritated, and he had a suspicious aspect to his problem: a red rim around the site. This can appear with certain bacterial infections, but often makes us think about a fungal infection. As we did with Joey, we took a fungal culture. Pretty quickly, we something growing in the culture. In addition, a fungal indicator in the test medium had changed color, indicating the presence of a pathogenic (disease-causing) fungus.

Here's a closer view:

This is a spore structure characteristic of Microsporum, a fungus commonly responsible for skin infections in pets (and people). Chewy was started on anti-fungal medications.

DISCUSSION

Dermatophytosis is the medical term for Chewy's problem; it's also known as ringworm. It's an organism that lives normally in the soil, can sometimes be carried by cats without signs of infection, and can also affect people. It's not real common, but can be a tough problem when you encounter it.

See you next month!

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