Treatment for Bot Flys...

[Gammas Baby]

Botfly Larvae/cuterebra or Warble

A bot fly larva is the developing form of an insect. It is the stage after it hatches from the egg and before it becomes an adult fly. The lump in the animal's skin caused by the growing bot is called a warble, and the opening in the animal's skin is referred to as the warble pore. There may be just one larva or there may be more in different parts of the host animal's body...the larva feeds upon the animal's tissue exudate. In the early stages of development the larvae may be light colored and generally darken as they mature. The area can devleop an abcess from the chronic irritation. The Bot fly warble is often misdiagnosed as a simple abcess....

Treatment:

If the bot fly larva is not in an area that restricts movement or other functions, it can be left intact and will drop off at maturity. The sight on your animal is gruesome, but in many cases they only cause mild irritation for the animal. Once the warble drops out, clean the wound with an antiseptic and apply topical ointment if needed. On very small mammals such as mice, the warble can be life threatening -- it may need to be surgically removed.

If the bot fly is killed while it is living under the skin of the mammal, it can release a toxin whcih can cause anaphylactic shock (this is one reason why we don't try to kill it while it is still there). Oral antibiotic treatment may be indicated if a secondary infection develops in the warble.

A mature bot fly larva is large enough to be carefully removed using tweezers or forceps. Sometimes slow, steady pressure AT THE BASE of the warble can push the larva out thru the opening. Be sure not to kill the larva in the process. The warble pore can then be flushed with chlorhexiderm@ or saline solution and a topical antibiotic applied if needed.

[sqrlady]

Squirrels with large numbers of botfly can develop secondary infections that require assistance so the animal does not die.  Normally the animals handle 4 or 5 without problems but more than that often causes problems. 

[sqrlady]

If the squirrel has to have the botfly larva removed what I use on them is silvadene cream.  It can be pushed into the same hole that the larva was removed from. It is an excellent cream that has many antifungal, antibacterial properties.

[Hennawi]

It just breaks my heart when I see one of my little friends with bot flies and several years ago we were having a real problem with them. Like every squirrel had them in multiples. But fortunate for me we have a wild life sanctuary in town so I was able to trap many of my little buddies and take them there where they removed them for me and allowed me to bring them back and release them to their homes. I was afraid that they would be angry at me for having trapped them and transported them across town to be "abused" (I am sure that is what they thought was being done to them) and take off for other parts once I re released them back in my yard but I guess that they felt so much better afterwords that they forgave me and stayed around. Last year I saw a few but was unable to catch those so i just had to grit my teeth and bare it out. It seems that we get them worse after hurricanes or sever hurricane type weather here. 

[sqrlady]

Botflies seem to be hatched out with a lot of wet weather.  I am expecting we will start seeing them earlier this year, like we did last year because of our wet weather in my area.  Usually they do pretty well with them but a couple of years ago we had a problem with a lot of the squirrels getting horrible infections from the botflies and even smaller numbers of botflies were causing severe illness and even death.  We get lots of the infants coming in with them during the summer months.  I have learned how to remove them.  I like to fill the area with silvadene as that helps to keep infection out.  This year I will probably give Convenia as a precaution too.  It is great at keeping infection away and with it being just one shot it is great for wild squirrels you can't easily medicate. 
Last year one of my released squirrel girls came back with such bad infection that I had to catch her, bring her home and treat her.  She recovered completely and was re-released. She still comes to get nuts from me just about every day.  I thought after I caught her and kept her in a cage for a couple of weeks she would stay away from me but she still comes and will get quite close. 

[Squirrel Nut]

I am hoping Fester will at least come to visit and eat once he is released also.

[sqrlady]

Here are a few shots of some large botfly larvae on one of my wild friends from last year.

[skye]

 

[michelle7749]

I've seen quite a few squirrels in our yard that have multiple bot flies on them.  I also have noticed that many of them have major hair loss and look pitiful.  I'm wondering if their hair loss could be mange or something and if so, would it be contagious to my little pomeranians that go outside...anyone have info?

[sqrlady]

Hair loss is normal with botfly infections.  In fact it is often seen before the warble starts really forming.  You do see warbles without such hair loss but more frequently I see the hair loss too.  Normally that starts coming back in pretty quickly though because of the time of year that the botflies are on them.  We are seeing coat changes now too, which can bring on hair loss as well.  From my experience the mange mites on squirrels are not a problem for dogs.  They seem to be pretty species specific.