I'm so very relieved! Indigo's initial results are looking good.
They took two scrapes of Indigo's head- quite deep ones including the scab, the skin around it and some of the hairs. They then looked at these under a lamp and microscope to see what was going on.
Now, in about 50% of ringworm cases, the hairs/skin flouresce under a special lamp... and there was no flourescence in Indigo's sample. The hair shafts also looked mormal, another indicator it isn't ringworm as the fungus (NOT a worm!) usually does something funny to the hair shafts. There was also no sign of mange mites.
This was the best possible result today! I'm so thankful. Now it doesn't mean it's absolutely definitely NOT ringworm... the only definitive test is a culture, which will be started with Indigo's skin sample and grown over the next few weeks. But the lack of flourescence and the normal appearance of the hair shafts make ringworm fairly unlikely. The fact that Indigo is a house cat and doesn't come across other cats or dig around in soil other cats have dug in etc makes it even more unlikely.
The stud owner was pretty pleased too! She's been lovely about all this, but obviously she's had to put her stud into quarantine, in case Indigo was carrying something infectious when she went to stud! NOT the sort of reputation one wants to build up when one is just starting out in the breeding process, really! It's been highly embarrassing for me.
The pictures are pre scrape and show the lesions and the surrounding hair loss- I haven't got a photo of her head post scrape because it's too sore to touch. So I haven't been touching it, obviously.
The vet says there's only been a very slight improvement since she saw them before. I agree, but I think the wounds are 'further on'... the lumps are less lumpy and more crusty, which could mean they are starting the healing process. More importantly there are no NEW lumps, which I'm choosing to see as a very positive thing. So we're carrying on with the pregnancy safe antibiotic, and a general air of let's keep an eye on her see what happens.
We're still no closer to finding out what caused this in the first place though. Some kind of allergy, perhaps... but what?
I will say one thing though. This result couldn't have happened at a better time. Last night, as I was stroking her, I felt again a fullness to her undercarriage that wasn't there before- and it was NOT because she needed to use the litter tray this time! And her nipples, I'm ALMOST sure, have gone from a creamy-white colour to the palest rosy pink...
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