Comment on Discussion Thread ☕️ Saturday 25 April 2026
melbaboutown@aussie.zone 5 weeks ago
Oh no. The black kitty has heard some noise and come to sit on my doorstep wanting to be let in.
Not a big deal except I’m kind of trapped inside due to trying to avoid him and prevent him from dashing inside. It feels terrible but I’m pretty sure he’s not been treated for the ringworm (and could still be contagious if he had), also I’m trying not to encourage him away from his owners.
I don’t have a plan honestly. I just don’t know. For now I’m just trying to stay inside as much as possible to rest and sort my own life out. But if he doesn’t get vet treatment and it continues becoming my problem I may have to start reporting to RSPCA or the council. Which I don’t want to and don’t think will improve matters but may eventually be forced to.
Because I am still treating the first round of infection I caught. It’s so hard to get rid of. 😑 FFS people, take your cat to the vet or even just use the expensive medicines I left on your doorstep which you received. Why are you making this poor animal my problem
I would be caring for the cat as an outside cat, I would wear long pants , forget the neighbours, they just do not care
first feed him up and get trust, then get drops to put in food
but mainly don’t stress, he’s a cat
set achievable goals, you don’t have to look after him perfectly, good enough is good enough
and really, sometimes caring for someone else is a good way to destress
I’ve done the caring for him as an outside cat and it was incredibly stressful for me. A lot of labour and encourages him away from home. I just can’t do it anymore.
I had to routinely don long clothes and gloves whenever I saw him then wash hands and shower fully with antifungal products and reapply treatment on my own lesions after. So much laundry on hot with sanitizer, and carpet shampooing. I can’t take constantly having to prevent reinfection. It was also hurting my mental health. He refused the ringworm tablet hidden in food, I got two doses down the hatch by wrestling him but then he started hiding from me and I had to go looking for him. At that point I realised “this is crazy”, dumped all the cat stuff on the owners doorstep and emailed asking them to take him to the vet. I don’t think they have. I’ve handed over all the treatments I have which will be expensive and an hassle to get more of. (The tablets are prescription and came from the rescue lady. The lime sulfur dip alone was $50 and I don’t know if he’d let me bathe him.) And I’m not legally able to confine someone else’s pet for treatment or take him to the vet myself. They will have to do it. And he’s still hanging around my door waiting to rub up me or door dash in. So unless I want to be on an endless ringworm reinfection treadmill (I really don’t) I am going to have to be a Karen, make a report to RSPCA or the council. And I’m worried about the backlash when I do. This is actually kind of a nightmare. I can’t begin to tell you how much I didn’t and don’t want to deal with this.
Melba. You over react. You over clean. Fungus on skin is not a deadly disease, so why the drama? Put some daktarin on skin. Wash things normally. Cleaning carpets so heavily can actually make pollution in house worse as you degrade the fibres and the glues. Give drops to cat.
talk to your doctor and do what they say
This reminds me of a friend I had. I made her high quality face masks with special medical filter I bought overseas. I showed her how to wash them , telling her they were delicate .
Then later she told me she scrubbed and wringed them hard to clean them well. I told her she ruined them and made them useless by ripping up all the filter in the inside layer and removing the special chemical that repelled germs.
She just did not want to believe me that scrubbing was wrong. I gave her no more masks, they took a long time to make and were expensive.
Good enough is good enough
No, I don’t overreact or overclean. And I’m not dramatic.
It may be a fungus but is not a simple easy thing to get rid of if you have a google. My immune system also isn’t good (I’ve had it for 2 months and it spread). Plus other people’s laziness means I’ve had to deal with something shitty that’s not my responsibility. And now have to nag them about it.
I am so tired of other people’s bullshit.
Bottom_racer@aussie.zone 5 weeks ago
If it were me and was that worried I’d worry about yourself melba and ignore the cat if you can… if you feel your health is at risk it’s you first.
I know you’ve just lost your special cat, but if this new one is affecting your mental state, then preserving that mental state is the most important thing.
Perhaps there’ll be another kitty soon in the future.
melbaboutown@aussie.zone 5 weeks ago
I agree. My own stuff is enough to deal with for now.
Problem is I’m trying to avoid and ignore him, but he sometimes blocks me into my house because I’m trying to avoid physical contact and he’s waiting near the door to actively pursue it. It’s stressing me out. As is the idea of continuing to nag or confront neighbours (I don’t know these people and have had some dangerous experiences/sustained harassment in the past).
I’m very much not trying to adopt or take in the cat. I’m trying to make his owners take him to the vet and treat him so he stops reinfecting me.
I’ve just tried to submit a report to the RSPCA with photos and a video from my phone but it’s hanging on send. I’ll try again later on the computer.