That Botfly Story You’ve Heard From Me 10 Times Already
Argh — looks like an alien!
Please note this is a reproduction of the webpage I originally created for this story. I just thought it’d be better included in my journal rather than off on its own. Easier to manage too. The extraction happened in March 2006. Since then, thanks to B3ta, Digg, StumbleUpon and others, well over 100,000 people have visited and read this story — which is astonishing really. So thank you all. In the near future I’ll be re-writing this page to make it more thorough and give more information. In the meantime, enjoy!
Help me find my dad — if you’ve just returned from a holiday in South America, consider taking a look at my page about my father. Does he look familiar to you? If so, drop me a line.
Maybe it’s a karma thing. I dunno. I changed my plans and decided to go to the Peruvian jungle at the last minute because I was tired of mountains and deserts. But I’d forgotten that one advantage of dry mountain terrain is the relative lack of insect life.
The jungle was great, but one day I made the mistake of wearing a thin t-shirt made from a ‘technical’ fibre — ie, cooling and comfortable in the humid heat of the jungle. Mosquitoes struggle to bite through thick cotton, but these fibres are just so easy for them. In one day with this shirt on I managed to acquire about fifty bites, mostly on my back. Interestingly, the locals, even without deet repellent, receive far fewer bites.
One of these bites didn’t heal quite right. A week or so after I’d noticed it would hurt quite a bit, like a needle being pushed into my back. I guessed it was a little infected. This was late February. After a week or so of this I went to my local clinic where the nurse had a good look. She’s travelled tropically herself and was impressively clued up. After enquiries she felt it was likely to be a bug inside me. There then followed a slightly confusing phase when nobody seemed available to help me out, but eventually, after a few visits, a doctor at the famous Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine offered to take a look. He couldn’t find anything at the time, or extract it, sadly, but the pain continued and the now bigger wound was starting to hurt for longer periods of time. This, apparently, is the botfly larvae moving around and snacking on my flesh. Eventually it was a friend (who is also a dentist, which helps) covered the wound with vaseline and watched carefully for some time through a loupe. It soon became obvious that a botfly spiracle was popping up for air every now and again.. Which meant this bad boy was inside me:
The larvae, if left alone, would live inside me for up to eight weeks and grow up to 25mm long before leaving in order to pupate into the adult fly. I believe the fly can then live for up to two weeks, purely on the stored energy from its larval stage — it can’t eat as an adult. The adult then has to mate, and the female with then capture a mosquito in order to lay its eggs on it. When the mosquito bites someone, the eggs fall off and the warmth of the host causes those eggs to hatch and in a very short time the little grub will burrow in and get snacking.
Nice!
My friend Geraldine is having a baby and has shared the video of its ultrasound. Not wanting to feel left out I thought I’d share my own little ‘baby’ video with the world! But also I felt this page may help people who get the same problem — there are other resources, but none struck me as that clear to the layman, and there are none with a video to show you what to expect.
Some information that I’ve been able to find — the scientific name is Dermatobia Hominis. It has a mouth with scraping hooks, a main body with rows of hooks to hold onto its host, and a spiracle through which it breathes. Symptoms are an enlarging lesion (spot!) that has a small pinhole in the centre for breathing — this hole will not heal as long as the bug is alive. Occasionally you’ll feel sharp stabbing pains, lasting up to half an hour, as it moves or eats. It won’t burrow especially deeply and is unlikely to cause any real damage even if left to mature.
Extraction — we’re currently trying to persuade it out by covering the wound in vaseline. This forces it closer to the surface as its spiracle searches out air, and it may even come out completely. See the video above. As this story progresses I’ll update this page. I also plan to add some links to resources. Watch this space!
OK — I just gave birth to a baby worm. I always said I wanted children, but… not sure if this is the way.
Removal of the botfly larvae:
It wasn’t easy. Squeezing didn’t seem to work, and is said to be almost impossible if the larvae is still alive. So we settled on trying to kill it or weaken it. However, although there are approaches that give you an almost instant kill, the method we used helps to encourage the fella to come closer to the surface.
We needed some kind of dressing that was flexible enough to go on the back and able to keep as much air out as possible. We settled on the lid from a tube of jaffa cakes, filled with vaseline, and thoroughly taped in to place. After a night’s sleep I could feel the wriggling in the morning. Eventually the lid slipped and I removed it completely to see a lot more of the larvae sticking out. Result! I covered it once more, and quickly went to see my friend who was then able to gently tweezer the tip up enough to get another pair of tweezers lower down and slowly extract the bug. Mechanical removal like this isn’t usually advised, but as the larvae was weakened by this point after a night of struggling for air it seemed to be ok. My only concern now is that it might have a twin! But the wound is healing well, which is a very good sign. There’s still some inflammation but it’s improved.
Here’s some pics of the little blighter. Someone could probably make a rather neat little animation. You can see the movement of his mouth parts as he wonders where the hell his meal’s just gone. The goo is just vaseline, by the way.
Pics and video of the little fella:
Click on the images for larger versions.
Linkage
It could have been worse though… but don’t look if you’re either sensitive or don’t like seeing people’s, erm, hidden bits.… http://sti.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/80/3/183.pdf - membership now required.
Comments feed
I was also lucky enough to have one of these suckers in me in late 2006, although mine was in my arm. I suspect I was bitten while in El Salvador, but it wasn’t until I was in the middle of the jungle at Angel Falls in Venezuela when it became obvious it was more than just a run of the mill mozzie bite. The pain of being a bugs buffet was quite bad, but the biggest scare for me was the fact I was in such a remote tropical area (and would be for another week) with what I thought was some sort of jungle, meat eating infection in my arm. I wish now I had taken a photo of the infection as it was then at that early stage, but the best way I could describe it was a blood volcano. I had a scab on my arm about 1cm high and maybe 1~1.5cm wide at the base which continued to ooze blood out the top of the scab for about 3 days straight. It was really quite gross.
When I got back to civilisation about a week later and was able to clean up the wound properly I was actually quite relieved to find a small head going in and out of my arm. It was obvious then that I had a parasite rather than a meat eating jungle infection that was going to result in amputation. It still took another week though for me to finally get the botfly out. After about 4 days of having an old Venezualan nurse (who was the only one who believed that there was something in there by the way) trying to digg the lavae out with a scalpal without any sort of anaesthetic I decided to get the thing out myself. I took a pair of tweezers and thanks to the big hole in my arm the nurse had kindly dug out, the next time the botfly reared its head I was able to grab it by the end and very slowly and gently ease it out. Good times.
Great site! Shows what power there is in blogs — particularly since not many of the docs had a clue about this tropical disease.
I heard of British soldiers training in Belize who would heat up a coke bottle, except the neck, put the mouth of the hot bottle over the botfly hole, then chuck cold water onto the bottle. The cold water lessons the pressure in a hurry, thus sucking out the larvae, blood and pus.
May just be a gory warry story.
I found one in my steak once.
Many years ago, in the early 80’s, I was stationed at Howard AFB in Panama. On occasion I would head out into the more isolated areas of that part of the continent and twice had to remove bot fly larae from people. I can verify the coke bottle story having seen it done once, but apparently it isnt 100%. Kind of a hit and miss approach. What I found that worked was to liberaly smear vasilne over, into, and around the breathing hole. Then, take a pice of saran wrap and tape it over the site. I used duct tape, but any kind of tape that will stay in place will work. Leave the saran wrap in place for about 2 to 3 days. This will ensure that the larvae will suffocate and die. They are WAY easier to get out once they are dead. You can see through the saran wrap so you will know when to remove it. Using tweezers, GENTLY grip and remove the larvae. It will slide right out.
Once you have removed the bugger irrigate the hole with a saline solution (those people who wear contacts are lucky, they usually have some sterile saline for rinsing thier lenses). Dry the wound site, then pack the hole with triple antibiotic and add a soft breathable dressing.
I have done this twice as i said and it worked each time.
Good luck to any of you that get nailed by this nasty little thing, you have my sympathies.
Jay
We managed to get bitten in the Gambia in feb/march. Thought the bites were different as they hurt, not itched. Got some ointment from the doctor, then 3 days afterwards, I found something white sticking out of my leg, pulled it, out came a maggot, alive and well. YUCK. Got 2 further ones out of different bites and one out of my husbands leg. The doctor phoned the department of tropical medicine and they said that the ointment had acted like vaseline, but to continue using it incase there were any more !!!! The holes have healed now but I have got 3 quite good scar’s. This hasn’t put us off returning or going elsewhere where these live, but we will take a family size jumbo pack of vaseline.
Here is a rather gross botfly infection (VIEWER ADVISORY [Note from Dave Coveney — the link below has caused me to receive a few e-mails… so I’m warning you right now that the link is a photoshopped image and rather disturbing, but untrue and impossible. Dave]). It occurs to me that one might try Lidocaine ointment when could serve to both anesthetize or kill the larvae as well as smother it and allow for an intact removal. Should be in every first aid kit to the endemic areas. Also, on the subject of worms, be careful when lying on or walking on the beaches where dogs run loose. The worms in their feces remain in the sand and bore up into your skin, usually your feet/legs, abdomen or back and move area as a visible line called Cutaneous Larva Migrans. I have seen many a patient with this return from the Mexico, Jamaica, etc. Treatment is easily performed now with antibiotic worm pills once recognized. Cheers.
Note from David Coveney added: The link that Greg included below is of a photo that is a well known bit of photoshop work. It is, however, a rather disturbing image and you may wish not to click it. Whatever you do think, don’t worry — cases of multiple infestations are pretty rare.
http://picasaweb.google.com/alamarina/Botfly02/photo#5202511801956685650 [photoshopped image]
By David again — a link to Snopes on this: http://www.davesgonemental.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=editcomment&c=13189
Incredible! And yes, they are quite gross, but the mites which carry Lyme disease scare me a whole lot more because you might miss the early warning signs.
Hi. Thanks for sharing your story.
FYI: Another method used to get these buggers out is to lay a slice of raw bacon on the wound. They apparently like this stuff and will exit the wound (much of their body) in order to partake. You can then pretty much roll them out by rolling out the bacon strip with the self-attached to it (or at least grabbing the fly and pulling/rolling it out as in your video.
Went to a great restaurant one night, excited about getting my exotic meal.
What do I see when my plate of fresh botfly arrives? Damn thing is surrounded by raw steak, bacon slices and some cloudy very thick looking gravy that, if I didn’t know betty, I would swear was Vaseline Jelly.
Greetings from the middleeast!!!
I read your above article and was totally “STUNNED”. Amazing though very weird.Did you finally get the Botfly out.…?
I could use this in my writeups :)
im taking a gap year out to go on safari in Kenya, now i am having second thoughts because bot fly possibly are there, i know if i got one of these it would KILL MEE! not an overaction-i am worried, i thinking about not goin completely becuase of the risk, do you think its worth missing the trip, incase i get one of these???
@hayley:
I don’t think there are human botflies in Africa. The human botfly is native central/south America. There are worse things than botflies in Africa, LOL.
Also, it’s relatively rare to get them. They don’t really harm you because they stay near the surface in your skin and they secrete antiseptic that keeps the wound infection-free.
If you’re in an area like South America the locals think nothing of these infections and can get them out without too much trouble.
thanks for the advice, they dont have worse things that live on humans in africa do they??????!!!
I know you warned about the picture in the link, but I clicked the link from Greg MDobefore seeing your note about it being photoshop. Please remove it so no one else has nightmares!
Reminds me of my entomology and invertebrate zoology classes back when I was in college. As a trained biologist I’m not at all phased by snakes, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, worms, or most of the other critters that give most people the willys, but I CAN’T STAND parasites! YUK!!!!
Hello :
This is a fascinating thread. I never realized that Bot flies live here in the great white north. But I did a bit of research after I found one on my dog’s rib cage today! She had a large lump about 1/2 the size of a golf ball on her left rib cage. (this after a sailing cruise in the North Channel at the very top of Lake Huron). I did not think to much of it but today I had another look and notice a rather large hole in the centre of the lump. It was weeping a watery fluid mixed with blood. I dabbed it with a tissue to get a better look and to my surprise I noticed a small whitish thing come to the top of the hole and sink back down again. It would do this every 10–15 seconds or so. I immediately thought of the Bot Fly but erroneous thought it was a tropical parasite. In any case I did the Vaseline treatment and managed to coax it out far enough to get tweasers on it. With a slow and steady pull out came this large maggot! My 7 year old boy was fascinated as was I. Anyway, I have it in a jar of alcohol and I am taking it to the Vet tomorrow for a positive ID. Is there any other treatment, after the extraction other than keeping the wound clean until it heals? I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and put some antibacterial cream on it. The rest of the family are keeping a close eye out for strange reddish lumps on themselves … so far so good !
Peter
Went to Belize for a week and after being home for two days noticed two bumps on my scalp close to my right ear. Didnt think anything of it until my lymph nodes became the size of a pea. Then I got a fever. Went to the Redi Care Center and the damn doctor told me I probably had breast cancer due to the fact that the lymph nodes on my neck were swollen. Jerk! So then I went to a GP and they had no clue, thought I had cysts that were infected and gave me antibiotics. Well, then I went to Kenya for two weeks and dealt with the sharp pain and oozing. After a while I just put ice and more gel on them. This probably killed the larvae. Finally after six weeks I found a doctor that wanted to do a culture and as he was extracting the fluid, he started digging around and sure enough he pulled out two! I about puked when I saw those maggots. He called a pathologists and describe the little buggers and that’s how we found our about Bot Fly! Yikes.…..glad that is over with.
I recently returned from Belize 2 weeks ago and I also just removed my own Bot Fly. After 2 weeks of pain, oozing, and blood I figured it was something more then the average mosquito bite. US doctors have almost no experience with this and often prescribe antibiotics. I looked onine and found some stories, but not many since it’s thought to be very rare to contract this. I did try petroleum jelly and a bottle cap but what actually worked for me was a band-aid and neosporin. After 2 days of constant covering, the tiny spiracle stuck out and I was able to remove it with tweezers. I have named it Iggy and am keeping it as a souvenir. Good luck to future hosts…
Hi,
I still have my “warble” and it is a bit sensitive. I removed my bot-fly on Tuesday ( 3 days ago) with tweezers after weakening it for 2 days with a band-aid and newsporin. I have compared my pics to Dave’s, and I don’t know if I can see the tiny hook at the end of the mouth. Also, it looks like there is some minimal damage to the bot fly,not sure if it’s when I mushed it in the napkin or during extraction, but I definitely have the majority of it out. If there are small pieces still inside me, can my body fight it off??
I too picked up a botfly larva in Belize, although I didn’t realise it at the time. I travelled on to Cuba and when the bite wasn’t healing I sought medical advice and was referred to a clinic in Havana. The larva was removed and the wound thoroughly cleaned. I was also given a course of anitbiotics. I was advised by the specialist that the larvae should not be left until they emerge or attempts made to remove them yourself because of the risk of infection. The bite has now healed. Hope this helps.
Ok, so my husband and I got married in Mexico, then traveled to Costa Rica and Belie…We were on the road for a total of 30 days. We have been home for about 2 weeks now and he has this THING on his head that is not getting better with antibiotics (that he has been on for 10 days now) and has been periodically shooting pain through his head. It was oozing puss at first (2 weeks ago) and then it bled out watery blood on his pillow one night about 5 nights ago. He has 2 really hard lymph nodes on the side of his neck. We have been to the ER twice — then to the ear nose and throat doc, now have had 4 visits to the infectious disease specialist. All blood work is clear and no growth on the culture. Today, the ID said it might be a bot fly! GAG!!! I was gagging the whole way home as my husband was like, “cool, it’s my mini me!” We go tomorrow to the dermatologist and he’s gonna cut him open and we will see what is hiding inside. We had the same experience in the Belize jungle, my husband’s back and head was COVERED in mosquitoes and the jungle guide didn’t have one on him (lucky punk). I’ll video tape the madness — I can’t wait ;)
It was a Botfly maggot!!! Gabe came home last night, he squeezed the bump and sure enough — the maggot poked out and went back in — poked out and went back in — did it a few times and then we decided to go up to the ER to let them pull it out — we needed an extra body to help so I could run the video cam. We put petroleum jelly on it for about 1 minute then wiped it off, the doctor (and 10 fascinated nurses) came in, Gabe squeezed and like a cannon — that maggot came flying out. Goo all over the place and all over me and the maggot landed on my video camera. It was so gross! Mystery solved! Gagarific.…
Wish I’d printed this lot off during my many visits to my GP clinic. I kept telling them I had something moving in my back. I kept telling them that I’d been in the Peruvian rainforest. I kept telling them that it was like a red hot needle pushing into my back (so painful I had to stop the car to recover). I kept asking them why the wound would not heal. I TOLD THEM IT WAS ALIVE!!! But 5 weeks and 2 strong courses of antibiotics later I was beside myself and went to A&E. A scan showed a foreign body. I assured them that it was animate but they said not, they said that it was not waving — how terribly droll. A doctor cut me open and found nothing. I suggested that whatever it was had retreated down into it’s bunker. They smiled condescendingly and sent me away for a week. 2 days ago and 5 weeks after returning from Peru, a wonderful lady surgeon opened me up again and removed what looked like a pea or seed head. By the time she had washed up the little bleeder was crawling across the table and we were both retching! It was MASEEEEV!!! Really fat, it had abviously been having a whale of a time in there! I had been very sick in the jungle and I’m not sure if this was related, but I am totally traumatised at this point and keep wondering if there are any more in there. If you think you have one print off the info for your GP, they know jock all about anything odd and never listen to what the patient has to say, I am proof of that. Makes for a great story though and the photos are so gross they fascinate everyone! Good luck to all you hosts.
I’m quite surprised that no one has made a joke about the scene from
’Aliens’ where the creature burst out of the guys chest. Or maybe its just me.
Got back from a trip to Belize a week ago and am pretty covered with mosquito bites which are collectively 1–2 weeks old, and seem to be “itchier” than typical bites. They are not really swelling up or anything (yet?), but still have a potent itch. I have scratched most to the point of having scabby wounds on the top, which could be either concealing a circular air hole (or this scratch scab wound itself is the precurser to the air hole?). I do not have any localized pain, open or oozing wounds, or really enlarged bite sites beyond a basic bite.….. Does this match anyone’s “early signs” of botfly or have I escaped with only a bunch of bad mosquito bites?
I dunno
My name is Ben and I gave birth to a botfly larvae today. We spent 8 days in Costa Rica on our honeymoon in late September. I don’t recall any mosquito bites but one must have gotten to me.
I had an oozing lump on my head for over a month but I don’t care for doctors and it wasn’t infected so I left it alone. Earlier this week, my lovely wife insisted I go to a doctor and see what was wrong so I went. I was told I had a sebaceous cyst and I had to go to Plastic surgeon to have it removed. I couldn’t get an appointment right away so I did some research on cysts. By divine intervention, I guess, the first link I found had a reference to a botflies. With nothing better on which to waste my time, I clicked to see where this folly led. Our travel to Central America, the life cycle of the botfly and my symptoms indicated a strong possibility of a botfly. The first two doctors spent a grand total of 1 minute listening to my symptoms and travel history and about 4 seconds looking at the bump on my head. Not exaggerating.
I went to a high dollar plastic surgeon today. He politely listened to my travel history, symptoms and detailed description of botflies. Proceeded to look at the bump for a minute, actually looked at it. He said it was a cyst and injected it a steroid and lidocaine to shrink it for later removal. Being a funny guy, he said he was fresh out of small needles so he would have to use a big fat one. A few minutes later, his nurse stops by to look under the gauze and sees something poking out. She grabs some tweezers and starts pulling. I told her to pull gently so it would come out in one piece. I guess the lidocaine did it job and fully relaxed the little bastard. After a few “oh my god” “this is disgusting” “the Doc has to see this” I’m the proud father of a 2cm long Botfly larvae.
To summarize: Two-three weeks after return from Costa Rica, I get a itchy welt on my head. About a week after that, it starts weeping clear fluid. About two weeks after that, I noticed a wound site. It never gets infected and it never closes. No pain or anything yet but it isn’t going away. Sometimes the fluid is a little bloody red but never blood. The last few days, I had stabbing burning pain for maybe one minute once a day.
US doctors have no clue about this. The last doctor spent time listening to me but he didn’t believe it until he saw it.
me s-o-o-o-o-o-o sorry wat happened to you.….did u c wat happened to a 5 year old in costa reca? he had 1 n his eye. s-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o sad!
I would like to point out that whoever said you cannot get bot flies in Africa is wrong.
my dad went (Gambia) about 5 months ago and noticed his feet turning black and numb then after hours and hours of poking around found 9 of them in his feet.
They had been chewing on the nerves!
wow this is so crazy my sister just told me about her friend coming back from peru not to long ago with some bites 4 on her head an one in her lip..imagin that her lip.. she went to two diff doctors and both were saying that it was a fever blister of somesort.. they just gave her pain meds. and sent her on her way.. a week later she went out with some friends drinkin and she felt somethin pokin her lip in the inside an she flipped her lip to show her friend „ wich told her to leave home or to the hospital right away.. she went home to find a black thing sticking out of her lip ( the inside top) she then started to pull it out with tweezers to find a thick worm.. she freaked and ran downs stairs to her mom which then pulled the rest of it out for her.. aswell as the one in her head.. after pulling 2 out the went to the ER wich everyone there was staring at her all like ( thats the one with the worms in her) they then pulled the rest out.. when she told me about this it really grossed me out… i then looked it up online and it was really gross..i cant imagen anykind of bug living in me for a long period of time.. i will never leave the U.S
J — noooo — don’t ever think it’s a good idea to not travel because of a few scary bugs. Nasty things can happen in the US (like being shot by a batshit crazy survivalist), UK (being rained at until you dissolve) or even in your own home when you trip or slip.
Travel broadens the mind. Do it :-)
I came to this site after reading
Lost in the Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Adventure and Survival by Yossi Ghinsberg — I am shortly going to the same area of Bolivia! still forewarned is forearmed so I will be taking the biggest jar of vaseline in the UK.
I just returned from Roatan, off the coast of Honduras with crazy sand fly bites, and an unusual bite on my foot, right on the arch. I saw my Dr toady who is clueless, and prescribed a lice lotion 2x daily. I’m wondering if it may be a bot fly. It started as a itchy bite, with a black pinhole at center. a few days later, it showed two pin points and was itchy. This process has happened a few more time, each about 3 days apart. I now have a line of five little black pinpoints in a row about 1.5 inches long on my inner arch. Does this sound familiar? Any and all advise welcome and needed!!
Sounds very strange, but nothing like a botfly that I’ve heard of. Of course, I’m not a doctor, so hardly qualified to advise.
In a way it sounds more like veruccas, which can have black pinpoints in the middle, and I picked up a couple on my trips thanks, no doubt, to communal showers.
If you want medical advice you’re best off finding your nearest tropical medicine center and giving them a call. If you describe your symptoms they can advise you best on the next step to take.
Not trying to one-up what were obviously pretty trying stories but here goes.
Twelve in the head, one in the back following a month long Venezuela trip that was all backcountry stuff … thirteen in all. True story. The pain as they munched their way to glory in my head was truly special .… good times.
The usual story; doctor couldn’t figure it out, repeated visits, feelings of motion under the lumpy skin of my decidedly pineapple like head (they were all concentrated right side just back of the hairline), watery fluid etc. Visits to a dermatologist ensue, followed by overnight efforts at the vaseline treatment covered with a plastic bag (which didn’t work) and then sitting at the dermatologist next day with strips of the meatiest deli bacon I could find plastered to my head for a couple of hours. That must have done something because the doc then saw a breathing bubble as one of the little suckers took a gasp … and the fun began! the dermatologist poked a local anesthetic into the lump and then poked around with a scalpel before squeezing my head so hard I literally could feel the skull bending … and voila! a wiggling little worm was thrust in my vision covered with little scraps of tissue hanging from the hooks in its little body. It was about 4–5 weeks old at that point. the good doctor’s wife, also a dermatologist, came to watch the fun and held my hand as her husband continued with the massive brain squeezing for each and every one.
A few days later one last one was taken out of my back, but we were all old pros at this by then.
But the best part came when we later took the bacon and fed it to a friend. Naturally we only explained where it had been and what it had been used for afterwards. Ahhh … it was nearly worth it.
Anyway, great to have come across your site and realised how many other folks have had this problem. I still have three of the little suckers rolling around in alcohol at the bottom of a specimen jar somewhere. I should probably put them on the mantlepiece or something, but its not a story I really share very often.
I’ve since spent a lot of time in Venezuela in that area around Angel Falls but never got them again, so it could have been from bites in a more urban setting in those parts. Either way, if it happens again I’ll definitely try the vaseline once more. Sorry for the long post … been carrying this one around for a while.
I never heard of this until my found kitten popped this hole in her neck so I started treating it like a boil first day by that night this thing started poking it butt end in and out when I put proxide on it and antibotic cream cause I thought she had infection well need less to say when I say this thing popping in and out I freaked my bf got twizers and when kitten tense up and it poked out second time he grabed it and pulled it out and I guess because of the antibotic cream it couldnt breathe so it slipped right out very easy once out she stopped crying and become her lovelable baby self I found her at like less then 2 weeks old almost dead nurse her back to health when this happen I freaked cause I was like what going on now Im going to lose my kitten any how . well I got vet today and he said I was doing everything right . Proxide until tomorrow that be 3 days antibotic cream for about 4 days maybe 5 watch for yellow or green discharge if not any great sign so far NONE pray none warm compress massage gentle to help push any thing nasty out if in it so far not. He said the worse part over getting it out now the second part is watching the next 72 hours hope no sign of infection. I never ever heard of this I guess the mommy cat must have had them in rabbit hole or they gotten bitten my our trusty blood suckers but she just going on 3 weeks old this things was as big as the tip of my pink to the first joint they say 8 weeks if you can leave them in you or the animal they come out fall off the host and attach to something else make cacoon then become a bot fly. This thing was huge I can only think how big it would have been if she was 8 weeks old and this happen and this thing Im sorry was gross so like ewwwwww and smelled like Poooo yep sure did now that it out and I keeping her cleaner no longer smells . I just wanted to post this so the others would know u can do this and smother it to pull it out make sure the whole wolf worm comes out or you can wait 8 weeks for it to fall out but watch for infection just really gross I would have to go to the doctor and sayd get this out of me now please I would not be able to stand it eeewwwwww any how Hope she continue to do well so far so good her eyes r open now and she acting more her normal self of a almost 3 week old kitten . take care fall no mystetoes or horse fly bites bye bye
Just below my left eye, there appeared what at first looked like a yellow-headded pimple. After squeezing it, it seemed to grow and swell, almost swelling my eye shut. I have tried squeezing repeatedly, but all that comes out is some yellowish, greenish pus, along with oil. I have been using neosporrin on it. This is now four or five days old. Could it be a botfly?
I’m simply trying to figure out what exactly it is. Any advice will be welcome.
Thanx.
That sounds unpleasant… and more specifically, like something you should be seeing a doctor about!
My Dog has been infected with Rabbit-Robent Botfly maggot-larvae seeds after the immature/broken larvae left on it’s own after I poked and prodded the “warble” or scab thinking it must be a buried tick/feeling suspicious but still without answers left my dog left my dog for about 15 minutes with the intention of taking him for a walk. I wanted to check the scab one more time for the strange sensation I had of it moving and or swelling (which it was, only not with blood: but as I later learned, air!) and was shocked and alarmed to find an open wound that was “T” shaped and ~5mm x ~7mm. Only later that night I noticed 20 or so black marks around the wound, which also looked different, puffier and after shaving the hair away I could make out tiny white larvae protruding before slipping back in.
Bo is my best friend and I’m worried that no one has a clue what this is and my friends even think I might be losing my mind.
Plus it’s Thanksgiving weekend and nothing but vet techs that haven’t heard of such a thing (it’s obvious many Vets don’t learn much about this either from the dozens upon dozens of “Tick under dog skin?” queries on American info sharing web sites and the paucity of accurate responses from those who should know.
Note: my dog’s just fell out and I was naturally terrified still (wrongly) believing it was a tick. Not until I did a search through many dog parasites did I find a listing for “cuterebra” (genus name) in the Merck Veterinary manual online (guess what everyone: dogs & cats can — but don’t typically — carry “dermatobia hominis” which is why climate change should be of concern to every body who lives in the lower temperate zones.
also:
[From the Merck Vet Manual: (treatment section) There are anecdotal reports of larval rupture causing anaphylaxis. If possible, the larva should be removed in one piece; recurrent abscesses at the site of previous Cuterebra infestation suggest residual infection or remaining pieces of larva. The area should be thoroughly flushed with sterile saline, debrided, and allowed to heal by granulation. ]
Thanks anyone who can offer advice. Thanks Dave — sorry you had to go through that.
Matthew
Oh my. My mother was told about these botflies at her job (Veterinarian’s Office) and I came looking for information. I’m sorry but if I ever had one of these in me, I think I would have to be institutionalized. I am so disgusted by bugs, parasites and the like, I truly think I’d lose it. Just knowing I had bugs eating my skin would literally sicken me to the point of insanity. I give all of you credit for being able to actually accept what has happened and still not be afraid of leaving the country again. Anyhow, thanks for the info.