Kitten, Warble, Cuterebra--Oh (UGH) My!
25 Aug 2009

Stray Kitten with a Large (Ugly) Passenger “Aboard”

                  By Petra Wittsell, Tech Support

 

Just a few days ago a little kitten found his way into one of our clients’ yard. As most good-hearted Samaritans would, they decided to take him under their “wings”.  They soon noticed a BIG swelling on the little kitten’s neck, with a rather BIG hole right in the middle.  Understandably concerned about this cause of this injury, they brought him in to M-AVH ASAP.  Was it a puncture wound made by a stick?  Or maybe another animal?

 

Dr. Seroka thoroughly examined the little kitten as he happily purred and purred.  She soon discovered that the injury was actually a warble hole!  Inside, breathing in and out of his BIG hole was a HUGE cuterebra larva!

 

Following some baseline blood tests, Dr. Seroka safely sedated the little kitten and removed the HUGE larvae from his neck.

                                                

 

The (fortunate) little kitten was reunited with his new family the next day and will hopefully never encounter another “creepy crawly” like this ever again!

 

                         

FYI~

Cuterebra is a large bot fly, somewhat resembling a bumble bee, that lays its eggs on soil, stones, or plants—often near the entrance to animal dens or burrows.

 

As an animal brushes by, the eggs stick to its fur.  The first stage larvae then hatch instantly and crawl into the host’s fur.  The larvae then either penetrate the skin, are ingested when the animal grooms, or enter the animal’s body through a natural opening, such as the nose.

 

In most cases the larvae migrate to areas just underneath the skin, but may also migrate through the brains with fatal results.

 

As the larva matures in its warble underneath the skin, it produces a large nodule, or swelling.  A small opening develops in the skin through which it breathes.  There may be a small amount of drainage around this breathing hole.  These warbles filled with cuterebra larvae usually appear in the late summer and early fall (August—October).

 

Your Veterinarian can remove the cuterebra larva by enlarging its breathing hole sufficiently to permit careful extraction with forceps.  If the larva is cut or crushed in the process, your pet may develop severe skin irritation at this site.

 

If the larva is not surgically removed, it will continue to grow and ultimately break through the skin, fall to the ground where it develops into a pupa and then an adult bot fly.

 

Still fascinated?  Creepy Fun Fact…

 

The female of Dermatobia hominis, another member of the Cuterebridae family, uses a “slave” to carry her eggs to a prospective host.  She catches another blood-sucking insect, like a mosquito or stable fly, and glues her eggs to its abdomen.  The eggs develop in a week or two and the larvae inside them stand ready to disembark when the “slave” lands on the skin of an animal to feed.  This larva is a serious pest to warm-blooded animals in Central and South America.

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