# Maggots (cross post from goat forum)



## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

Keep a close eye on any wounds and make sure flies are not getting at open sores. We had 3 pets come in today at the clinic with wounds with maggots. YUCK. GROSS. PUKE. I spent 2 hours today cleaning them out. And just when you think you have them all gone another one hatches. or 12 or 20. It's really bad and you don't want it to happen but it does happen quickly and easily.


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## farmmom (Jan 4, 2009)

Oh mercy. One thing I can't stand is maggots. We sure keep an eye on wounds around here. That Tri-Care ointment is great!!!


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

Many years ago maggots were used to clean up a wound. Usually you can just pour hydrogen peroxide in the wound and kill the maggots. Most wounds will heal nicely when the maggots are removed.


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

EWWWWWWW...that was one thing the vet was worried about when Bonnie was healing from all her wounds. I made her "PJs" to keep the wounds covered and any outside time she had was closely monitored. She never had a single maggot. Sigh...not that it did any good.

Hubby and I check over all the animals daily for wounds, abcesses, etc.


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

maggots only eat DEAD tissue and are more of a help then hindrance but just as gross. they are used to help diabetic patients who have open soars/wounds that are having trouble healing cause the maggots eat the dead tissue allowing for new growth. but these aren't your typical maggots, they are medically cultivated for those exact purposes & when they apply them, they count them & make sure they get that exact many back.


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## MARYDVM (Jun 7, 2004)

They still sometimes use "medical" maggots to clean human wounds. Don't know if they are a particular species, but the average garden variety maggot will keep on eating healthy tissue once it finishes off the diseased stuff.

The absolute worst case I've ever seen was a hog fat cattle dog belonging to a local farmer. She had a litter of puppies in the barn and was too obese to clean the birth fluids and blood off her fur. Within a day or two the owners started finding puppies crushed by the mother lying on them. Around day 5 she staggered to the house, and they brought her in to see me. With the dog on the table, I was taking a history from the owner, when the conversation paused for a few seconds and I HEARD 

munchmunchmunchmunchmunch... 

I grabbed a clipper and started shaving off her thick double coat, and exposed multiple perfect circles of excavation in her back filled with writhing maggots. The widest one was 2 inches in diameter and at least 3/4 of an inch deep into the fat of her back. The maggots had chewed through perfectly healthy skin, and produced smooth clean symmetrical wounds as they ate the dog alive. She was too fat to reach them to get them off her, and you couldn't even see them without clipping the hair off. She was pretty toxic, but fell sound asleep once the maggots were cleaned out, and IV fluids, antibiotics, and a T-shirt to cover her back were enough to get her home to her surviving pups the next day.


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

Don't get me wrong, on a pet that they weren't there PURPOSELY, they need to be removed. Just wanted to show the other side of them.

In cases like that, its gross negligence that almost killed her wow.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

We like to just call it "fly-blown" or "fly strike" in the dairy world.
Means the same thing though, writhing with maggots.
& yes, I have seen them continue on with live tissue once they have set up.
Flies are not a funny thing, when it comes to critters.


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## farmmom (Jan 4, 2009)

MaryDVM, I helped treat a little Peke that had the same problem. He smelled dead when the owners brought him in. He died within hours of being brought in. It appeared to have started with feces stuck in the matts around his backside. He a totally ungroomed outside dog. I believe it was this experience that made maggots my major aversion.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

farmmom said:


> MaryDVM, I helped treat a little Peke that had the same problem. He smelled dead when the owners brought him in. He died within hours of being brought in. *It appeared to have started with feces stuck in the matts around his backside. * He a totally ungroomed outside dog. I believe it was this experience that made maggots my major aversion.


That is an excellent point. We haven't had it yet this year, but had several last year...older dogs. Even though my Shep is an inside dog, outside for potty only, I shave all the hair around his butt and backs of his legs. It's usually the dogs that have undercoats that is matted and the maggots are hidden. We did loose one dog last year to maggots because of this. Maggots are toxic to the dogs system. Older dogs that are just laying around outside seem to be a perfect target


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

This is one reason we get our long haired dogs shaved at the beginning of hot weather. Not only are they cooler, but it helps us monitor the health of their skin (ticks, fleas, maggots, insect or snake bites, etc.). 

I hope the dog owners in some of these stories were turned in for animal cruelty!


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## Willowynd (Mar 27, 2005)

Blow flies can attack perfectly clean dogs as well if there is dead animal matter in the area. One day years ago, I had taken my pups out to potty and play- mind you they were in the house and clean, crate trained and potty trained- no feces, no blood, etc. to attract flies. Thier yard was also kept clean. I went to bring them back in after a couple hours and noticed what looked like a bit of saw dust on one of the pups rears. I thought- where would they get saw dust from? I looked and there was more under the coat...closer examination- a funny looking fly comes out from under the coat on one and I realized it was fly eggs....and was on all the pups. I freaked. Called my vet and asked for advice and tried grooming them out with a flea comb, bathing, spraying with fly spray, used a spot on for fleas I had on hand on all and prayed I got them all, checked hourly for 2 days to make sure an egg I may have missed was not hatching. Fortuantely they never did hatch. 
I could not figure out why these flies attacked my pups- they did not get the other dogs that were in the kennel 100 ft away, though I sprayed them with fly spray to be sure they did not get attacked either after I had gone through the pups once. Next day I found a wild rabbit carcass covered with maggots and blowflies about 250 ft away in the treeline. That is the only thing I found that could have drawn them. 
A year ago on a hot summer day, I had a ***** who had her season and was done with bloody discharge (so I thought) and bathed, so let her have some time outside. When I went to bring her in that evening, I found fly eggs. As I was bathing and combing her they started hatching many at a time. Let me tell you, this is not something you want to go through. The maggots are not killed easily. I tried dropping them in a mason jar of kerosene as I removed them with tweezers and they were climbing out of the jar. I did wind up shaving her and they did do some damage on one side (on clean healthy skin) while I was working on the other side. I spent all night on her and took her to the vet first thing the next morning as I was concerned that some may have gone inside her vulva...but he said I got them all, but I was still finding and removing eggs and dead maggots for a couple days. But fortunately no more hatch outs after the dousing with fly spray and the spot on. Her surface wound healed up quickly with some gold bond medicated powder.
So watch your in season bitches as well. Elderly dogs are also a prime target, they tend to not keep themselves as clean. I now keep all dogs rumps sprayed with a fly spray for horses (bug block) through fly season just to be on the safe side. Don't want another surprise like that.


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## Willowynd (Mar 27, 2005)

Peroxide does not kill them, nor rubbing alcohol or kerosene for that matter.


pancho said:


> Many years ago maggots were used to clean up a wound. Usually you can just pour hydrogen peroxide in the wound and kill the maggots. Most wounds will heal nicely when the maggots are removed.


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## cyborland (Jun 13, 2013)

Hi all,

I found alot of helpful information on this site, looking back after a scary experience with creepy crawlies the past few days, and it is good to know I am not alone in this! I wanted to share my experience with this in treating my dog (a 5 year old white and gray Husky).

I had my first (and hopefully last!) encounter with maggots on my dog a few days back. They were extremely aggressive and fast moving. Somehow between routine flea bathing her Wednesday afternoon where I saw no signs of any maggots or wounds or odd behavior at all, and letting her stay outside afterward in the warm weather overnight (she likes being outside - paces alot when she is kept inside - and have never had these issues before) and outside on Thursday, then inside Thursday night and all day Friday as it was raining, then finding them all over her hindquarters Friday, she somehow got a massive infestation of them. Looking at some of the information out there now, I can only speculate that perhaps there was a dead rabbit or other critter in the yard that she may have been lying near that could have caused her to be some heavily infested so quickly. She is outside alot and has never had any issues like this before, so I was really surprised by it.

As soon as I discovered them, I put her in the tub immediately and I was able to purge them off with a strong blast from the showerwand and aggressive bathing in the tub for several hours until I got them all off, thank God! I didn't have a way to get her to the emergency vet at that time (2:30am) as my housemate wasn't home with the car, and she seemed to be recovering by the next morning so I decided to try to treat her at home naturally, though I would have carried her to her regular vet down the street that morning when they opened if she had seemed to be not responding to treatment or going into shock.

I thoroughly flushed the wounded area several times daily with a strong blast from the shower wand, inspected her carefully to make sure all the maggots were gone, rinsed the wounded area with a strong solution of water and sea salt, and then used an all-natural soap (Dr. Bronner's liquid soap) to wash it well and keep it clean. I also clipped her all over as they were hiding in other areas of her coat, and gave her a full body bath twice daily for several days. It seemed to be affecting her urinary tract also as it had a strong odor but that is gone now, thankfully.

As a natural anti-biotic and anti-bacterial, I then doused the wounded area with organic neem extract nutritional supplement that I take daily (3 capsules dissolved in a cup of warm water). I did this a few times daily, then for a more potent treatment, I added chopped organic turmeric root to hot boiling water with more 5 more neem capsules, and let it steep for 20 minutes, let it cool down some, then doused the area with this combination. As it seemed to be healing well, I have now started rubbing the area with organic neem oil that you can buy for the garden, pets, etc. It is a natural bug repellent and very good for plants and pets. She seems to like it also. It seemed to be very soothing to her as she didn't react as she did with the salt water and soap (ouch!), and I am super thrilled to report she is doing much better now! 

It is now 5 days later and she is walking again steadily, going potty outside properly, grooming the area, and eating well. She is enjoying resting in the bathroom inside 24-7 except for brief walks and I will be keeping her inside most of the time, she will have to learn to like it! I was really worried about her for some time, but trusted my instincts on keeping the wound clean, dry, and using the natural antibiotic properties of neem and turmeric root to help her heal. I also added neem and turmeric to her food (I usually add turmeric to it daily, as I also eat it daily for health), but added the neem as well this time and will do so more in the future as well.

I cook organic food for my pets (as well as giving them raw organic eggs and some canned organic dog food) and so I made her some special foods to help her digestion pass any stool easily so as not to be painful for her. I used cooked organic yams, mung beans and spinach mixed with raw eggs and/or canned dog food, and it helped her pass a fairly normal stool with little effort.

I am so thrilled by her speedy recovery, I am actually amazed how fast the wound from the worms is healing, it was incredibly raw and bad, I had never seen anything like that in my life before! I hope this information is helpful to you all, if you would like more info let me know! On a positive note, we bonded alot through this experience and she let me groom and handle her alot more than she normally would!

Thanks for sharing all the helpful tips and experiences, it is good to know help is out there!


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

I have a maggot story, fortunately NOT on my dogs. I had a duck get maggots under her feathers - I don't know if she was wounded first or not, it was under her wing and pretty nasty when I realized she had a problem. My "Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks" said to flush with peroxide, as it causes them to back out and I picked them off her for a long time, many were down deep. Then, also out of the book, I treated her topically with Ivermectin (1% cattle injectable on the skin at the back of her neck). This was suppose to kill any still in there and any hatching, it seemed to work VERY well. I wonder if it would be appropriate in dogs that are not Ivermectin sensitive? I kept neosporin on the wound for a week or so, it healed up fine with no more maggot activity.

Also, and I sure wouldn't try this one... I heard that one of the local ranchers found a fly blown sheep, there'd been an injury on her side and he peeled back the wool to find a real mess of maggots. I guess he poured straight bleach on it, which made her just scream (my son saw this), but he said it would heal her right up. Seems she went on to be fine too.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

How much ivermectin did you use? That is interesting. We use chlorhexidine at the vet clinic. I'll ask about peroxide the next time a case comes in. Usually it's later in the summer when we get hit with maggot infested pets. With all the rain it might be sooner this year though. Right now it's tick infestations.


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## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

Years ago, I had a duckling pip but take his sweet time in hatching.

He had them in his EYE.
Puke horrible gross die die die.

I flushed his eye for what felt like forever (no wound, just the moisture I guess?) and he grew up fine. 

Had to share my own horror story. Those things make me- just eww,


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