Reply #4: Dermatophytosis (commonly called "ringworm") is caused by

[kestrel91316]

a fungus that normally lives in the soil (and housedust). They come in three varieties: those that LOVE living in the soil (geophilic), those that LOVE living on animal skin (zoophilic), and those that LOVE living on human skin (anthropophilic). You may very well have caught one from the soil or dust, rather than from your pets or another person. An anthropophilic strain is going to be red and inflamed and aggressive on human skin. The others, much less so.

These guys live everywhere, and are part of life. They have trouble infecting normal healthy skin, but just love traumatized or escessively damp skin. I got it for the first time when we lived in OH and it was a warm and damp spring that year. Ringworm is an occupational hazard for us veterinarians, but here in SoCal I rarely see it, and catch it from my patients even less often.

Doctors always love to blame the cats for this stuff, but they are not involved in many cases. BTW, YOU can give it to THEM if you aren't careful! (then it's called a reverse zoonosis)