Pumpkin Vs. Warble The Story of Pumpkin the Stray Kitten
I have a six week old stray kitten. Four days after picking the kitten up on the side of the road I noticed its neck had started swelling around 9 AM. By 3 PM it looked like an egg was in its neck. The swelling was bigger than the kitten's head. I noticed a perfect circle in the swelling that looked like a perfect hole had been drilled in its neck. The kitten was very lethargic and would not eat.
I rushed her to Dr. Mickey (a veterinarian in Harlan County, Kentucky). He told me it was a warble. Apparently before I picked the cat up it had eaten food with fly eggs on it (there is an incubation period of anywhere from 10-14 days). The eggs hatched inside of the kitten and the hole in the swelling was an air hole for this maggot-like worm to breathe. He told me he would have to barely incise the hole to pull out the warble, then he put her on some antibiotics. The hole was very close to her jugular vein and he told me that if I had not brought her in she would have been dead by the next morning. He explained that the process is very fast and the worm basically eats from the inside out. He warned me to not remove a warble because if the warble burst, it would release toxins that would inevitably kill her.
She was on antibiotics for 10 days. The morning after the warble was removed she was back to her old self. It took about 3 days for the swelling to be completely gone. Now she is great. No infection. Little Pumpkin is feeling fine.
What is a Warble?
Warbles are the larvae of the bot-fly (Cuterebra sp.). Warbles appear as a swelling or lump just under the skin. Upon closer examination you will see that there is a puncture or hole just above the lump. This is an air vent for the larva, which has burrowed into the skin. They will usually be found around the neck and legs of an animal, but can be found anywhere on the body. When the bot-fly lays her eggs on the animal, the eggs hatch into larva which then burrow into the skin. They wall off the area, and become a parasite living off the animal. Larval development can take anywhere from 19 days to around 60 days. The pupal period can be as short as 28 days, or as long as 7-11 months, depending on the time of year and temperature. The newly hatched larvae are usually 2-4 mm long and grayish white in color. As they grow, the color changes to reddish brown and then to dark brown. Fully grown larva can be from 20-42 mm long and 7-10 mm wide. When you find a lump or swelling on your pet, check to see if the an air vent is present. If so, you are probably dealing with warbles. Take your pet to your vet right away, left untreated the warble can cause infection.
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