The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Posted by Esublime (New York, Ny) on 01/07/2016 ★★★★★
My cat Leo contracted ringworm recently. There are a lot of strays in my neighbourhood and the unusually warm winter we are having contributed to damp dark areas in my yard where fungus thrives. Leo must have contracted the day he ran out of the house unexpectedly when I opened the door to let the dogs out. The vet immediately told me it was ringworm and gave me chlorihexidine wipes (an antiseptic) and told me to use Lamisil. I did that for one week and the one spot above his eye spread to his lips, head and neck. I was freaking out because I've had ringworm before and it is itchy, gross, uncomfortable and EXTREMELY contagious. I have 3 other cats and 2 dogs so you can imagine my panic. I turned to Apple Cider Vinegar and, although Leo hates the smell, I have to admit that the raised, angry, red welts of ringworm all over his neck, head and face are quickly subsiding. I have kept him confined to a small room and I keep an e-collar on him to prevent him from scratching or spreading the fungus.
Twice a day, I make a 50-50 mix of ACV and water in a small bowl, wet a couple of cotton balls in it and dab it all over the afflicted spots. I then let the area air dry and immediately apply Lamisil to the spots. So far, it seems to really be working but no matter what you use, it takes about 10-20 days of aggressive treatment to completely rid the animal of ringworm. ACV is great because, despite the harsh smell, you can use it not only treat the ringworm but also to disinfect the room where the cat is being kept. It is extremely important to keep your cat's living quarters disinfected and, just for good measure, I dampen a paper towel and wipe his body down with the ACV mix to make sure that no ringworm spores have been passed to other parts of his body. Also, I have been using an antifungal shampoo for cats/dogs and I wash Leo with it once or twice a week...depending on how slimy he gets with the Lamisil.
I've still got about another 5-10 days to go. It's been a struggle but I honestly cannot recommend a better natural and safe treatment for ringworm (as well as many other ailments) than ACV. It's the best thing for so many applications...especially ringworm!
Posted by Tink's Family (Southern, Missouri) on 11/20/2011 ★★★★★
I just wanted to repost my results with the ACV I used! Our cat has completely recovered and has no ringworm! I treated her by using 1/2 tsp water mixed with 1/2 tsp ACV and dipping a cotton ball in it and applying it to the spot 3x daily! I started noticing results after about 2 days! The treatment took 10-12 days top complete get rid of it! After doing this I bathed her one time in Selsun Blue shampoo! I used a very small and amount and washed her entire body except for her face! I made sure to rinse her really well! I read the Selsun Blue shampoo would remove any other fungus from the ringworm that could be lingering in her coat! I then blow dryed her on the lowest setting and with warm not hot air! Before bringing her back in the home I washed everyones bedding and vaccumed vigorously! I also bleached any surface she had come in contact with! (window seals, tile, food bowls, litter box) I threw out her old bed and just bought a new one and new toys! No one in our family got the ringworm and she never had more thanone spot! She is happy, healthy, and won't return to the vet that she got this from! Sanitation is very important and cleaning their surfaces with bleach water would've prevented this from happening! Good Luck and hope this helps someone else! We will happily celebrate Christmas with our kitty inside to enjoy it too!
Ringworm: TEA TREE OIL IS EXTREMELY TOXIC TO CATS PLEASE DON'T USE IT ON YOUR CAT........ Cats are also extremely sensitive to essential oils, please be careful.......
Posted by Michael (Riverside, Ct, Usa) on 01/05/2010
Sorry, but I really question this post and wonder if its appropriate content for this website: that "apple cider vinegar ate through the lining of a dog's stomach and killed him". Unless you are torturing a dog by making him drink large quantities of undiluted apple cider vinegar, this just ain't going to happen. I have been giving dogs diluted apple cider vinegar in small quantities for years without any problems.
Please have your friend send us the autopsy results proving that apple cider vinegar killed the dog and I will pay more attention.
I can't imagine anyone saying Apple Cider Vinegar is not good to ingest for anyone. My mother in law has been drinking it for years and diluted for pets helps with so many issues. If the pet is coughing it is more likely a smell issue, back of the throat kind of thing. Try a more diluted solution. Try sticking your nose in a bottle and taking a whiff their senses are many times more sensitive. I hear things like this from conventional users all the time. One capful to a cup should work for most issues in a pet.
If you think that apple cider vinegar can't be fed internally you need to do more research. Just read a bag of dog food it is an ingredient in alot of high end and holistic dog foods... Come on learn a little before you open your mouths... If you aren't a vet don't act like one...
Posted by Linda (Yucca Valley, Ca, Usa) on 01/30/2011 ★★★★★
I've fed apple cider vinegar mixed in food to cats with no problems. It works well to help older cats digest food. The claim that apple cider vinegar ate through a dog's stomach is ridiculous. Stomach acid is a lot stronger than any vinegar.
I agree totally with the idea of collodial silver for ringworm. I make my own by the quarts and use it on both chihuahuas who were eat up with ringworm! We have been through hell with this for 5 years. I just put it into a spray bottle and spray them several times a day and then use medicated body powder on top of it and they are quickly recovering! Nothing seems to work for them except collodial silver spray and I have tried everything! I put an e-collar on them to keep them from licking themselves. As for myself, I have been to 10 doctors and I have gotten no help! It seems that they all want to diagnose me with everything but the ringworm so I have suffered a lot of pain and anxiety! I read somewhere online about fungal infections being a 10 million dollar business for the pharmaceutical companies! I now understand why they don't to help me because it is a big money maker....so sad for the people out there like me that have to suffer and receive no help.
The wonderful Theresa from Minneapolis, MN has been helping pet owners and their beloved pets around the world on Earth Clinic since 2013.
About Theresa
Theresa from Minneapolis was born and raised in the inner city, always wishing she had been raised on a farm.
Her love for creatures great and small began at an early age, starting with caterpillars - which continues to this day, along with an interest in all insects and 'creepy crawlies'.
Theresa's interest in pet health started with a bird keeping hobby at age 14, where she learned from another hobbyist that the simple addition of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in a bird's drinking water kept fungal infections away; she was able to share this with her avian vet who in turn prescribed it to her own clients; Theresa was surprised to learn that she could teach her vet a thing or two. This important lesson - that each of us can be a teacher - was a turning point for Theresa, and fueled her quest for the knowledge held in lore, and remedies passed by word of mouth. That quest for knowledge continues to this day, as new and old remedies alike are explored. She may not have experience with a particular issue, but she will research it to the best of her ability and share what she finds freely, in the hopes that you can heal or improve your pet's health.
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How To Show Theresa Your Appreciation
If you would like to thank Theresa for her helpful posts, she asks if you would please consider making a donation to one of her favorite local rescue organizations, or by making a donation to help the genius contributor, Ted from Bangkok, recover from his stroke.
You can use a cotton ball dipped in the ACV to carefully apply to the face. And your vet is correct, you do need to quarantine to avoid contaminating your entire house. I rescued a kitten that had ringworm - I didn't know this until after I had sent the kitten to rescue, and then found all of my DOGS now started to have funny bald spots! The vet confirmed the ringworm with a black light - it glowed bright apple green under the light. So I came up with a battle plan: I bathed the dogs daily in Selsun blue/anti-fungal shampoo. Since I sleep with my pets it meant washing my bedding daily also. I got a black light and used it on the dogs daily - when I found faint green spots under the light, I painted them over with fingernail polish [to seal out the air and smother the fungus]. I used the black light to go over every inch of the house where the dogs could roam and used duct tape to sticky-up anything that glowed green. I had the outbreak quashed and eliminated in 2 weeks.
Posted by Kathie (Houston, Texas/ Usa) on 12/02/2011 ★★★★★
This is not "all natural" but it works. I got ringworm from my cat (he went to the vet for treatment, but I used my mom's home remedy). I dabbed bleach on the fungus twice a day and followed that up each time with athelete's foot medication (over the counter). Within 3 days it was gone, but I treated for four days to make sure!
Posted by Goblueevelyn (Port Austin, Mi) on 01/14/2012
Ana... Ringworm is not a worm... It is a fungus. Do not keep giving your pet the intestinal dewormer. You will need anti fungal cream and shampoo. Neither are very expensive.
Too many people make this bad mistake, Please DO NOT use products for DOGS on CATS...it could be toxic and could lead to seizures and potential brain damage. It can also kill your cat.
I've been giving my 12 cats ACV for more than a year now. I put 5 drops of ACV in a gallon of distilled water for their drink. Ever since then none of my cats have fleas, zero & I comb all of them everyday. They actually love to be combed. Saying that ACV can kill a pet is nonsense. I even put it on my eyes when my eyes gets itchy from allergies.
One of our dogs had ringworm which was not diagnosed bc he bit himself bloody b4 anyone could make out what he actually had. He had many lesions of oozing, bloody then crusty skin and stank. That poor dog. We tried so many different things like Aloe Vera topically and internally, special and expensive food for skin allergies ( that's what the 3 different vets kept telling us it was), white vinegar etc. Nothing really helped long term. After years of agony, I finally saw a spot b4 Zeus could get to it. Now I had a picture to go by and was able to find out that it was ringworm.
Back then there was a post on EC that recommended using coconut oil daily, washing all bedding hot with bleach every other day, and mopping all areas in the house where he might have been laying with a 10% bleach solution. It also stated that it could take an awfully long time to get completely rid of it and to be sure to keep the cleaning and washing up for a while longer even after the last lesion has healed. I thought to myself how crazy the amount of work this is but had no other choice. I also thought that it might take at most 4 to 6 months. Luckily I was a homemaker so with 3 dogs who all used all 3 beds it took me about 5 hrs. (! ) every other day to wash all the bedding, vacuum and mop the beautiful open Floorplan (no, I did not once consider locking my sick dog up by himself in a room of his own) and most importantly wash Zeus and take extra time to massage all lesions with coconut oil and get the crusty, bloody, oozing, hairy stuff off. After about 6 months he seemed to be doing so much better that I eased up on the regiment a bit but was faced shortly after with another outbreak. In the end, it took me about 2 years to get a handle on the ringworm....no way I could have done this if I would have had a day job. This WAS my day job.
In the meantime, I have learned that that is why vets supposedly don't diagnose ringworm as there is no fast cure and it's so time intensive to get rid of that hardly anyone can do it.
Posted by Suzy (Cranbrook, Bc) on 01/16/2012 ★★★★★
A vet friend of mine diagnosed my dog with ringworm and told me to just go to the pharmacy and buy a tube of yeast infection cream and apply it on the ring worm daily - The cream got rid of the ringworm very quickly.
Posted by Lililebron (Pocono, Pa) on 08/22/2009 ★★★★★
i've used avc for my dog for other reasons in the past so i can testify to the usefulness of it. i was pleased to find out that the solution also worked on my puppy's ringworm within a matter of two days! just rubbed some on a paper towel and rubbed it on the ringworm spots on her belly once a day and its nearly cured in no time
Posted by Angie (Titusville, FL) on 04/30/2009 ★★★★★
I have an 11 month old English Bulldog named Diesel. He came down with a terrible case of ringworm after being on steroids and antibiotics for an inverted tail. I read on-line that most of the medicine given internally for ringworm can be damaging to their liver. I came across this site and decided to try the ACV. Let me tell you, it works awesome. It's been 2 weeks and his ringworms are completely gone and the hair is already coming back in.
I gave him a bath in Selsun Blue dandruff shampoo and then put ACV (diluted with water 50/50) in a spray bottle and sprayed him all over with it and rubbed it in with my hands and let him dry naturally. I sprayed him with the ACV everyday for the first week, and then gave him another bath in the dandruff shampoo and sprayed him every other day for the second week. He looks amazing! I just started using it in his ears for the chronic ear infections he gets, so I'll let you know if it works!!
Posted by Sharon (Pace, Florida) on 04/22/2008 ★★★★★
I wrote in the past that I used coconut oil to treat my cats Rhino Virus and ringworm. For myself I take 1 Tbs orally. I have used in on my hair before I wash it. My hair is so soft afterwards.It's great for dandruff. As for my cats I treated the ringworm topically and the rhino virus was treated orally. My cats seem to really like it. They get about a tsp orally. They like it liquid so I run it under hot water. My dogs get about 1 Tbs and they love it too. It has helped Yeast on the skin and allergies. I work as a groomer so I try it for several skin problems.
Posted by Jennifer (Oakland, Oregon, USA) on 04/22/2007 ★★★★★
Dear Earth Clinic My cat was diagnosed with ringworm by my Vet. We tried a prescription ointment but when we tried to put it on the cat ran and hid. Next we tried an oral prescription that didn't help and then two others. The last one seemed to work but was outrageously expensive. After about a year the cat again had the ringworm in the same spot so we invested in the outrageously expensive oral prescription again and it started working but failed to get rid of the ringworm. We had already gone through all the remedies that the vet could give us. We then did lots of research on alternatives. The end result was to try the Virgin Coconut Oil that we have here for us. I let the cat sniff it first then when she didn't run away I put it on every day and in about a week it was gone and it hasn't come back. Hopefully the cat will never get this fungus again but if she does we will be putting on the Coconut Oil.
Ringworm: I tried apple cider vinegar on my dogs and it didn't work. I used providone iodine from the pharmacy and used it twice a day with a cotton ball on the visible spots and it went away. Then diluted in water like tea color and poured on them after bath, careful with eyes!!! It hasn't come back. Always buy the gallon. Better buy!
Posted by Ky Mama (Clinton, Ky) on 11/24/2012 ★★★★★
When my outdoor cats had ringworm, the stuff the vet gave me did not work. I mixed 1 part lavender essential oil, 1 part tea tree essential oil and 2 parts olive oil into a jar. Twice a day I applied this to the cats' ringworm spots. I did this for 2 weeks. (Cotinue to treat for a few days even after it looks healed. ) Apparently essential oils can be too strong for cats, so I diluted it, and my cats had no problem. I was sure it was safer than the vet prescription anyway. I used this same thing on my children when they got ringworm from the cats.
Hello, My 3 month old kitten has ringworm on his face (whisher area, nose, and chin) so I have been applying virgin coconut oil to the sores. Tonight I accidentally got some coconut oil into his eye and his eye is now half-closed and looks teary. I feel so horrible and I don't know what I should do. I can't seem to find any information online about whether or not coconut oil is bad for a cat's eye. If someone knows what I should do, please help. Thank you!
My name is Ana and I'm sixteen years old. I have a one and a half year old dog named Lola. She hasn't had any medical problems so I didn't know what to think of this until my boyfriend said it was ringworm. It's located on her belly. I told my mom and she also didn't know what to do. I told her we were ganna have to take her to the vet but she isn't able to pay for that at the time so I looked for something that I can treat her with here at home. I went to walmart and found her some dog medicine that was for hookworms and large round worms so I got it. I've been giving her 1tsp a day and don't know if it's working. It looks as if she has been scratching at it and it has been peeling off. So I'm not sure. Should I keep giving this to her and wait to see what happened or should I try the ACV remedy?? Help please.!
Posted by Liana (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) on 08/02/2010 ★★★★★
My cat had ringworm that threw me into a panic as an amimal shelter north of Toronto began euthanizing dogs and cats after the outbreak until people began demonstrating and the shelter stopped killing their charges. I found the following remedy against ringworm on the internet and had excellent results: Gentian Violet topical solution (USP 1%).
First I used a q-tip to apply the GV solution. In a week or so, the balding spots on the cat seemed to improve. But then, the cat developed other bald spots which I understood was symptomatic of ring worm. I then encased my hand in a plastic bag, put around a tablespoonful of the GV solution on his balding spots and stroked his fur with it against the grain. I did this once a day for about a month. Now his bald spots are 95% gone and his fur has grown back, looking the way it was pre-ring worm attack. I am truly ecstatic with the results, and I have no doubt, so is the cat. The cat has had purple skin for a while because of the solution but does not seem to be bothered by it at all. Apple cider vinegar did not work well as he promptly scooted away as soon he smelled it. Btw, the cost per 15 ml bottle at the local pharmacies was CDN$5. 00 to $7. 00. I used 3 bottles only.
Posted by Gdsmkg (Las Vegas, Nv, USA) on 12/24/2009 ★★★★★
After adopting a very sick cat from SPCA, he had ear mites, mange, ring worm. I first tried the borax mixture that I found on here, saw a little improvement but not much. Tried olive oil in the ears, was very soothing but didn't seem to do much.
Then I tried one capful of natural apple cider vinegar to a cup of water. I took a cotton ball, dipped it in the mixture, rang it out good. Then cleaned his ears with a slightly moist cotton ball. Within a couple of days I saw a big difference in his ear grime.
So then I thought I would try it for the mange and ring worm, I took the mixture, and soaked his ear good. I also wet the areas where there was the most flakiness and crusty flakes. Again within a week, big improvement! I highly recommend anyone to try this, but for him I couldn't use full strength. Just the smell made him puke on the spot.
One capful is all you need to one cup tepid water, it worked so well. I imagine you could also use it in a spray bottle and spray around the house, wherever he hangs out. They also liked me, so I used full strength on myself for ring worm and mange mites.
Posted by Pedro (Campinas, Brazil) on 11/24/2008 ★★★★★
Hi Vera,
I don't have any experience and getting rid of ringworms in pets, but I have gotten rid of it on me! I'm assuming ringworm and athletes foot are the same thing (I'm talking about "frieira", in portuguese).
What I did was soak a cottom ball with ACV and place it on the area (with a bandaid if you have to) a couple of times a day for 30 minutes. I did this while on the computer or watching TV. Once done, clean it with H202. Even better if you can leave H2O2 in the area for a while too.
Do this for a few days and the infected skin will peel of. You can stop doing it once everything is good again, but keep an eye on it as it may take a few cycles to get rid of it.
I did it once, and it never came back.
I also take ACV orally, and I think that is key. Skin problems need to be addressed from the inside as well as the outside.
Posted by Kate (Adelaide, Australia) on 06/20/2011 ★★★★★
Apple cider vinegar orally diluted x3 ratio works really well, but although it works well topically I wouldn't suggest it over coconut oil. ACV can dry out their natural oils if perhaps you apply too much or there is a mis-diagnosis eg. Ringworm is often diagnosed in cases of mites and even just eczema! Don't worry about ring worm spores being digested either, stomach acids kill it off, regardless it would need to be a hugely serious fungal infection to spread internally and usually through their bottom anyway! Coconut oil is not only good for their skin, but it's really good for them to digest too... It reduces risk of a massive amount of things like cancer, digestion, and heart /thyroid/metabolism problems! And it's the same with humans :)
Posted by Azorez (Langley, Bc Canada) on 07/12/2012
It is absolute insanity to use iodine as a wormer internally. It is toxic and cats are especially sensitive to it... Who ever wrote this must be thinking that "Ringworm" is caused by a worm but is in fact a topical fungus.
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