Cuterebra ~ What The Heck Is That?

A couple weeks ago I brought Bones into the clinic with me when I worked because he had a squinty eye that I wanted to get checked out. He had his physical exam and got eye medications for the eye infection he had. He spent the night at the clinic and the following morning I got him out to cuddle with him before I started my day at work.

I was petting him and rubbing under his neck and I felt a matted clump of fur. I pulled the mat off and noticed a hole in his neck, I knew immediately what it was. It was a Cuterebra!

Cuterebra’s are fly larva that emerge into the Cuterebra Fly which is a non biting fly about the size of a bee. The Cuterebra fly lays it’s eggs near rabbit or rodent holes. The rabbit and rodents are it’s natural host. When cats or dogs end up with their face near these openings and the eggs are laid there the eggs get on the animals fur. They then will groom themselves and ingest the eggs. The eggs will then migrate and turn into larva’s which will make a air hole under the skin. It stays there until it is ready to emerge into the world. It will cause a fluid in the hole and that will mat the fur around the opening. That is usually how people notice there is a problem.

If you put your finger over the opening and make it so no air gets in the hole and release your finger the larva will poke it’s head in and out to get air.

These larva can be tricky to get out. Your Veterinarian may or may not have to sedate your pet depending on how still it will sit. We tried to remove Bone’s larva without sedation first but the larva was so small it was difficult to grab it and Bones was moving so much so we gave her a light sedation to take the edge off and get it out without crushing the larva.

Some animals can become really sick from these larva’s. When you are trying to remove them you want to be careful and not crush the larva. The chemicals released from crushing them can be leaked into the animals body and cause them to become sick. They can also have an allergic reaction or anaphylaxis.

Success, the larva was removed without crushing it. After it was out we checked out Bones to make sure there were no more larva hiding. We found one more air hold and larva so that one was removed as well. The second one came out faster than the first one.

The two larva’s, they were tiny ones. Each year we usually see at least one Cuterebra case. We have gotten some pretty big larva’s out. The longer they are in the animals body the bigger they grow. We caught Bones early which is good.

The Cuterebra is also called the bot fly. There are 72 species that target a specific host. Humans can get Cuterebra as well in the same manner as the animals get them but they do not get them from their pets.

It took Bones about a week to heal from the larva extractions. He didn’t even know there was a problem or messed with the openings after the larva’s were out. His fur is growing back and is kept inside now so hopefully no more bugs.

Article by Veterinary Partners can be viewed here.