What is this bug? It burrowed into my cat??!?

Question

We came home and my cat had a big patch of bald skin where she had torn out her fur around a little hole. We thought she'd been shot with a pellet gun, but then my sister tried to get it out with tweezers and saw a bug in there! She thinks she squished it with the tweezers, but i want to know what it was!

my sister said the bug had a pointy rear. does that help?

Answer 1

Larvae burrow into skin in gross but easily treatable condition
Here it is again, cuterebra (cute-a-ree-bra) season. This is the time of year when my personal favorite clinical entity rears its not-so-cute little head on dogs and cats and rabbits around town.


The appeal of this little beastie to me is that it is quick and easy to diagnose, quick and easy to fix, and you get a suitably gross souvenir for your efforts. I am talking about a type of fly larva that makes a little nest for itself inside the skin of mammals while it is waiting to pupate and become an adult fly.

Usually the pet comes in with the complaint of some sort of sore or bump.

On close inspection the bump, which is usually about ½ to 1 inch in diameter, it looks like a volcano with a perfectly round hole at the top and a little discharge coming out of the mouth. On still closer inspection, the rear end of the larva can be seen moving up and down inside the hole. At this point I usually give the patient some local anesthesia at the mouth of the opening and enlarge the hole with a small incision with a scalpel blade.

When the hole has been enlarged enough, the larva can either be pulled out or squeezed out. It is important that the opening be enlarged before trying to remove the larva or the larva tends to squish inside out and its skin, or cuticle, remains in the hole. That foreign material causes lots of irritation and possible allergic reactions if left in there, and it is hard to fish it out once the larva is eviscerated. I find that the stillsquirming larva is best showcased in a small glass tube, where it can be admired to varying degrees by the proud owners of the pets.

Adult cuterebra flies look a little like bees. Their preferred hosts are wild rabbits and squirrels, so they lay their eggs around the openings to rabbit burrows or in places where squirrels like to go. When a furry creature brushes past them, the eggs stick to the coat and are either ingested during grooming and migrate from the gut to the skin after hatching, or they hatch on the hair and burrow directly into the skin.

The developing larvae live quite happily and quietly, causing very little discomfort or other problems on their host until they start getting big enough to stimulate some tissue irritation. The discharge from the tissue irritation usually causes a pet to be brought to the vet, where the wiggly, white souvenir is soon procured. Occasionally a cuterebra gets lost during its migration to the skin and can cause problems in the organs it goes wandering through. Lost cuterebra are a very rare occurrence and can be diabolically hard to diagnose.

Now before you think smugly to yourself that there is no way your immaculately clean, pampered, indoor only pet would ever have such a disgusting problem, I will tell you that it seems to me (in a very unscientific personal survey) that many of the patients I see with cuterebra are tiny, immaculately clean, fuzzy little white dogs that never go outside. My crackpot theory to explain this phenomenon is that adult female flies get trapped inside the house and, even though it is not their preferred site, they have to lay their eggs somewhere. That makes the house pets the only suitable hosts available for the eggs, and thus the tiny, fuzzy little white dog with a volcano-shaped worm house on its skin. Just remember that the idea of a larva in the skin may be revolting, but it doesn’t usually do any real damage or cause illness, and it will bring a smile to your veterinarian when you come in.

Answer 2

It most likely is not a tick. The answer about the fly laying an egg is probably right. The larva from this is sometimes very large. I would further investigate. There may be a big fat wormy looking larva in there yet. Is plenty big enough to see so don't worry that you won't be able to find it. If it is still in there, just get a good hold and pull it gently. Some times they are bigger than the actual hole. They are folded up inside the hole. They are really gross looking so don't freak out. Good luck.

Answer 3

Call your local animal shelter or vet to find out. Also, be sure to check the would and keep it clean in disinfected with antibiotic lotion. If it heals from the inside out, your cat will get an abcess. This can be very dangerous.
If I were you, I would take kitty to the vet.
Also, you can help keep this from happening again by keeping your cat indoors and by giving her a high quality, nutritious cat food. If your kitty is well nourished, fleas and other bugs are less likely to try to eat her!

Answer 4

It's probably a tick. The head is probably still deep in the skin. Get your cat to the vet. ASAP!

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Answer 5

a tick. go back and make sure you got the head of the bug out of your cat, or take it to a vet. squishing it won't have done any good

Answer 6

Sounds like the same thing that happened to my cat. We named him Holey for it. The vet said it was a type of fly that laid it's egg, which hatched and the larve burrowed into the cat.

Answer 7

Probably a tick and she tried to get it out herself by tearing away fur from around it.

Answer 8

Probably a brown Texas tick!

Answer 9

A disgusting tick! Eeeww. See your vet asap.

Answer 10

It could be any thing from a tick to some sort of worm . take him to the vet asap!!!!!