Maggots -- YUCK!

[Anonymous]

I swear, I've never seen anything so awful! I bought a 5 day old Angus heifer at the salebarn last week. She was fine at the time, she was fine when I got her home that night. By bottle time in the morning she had maggots all over her back end. She was so bad that her rectum and vagina were filled with them, so I quick loaded her up and took her to the vet. It took him a little while, but he got her all taken care of and she's doing just fine now. Luckily, there were no breaks in the skin and they weren't there long enough to cause anything more than minor irritation.

I still can't get over how fast they appeared and how extensive they were. Still gives me a cold chill just thinking about it!

Ann B

 

[Anonymous]

The eggs were there when you bought her--it takes at least 24 hours for them to be laid and hatch. If they were tiny little things, they had just hatched. If they were plump, they may have already been hatched when you purchased, and she likely had had diarrhea. And for your information, they quease us too! A good spray to have on hand for this is KRS. Good Luck! V

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, her stools were/are just fine -- what it appeared had happened was that the calf was smeared with fecal material from another animal.

Our vet used "Pet Guard", a mild insecticide for cats and dogs -- he said that anything else he had was too harsh for use on mucus membranes, and might be absorbed and cause a toxic reaction. After all visible maggots were removed, she was treated with Eprinex (Ivomec's new pour-on).

Where can I locate this KRS? and is it safe for use on smaller animals, such as rabbits? I don't have much of a problem with flystrike around here, but occasionally a rabbit kits will get hit -- especially if diarhhea is present. Lost one last year, in less than 12 hours the kit developed diarrhea and was killed by maggots.

Some people in the rabbit circles are discussing the possibility that some of these species of flies can lay live maggots, or eggs that are capable of hatching extremely fast because we are seeing rabbits that are completely healthy in the morning and dead from maggots in the evening. What are your thoughts on that?

Ann B

> The eggs were there when you
> bought her--it takes at least 24
> hours for them to be laid and
> hatch. If they were tiny little
> things, they had just hatched. If
> they were plump, they may have
> already been hatched when you
> purchased, and she likely had had
> diarrhea. And for your
> information, they quease us too! A
> good spray to have on hand for
> this is KRS. Good Luck! V

 

[Anonymous]

When you see things like this it makes you thank the Lord we got screwworms eradicated.