Is There a Fungus Among Us??

27 comments

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today is Medical Day and one of our cats Prancie always seem to have some medical issue. Fortunately, they are minor problems that are treatable and usually allergy related. I always joke that she should be a “bubble cat” to protect her from everything.

Prancie has this icky,  brown, waxy like stuff on her nails. One vet said it was a yeast infection on her nails and to keep cleaning them with some medicated cleaner. It does seem to help, but this never completely goes away. 012

I decided to look up some information and there seem to be many explanations. I found one that was different and offered natural treatments: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Ask-Veterinarian-700/2012/3/cat-claws-problem.htm . This site claims it is not an infection, it is a build up of dirt and dead cells. I am not going to clean them with Murphy’s oil soap as recommended though. I think that would be a little harsh.

Has anyone else seen this on their kitty and if so, did you find a way to eliminate it? I welcome any input.

Here is a photo of Prancie as Goldilocks with the 3 Bears:blog13Have a nice day!

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27 comments

  2. Gosh, I’m not at all familiar with the nail fungus thing……Murphy’s oil soap does seem like a harsh treatment – hopefully someone else has some better idea of how to handle it though!

    Hugs, Pam

    1. Next time we go to the vet, I will ask about it. The vet that told me it was yeast like is no longer there so I will ask the new vet.

  4. We’ve never seen this before. Though you’re right, we don’t think we would use Murphy’s soap to clean it.

    We’re loving all the costumes…Goldilocks is great!

    1. Thank you, I am working on this year’s costumes- I am running out of ideas. It is hard with 15 and some that don’t want to be dressed.

  5. I’ve never seen that on a kitty before. If the stuff isn’t going away, it might be a good idea to get a second opinion from another vet if you can afford it. ::hugs:: to you all.

  6. Golly, I don’t have any info on this problem either, so sorry! I will ask around with my cat rescue friends, who have seen everything to do with cat health issues, to help you.

  8. We have never heard of this problem either. Hope you can figure out how to deal with it.
    Thanks for the info about the Donkey Work book. I will go check it out.
    You have great day.

  9. Hmmm… Never seen that before. Maybe a homeopathic (spellin’?) doctor could tell you how to cleam ’em without usin’ stuff meant for floors. MO– USES!

    Purrs,
    Nissy

    1. Mouses indeed. That floor stuff was listed on a natural website- I will have to keep searching.

  10. OMC Now dat’s a cute foto to be suwe. Sowwy weez can’t help wiff this dilemma, but seems to me ifin it’s a yeast infectiion yous wuld be able to clear it up. A little yogurt or pwo-biotics. And ifin it dusn’t cleat up then it must not be yeasty. Mommy sez hers dusn’t member hearin’ anyfin’ like dat (yeast infectionof da nails) fwum hers days as a tech, but dusn’t mean it ain’t so. Hrs ancient yous know so lots has been learned fwu da years. Mommy also sez hers wuld purrawly twy da hoe wemedy altho’ hers wuld wash it clean after tweatment cuz hers wuldn’t want us ingestin’ it. Hers has also used tea tree oil fur a foo fings. But as always washes it off and makes suwe weez not ingestin’ any toxins. god luck and weez’ll be purrayin’.

    Luv ya’

    Dezi and Lexi

    1. Thank you Dezi and Lexi. I actually have some tea tree oil so I may try that and I will be sure to wash it off.

  11. We haven’t heard of it either. Maybe keeping it clean with a natural remedy that wouldn’t harm if ingested until you get that second vet opinion. Hope it goes away eventually! Very cute Goldilocks costume. We don’t think those braids would last long over here!

    the critters in the cottage xo

  12. Prancie that is a darling photo at the end. Mom and I have not heard of the nail yeast infection. We hope it will soon go away as quickly as it arrived
    Hugs madi your bfff

  15. Our kitty Sammi had what appears to be the same thing. She had lots of dark brown, waxy gunk covering the base of her claws. It didn’t have a bad odor, it was just gunky. When we adopted her it had built up so thick that it irritated the toe skin that comes up over the base of the claw. The visible part of her claw wasn’t too bad, but when I extended her claws to trim them, there was lots of gunk under the skin. She didn’t like having her claws trimmed because the skin was tender.

    We cleaned her claws using an alcohol-free pet ear cleaning solution. It helped cut through the waxyness and helped soothe her skin. Alcohol-free cleaner is important so that it didn’t sting her irritated skin. I squirted the ear cleaning solution on a cotton-round that you get from the cosmetics department, then gently wiped the gunk off. In the beginning, it was so thick that I had to scrape it off with my fingernail before using the ear cleaning solution and would try to “soak” her claw in the saturated cotton before trying to get the claw really clean. Her claws were so bad that I could only do two or maybe three at a time because her skin was tender and she got impatient. It was actually a two person job at first – dad held her and I did the cleaning. I had to hold the skin back as far as possible (but gently so it didn’t tear back from her claw) in order to clean under it and get all the gunk off the base of her claw.

    After a few weeks of thorough cleaning the gunk didn’t build up as bad and her skin was not irritated anymore. Then it was easier to do maintenance cleaning – still using the ear cleaning solution.

    Aww, your three bears are very cute!

    1. Thank you- your comment did end up in SPAM, sorry about that. I will get out the ear cleaning solution today and start again on that ick. It is built up so I will need to scrape it off with my nail, she really hates that.
      Glad you like the costume and thanks for the info. and for reading the blog.

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