Hi, I've posted before about my labs excessive dandruff and bare itchy spots. We took him to the vets and they told me he has ringworm. Can anyone tell me about this and how he might have got it? HE is normally an inside dog and only goes out to go potty. Any info would be great. Thanks.

Did the vet run a fungal culture to determine this? There are a lot of skin diseases that can cause hair loss and flakey skin...ringworm is only one of them, and isn't nearly as common in adult animals with good immune systems.

The vet did a skin scraping for summer mange because thats what it looks like and it came back negative. So he took some hair and put it in a solution of some kind and said it would be about 10 days to hear back. It came back positive for ringworm. Is their different kinds of ringworm? He cave me a antibiotic for him and a antihistamine for the itching because he thought it was some kind of bacterial skin infection. It started clearing up in just a few days. So im kinda wondering if the test was right or not. What do you think?

He probably has ringworm and is also suffering from a secondary skin infection. I would treat for both. The ringworm can be handled with a prescription topical shampoo or an iodine/betadine solution....

Thanks, The vet did say that a special shampoo would take care of it. I would like to know how he contracted it and is it very contagious to humans. I also have 3 kids who love the dog and are having a hard time not playing with him. And how long before it looks like it might clear up?

basic ringworm is a fungus and is found in dirt..............cats are notorious for bringing it around..............it is contagious since the fungus can get on skin. Good washing up practices for the kiddies usually is fine. It is not life endangering. It usually looks like a circular raised red thin welt that expands if not treated.

I have had 3 mild cases(1 spot) on my doggies in 14 years. We have tons of feral cats and 2 farm cats...............i slapped some Tinactin creme(for athletes foot) on it 2x a day for a couple weeks.......works for small spots I guess.
I am in rural Fl so I wold hate to examine the dirt around here! YIKES!

Thanks for all your help and replying to me posts.