Ringworm management in multi-cat households requires simultaneous treatment of all cats, environmental decontamination, and systematic monitoring to achieve resolution.
Ringworm causes direct welfare harm through the discomfort of skin lesions and pruritus, and indirect harm through the stress of repeated treatment applications. In multi-cat homes, persistent environmental spore reservoirs cause re-infection cycles that extend the welfare impact across many months if environmental decontamination is inadequate. The zoonotic risk adds human welfare implications to inadequate management. Systematic simultaneous treatment of all cats with appropriate systemic antifungals, combined with thorough environmental decontamination, resolves the problem definitively and ends the welfare harm for all affected animals.