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Komickrazi Studios update!
8 years ago
I have been sort of quiet over the last few months, and I just wanted to update everyone on my current status.
As you may have seen from my photos; I am indeed still working, however a little bit slower and a little less active online. In an earlier post I had mentioned closing my queue for a time. This was to get me focused on my current workload without overwhelming myself with new projects. I chose to slow down a little and ensure more ME time (including taking off evenings and weekends and having a social life). I also mentioned getting a pair of sweet kittens way back in May.
Well, my plans to work quietly away and enjoy my kittens for the summer didn't quite turn out as planned. Both of my kittens were exposed to and caught Ringworm from my breeder D:
For those who aren't familiar, Ringworm is not a worm or a parasite, but in fact a fungus (Jock itch and athlete's foot are also types of ringworm). It grows slow and cures slow. Although my kittens are not in any real health danger, it did ruin (and continues to ruin), the last 3 months of my life :E
Due to how easily ringworm spores spread and how virulent they are, I had to quarantine my babies to one area of the house, then proceed to disinfect EVERYTHING. My studio was the largest concern, since I wouldn't wish Ringworm on my worst enemy.... so I had to shut down entirely for a full week to ensure my studio was fully cleaned and disinfected.
At this point ONE of the kittens is cured, but the other still has ringworm on his face. They also spread it to my senior cat, who is also still not cured. My current life is spent treating all my fur babies with oral meds, medicated soaps and creams, cleaning my house and doing laundry. Treating the ringworm is only one step as I must also treat the environment so they don't get re-infected. Although I had planned for a slowdown to enjoy my kittens, this ringworm is just another added blow to my work schedule. The fight to get rid of this seems to drag on and on, and aside from the extra work cutting into my studio time, it also zaps a lot of motivation.
I am still plugging along, and will continue to do so. I had planned to reopen my queue in the Fall, however I have no set date yet since I am too focused on my kittens right now to think farther ahead than week to week. I will make an announcement closer to when I plan to reopen to give people plenty of notice. In the meantime, if you are feeling starved for more updates I do post a lot of WIP photos on my twitter: https://twitter.com/Komickrazi
Thank you everyone for your continued understanding regarding my situation. I'm really really tired of all these troubles, but I can't do much besides taking it day-by-day. I appreciate everyone's continued support in the meantime.
As you may have seen from my photos; I am indeed still working, however a little bit slower and a little less active online. In an earlier post I had mentioned closing my queue for a time. This was to get me focused on my current workload without overwhelming myself with new projects. I chose to slow down a little and ensure more ME time (including taking off evenings and weekends and having a social life). I also mentioned getting a pair of sweet kittens way back in May.
Well, my plans to work quietly away and enjoy my kittens for the summer didn't quite turn out as planned. Both of my kittens were exposed to and caught Ringworm from my breeder D:
For those who aren't familiar, Ringworm is not a worm or a parasite, but in fact a fungus (Jock itch and athlete's foot are also types of ringworm). It grows slow and cures slow. Although my kittens are not in any real health danger, it did ruin (and continues to ruin), the last 3 months of my life :E
Due to how easily ringworm spores spread and how virulent they are, I had to quarantine my babies to one area of the house, then proceed to disinfect EVERYTHING. My studio was the largest concern, since I wouldn't wish Ringworm on my worst enemy.... so I had to shut down entirely for a full week to ensure my studio was fully cleaned and disinfected.
At this point ONE of the kittens is cured, but the other still has ringworm on his face. They also spread it to my senior cat, who is also still not cured. My current life is spent treating all my fur babies with oral meds, medicated soaps and creams, cleaning my house and doing laundry. Treating the ringworm is only one step as I must also treat the environment so they don't get re-infected. Although I had planned for a slowdown to enjoy my kittens, this ringworm is just another added blow to my work schedule. The fight to get rid of this seems to drag on and on, and aside from the extra work cutting into my studio time, it also zaps a lot of motivation.
I am still plugging along, and will continue to do so. I had planned to reopen my queue in the Fall, however I have no set date yet since I am too focused on my kittens right now to think farther ahead than week to week. I will make an announcement closer to when I plan to reopen to give people plenty of notice. In the meantime, if you are feeling starved for more updates I do post a lot of WIP photos on my twitter: https://twitter.com/Komickrazi
Thank you everyone for your continued understanding regarding my situation. I'm really really tired of all these troubles, but I can't do much besides taking it day-by-day. I appreciate everyone's continued support in the meantime.
Poor kitties....
Also, not sure exactly what your vet has veen recommending as rechecks, I'm assuming fungal cultures on the kittens in lieu of woodslamping (since not all species of ringworm glow under woodslamp), but once everyone seems clear, see if perhaps your vet will allow you to do a swiffer test of the environment to clear that of ringworm as well. That's what we do with our fosters. We have them clean everything, and then go over with a swiffer and use the dust/hair particles picked up on that to place into a fungal test to see if it grows anything. If it does, the area obviously hasn't been cleaned well enough and there is still chance of reinfection.
I really hope you can work through this soon! I know ringworm is such a pain! ;n;
They have M. Canis, which DOES glow under UV light. I went out an bought a UV flashlight which was good for plucking a few infected hairs. They can still be infected without any glowing though, since the glowing only works on lesions and infected hairs... so they can still be infected without glowing under UV light. My Breeder ONLY examined them under a woods light, which is how I ended up in this situation in the first place. The real only official way to be sure is to do a fungal culture. :E Fungal cultures cost $200 a pop and take 3 weeks to come back, so the delays are both frustrating and painstaking... and hard on the pocket book T_T
I hope so too ;3;// I'm 14 weeks in at this point and I know I have at least 4-6 weeks more to go, assuming this current round of oral meds and shampoos do their job
Obviously can't say what they're using, or if maybe the tests are harder to obtain in Canada, which could cause the mark-up; but that's such a shame. >n< We use ours like candy.. anything that comes in with the slightest bit of hair loss gets a test just in case because they're so cheap.
I'm guessing they have your kitties on Itraconazole? We use that at the shelter to help get rid of it. Seems to work pretty well, accompanying lime-sulfer dips.
Yeah, they are on Itraconazole, which is also crazy expensive. And I use Duoxo Pyo shampoo instead of Lime sulphur. Apparently Lime sulphur is sort of old school - shelters still use it because it's cheap. The shampoo has chlorohexidine in it.
Ringworm is so rare here, the vet only gets maybe one case a year. It's so dry and cold where I live that it's not great for fungus. However it also means EVYERTHING has to be ordered in special for me
I think both you and youre customers would be happy.
I like the open queue system, versus the sporadic open and closing thing other makers do, but current life issues have made everything a little more difficult.