fighting injuris.. maggot infestation...

[cracker]

okay... so iv got currently 3 blue tongues all grand children of others iv kept in the past which have since died... been keeping them since i was (9-10 im now 23) these guys are all around 3 years now and due to some inbreeding they arnt perfect anyway.. nature taking its own sick course i guess...

they all live in a rather large outdoor cage prob 2.5M square grass loads of rocks wooden thing plants blah blah, anyway its come around to spring time and as usual they get abit crazy breading season i guess
so a punch up or two is usually expected, but all have gotten along fine in the past after working out their indifferances
however 2 weeks ago noticed that one lizard had not gone to bed and had several scabs on it... so it was removed cleaned(warm bath) and treated with savalone( basic anti baterial ) and left in a small out door cage by itself.
same as how we have treated small fight wounds/cuts they have got in the past no worries... how ever things got worse..much worse scabs got bigger and well filled with maggots so it turned out to my disgust!
The lizard was then bathed in warm water maggots pulled from scales/scabs and savalone applied again.. things got worse again... iv just removed a largish of amount of scales maybe 15-20% of her top think from the back of the neck to slightly past the front legs... pulled 20-30 magots out disgusting one of the more horrible things iv ever had to deal with.
I then applied 1-10 ratio of betteriodene and water to hopefully prevent infection ... think iv got the vast majority of magots.. minimal bleeding too the lizard and isnt overly upset.

Feel very sorry for her think the next move might be a long deep sleep..forever... trying my best but seem to be failing, id like to do what i can to save her... she still eats sleep etc as normal just has living magots in her flesh...shudder

This may read as im a horrible pet owner but its a situation that has gotten out of hand alot faster then id imagine and in the past the previous method of clean and seperate has worked fine...any help would be great!

cheers

[Bird_Brain]

I am not sure if the animal has been brought inside yet or not, but I highly recommend setting up an indoor enclosure for it ASAP. I have never dealt with Myiasis (fancy name for maggot infestation). However, while working for a vets office we had seen this several times with dogs. I had seen a lot of different things while working there but the maggot issues always made me want to throw up!

Obviously I am going to recommend a vet visit, but in the mean time, I would do a warm bath in a providone iodine, make sure the maggots are removed and then pack the wound with a petroleum based antibiotic ointment. This is an issue that will require daily care and cleaning. Each day, I would clean the area iwth the providone iodine solution and repack the wound with the antibiotic.

If this is giong on for too long, then the vet may recommend an oral/injectable antibiotic. As mentioned above, I really dont think this should be treated without vet consultation.

[acanthurus]

Hi Cracker,

I went through a similar experience when I decided to put down one of my shingles this year. I knew he was quite an old animal despite being wild caught, and with the bobtail flu spreading through my group he was hit quite hard. He became quite weak and stopped fighting off the flies that are always around at this time of year. When I found him he had eggs filling the corner of his mouth and ears. Young maggots had hatched and were inside his mouth at the angle of his jaw. They didn’t seem to be feeding on any wounds or dead flesh, but instead were feeding on any mucus he was bringing up. It made me feel quite ill to find him this way, and I understand your surprise at how quick this can happen. Even though I could have maybe persevered with treating him it was obvious he was suffering and I felt he had probably had enough, so I decided to have him put down.

I think maggots generally implies a very unwell animal, given the fact they only feed on rotting material and usually require an animal that is quite weakened to allow them to land and lay their eggs. From what you have described it sounds like she has some pretty extensive wounds. If she is suffering I would also give serious thought to preventing her going through a long painful death.

[Susann]

Please understand, I have NO experience what-so-ever! I am only stating an opinion.
You could just be in the middle of a circle that needs to be broken. I don't necessarily think your animal needs to be put down quite yet if she is still eating and active. What I read from your telling, she doesn't sound too affected; she may well look horrible, but could yet be fine with care.

I am going to assume she got some scrapes from normal fighting of the time of the year. Some wounds that may have become infected. This is where the fly/maggot circle starts. A fly laid eggs, maggots hatched. Maggots are now living on anything they can get--meaning any infected or dying tissues. Circle starts. Pretty soon they are in all the infected wounds. If you don't kill off eggs and maggots, the circle will repeat as long as there is necroting tissue. Animal needs to be in an absolutely fly-free area, eggs, maggots killed, and like ReptileKing states, keep wounds covered with medicated ointment to keep circle from starting over.

The maggots themselves are actually not bad. There are parts of the world (it even happens right here in the US) where maggots are intentionally USED as a medical treatment. Because maggots only eat infected dying tissue, they can actually keep a healing wound free to heal and close up from inside, while bad infectious tissues are being removed by the maggots on top, and kept from infecting healthy, healing tissue.
How this works on scales, I haven't got a clue.
But to heal the wounds without maggot-help, eggs and maggots need to be removed/killed, and wounds kept in such a way that NEW maggots can't get in.

If you think your girl is healthy enough, if it were me, I would give her a chance to heal those wounds in a fly-free environment (which, believe me, I know isn't easy! But worth a shot.)

[Nae]

While I am most certainly no vet, this is my experience from 'outback vet work', where is is much to expensive to call in a vet for a sheep or chicken. In all honesty, I dont actually think there is anything a vet can do that you otherwise couldnt.

First of, separate the animal, both from other animals and from flies. So in this case definitely bring her inside. This prevents further infestation. Like Susann said, there is a cycle - they hatch, feed for about 2 weeks, then fall out and bury into the ground to become flies. Easy enough to treat if only one fly laid eggs. However, if continually exposed to flies, you end up with a bunch of circles constantly overlapping one another. The next step would normally be to shave/cut all the wool/fur/feathers surrounding the infestation, but luckily for you scales dont need that. Now, with healthy sheep or cows, a powerful insecticide is used - But, if the animal is young, weak, a chicken, the extraction of the maggots has to be done by hand, as the insecticide could otherwise kill them. I would categorize your bluey with the chickens, meaning you'll have to sit there and pick them all out. You will have to do this every day, as the eggs will keep hatching gradually. If you see any lumps form, to not hesitate to try to open it - these are eggs that will have hatched under the skin. I spent about 2 hours every morning and evening treating one of my sheep by hand to keep it under control until we were able to get into contact with a farmer who possessed the insecticide - He made it through.

I personally dont agree with the statements that maggots will only infect an unhealthy animal - they will infect any open sores, ESPECIALLY if said sore comes into contact with feces/ dirt. When my sheep once got infected - he accidentally got nicked while shearing, and I didnt noticed until he started acting weird whenever I patted him in a certain place. He was otherwise a picture of health.

In regards to Susann saying about how they are used in medical treatment, this is definitely true, however done under very strict supervision. In a 'normal' situation, while they generally do only feed on dead or rotting flesh, if too many flies lay eggs in a area, the maggots can run out of food and spread to healthy flesh. This wouldnt happen in medical treatment, the doctors would know know just how many maggots they applied, there wont be any 'surprise' eggs hidden under the surface.

If she is healthy, definitely give her a shot! Try giving your vet a call - there might be something new on the market for maggots, they might even be able to suggest how much to dilute an insecticide to make it safe for bluey use (We once had to help a neighbour to do that to a mob of lambs that got attacked by feral dogs- 2 sadly didnt make it.)

[Scotts1au]

The maggots are probably from flies from the genus lucilia (probably cuprina), these are nasty flesh eating critters and failure to treat will mean a quick and horrific death for the bluey. Once it gets to that point only one way to treat it, take it to a vet and they will probably have to use and organophosphate based chemical on the wound site with follow up treatment required - not sure how this will affect a bluey - very toxic. Chances are that their environment contains rotting food, most likely meat in there which will have attracted the flies. Needs to be removed.