A REAL LOVE STORY: CUTEREBRIASIS IN OUR KITTIES AND PUPS
OK, dear readers, let’s see a show of hands. Who remembers a movie that was very popular in the early seventies entitled Love Story? Probably all of us over the age of thirty have at least some recollection of the film.
For my younger readers who may not yet have seen this sappy and somewhat overly melodramatic movie, it was a film that starred Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neil, and it was notorious for being a two-handkerchief tearjerker. It was one of those “rich college jock falls in love with a poor—and somewhat foul-mouthed—Radcliffe girl” type movie plots that always seem to end in a catastrophe.
(The movie gained some additional notoriety during the 2000 presidential election year when it was claimed by former Vice President Al Gore that the book’s author, Erich Segal, based Love Story on his—Mr. Gore’s—experiences. Of course, as most thinking people were quick to realize, this dopy claim to fame couldn’t be true, because the last time any of us had checked, Tipper Gore was—and thankfully still is—among the living.)
Now, please, don’t anybody be mad at me, but I, personally, never quite understood the movie’s popularity. At the time this movie came out in 1970, our country was embroiled in the Vietnam War, young male high school seniors had to worry about being drafted, and our cities and college campuses were exploding with antiwar and racial tensions. But this mushy and romantic drama had people lining up for hours to see it.
And who can forget the famous scene on the back porch landing, where the young lovers make up after a short separation, and Ali McGraw looks Ryan O’Neil in the eyes and utters that famous quote: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Yuck! Gag me with a spoon, man! When you looked around, there was not a dry eye in the theater.As the movie became a little more popular, some of you Love Story veterans may remember that the big thing to do if you were a guy—and maybe some girls did so also—was to make some kind of obnoxious, gross noise at this sensitive part of the flick in order to piss off everybody in the theater. I never did anything like that, of course.
I can hear it out there now: “So, Doc, what does this ancient movie review have to do with veterinary medicine?” The life’s story of the Cuterebra larva (Cuterebra is the scientific name of this nasty critter; they are also called grubs or warbles) is, in my humble opinion, equally as romantic a tale as the movie Love Story was. Well, maybe some people might not think so.
In the spring and early summer, by some unknown magical means, Cuterebra flies emerge from their cocoons. These critters are so very bizarre that they’re born without a mouth. Then, immediately after they hatch, the very first (and only) thing they do is find a mate. Those flies that are lucky enough to do so share just a brief moment of passionate bliss and ecstasy together and then go their separate ways. The females then lay their now-fertile eggs on the first living animal she sees, most often a kitten or puppy.
The adult flies then die.
Oh! How cruel nature can be. I can see it out there now, there’s probably not a dry eye in my Web page audience.
After a while, the egg hatches, and the newborn little maggot burrows his way into the hapless animal’s skin. Here it sets up housekeeping for the remainder of its little maggot life. If unnoticed, it goes on and molts three times and then falls out onto the ground to form a cocoon. It then waits, breathlessly, for that magic and enchanted springtime moment in which to begin its species’ romantic journey all over again.
This summer, I’ve been seeing a large amount of kittens (it can also occur in puppies) infected with Cuterebra larva. These poor little cats are brought in because the owners notice a swelling on the kitten’s neck, which can have a bloody or pus-like discharge. If you look close at these festering sores, you can actually see the little grub coming up for a breath of air.
In uncomplicated cases of cuterebriasis, treatment involves gently widening the opening of the Cuterebra’s air hole and extracting the critter out of its den with a pair of forceps. I then put these kittens on antibiotics. Most of the time the wounds heal uneventfully.
Once in a while, however, as these maggots are crawling around looking for a spot to burrow into, they end up in bad locations on the poor kitten or puppy. I’ve seen them living in the nasal passage where they’ve caused a chronic nasal discharge. I had an adult cat that had chronic respiratory trouble because it had a Cuterebra lodged in its throat. And, sadly, I had another adult cat who had severe signs of in-coordination because it had one of these repulsive critters living in its brain.
Thanks again
Copyright 2004 by Richard Orzeck, DVM. The information in this article is based upon the author’s personal experiences, his opinions, and his best interpretation of the data at the time of writing. It is not intended to render veterinary advice or service. Specific needs and questions concerning your pet’s health should always, always, always, be addressed by his or her best friend, their local veterinarian.