The repelling part is where the maggots are born and how they survive. Flies lay eggs where there is an opportunity for their babies to thrive. Open wounds are perfect.
Are you grossed out yet? Well, wait.
I clipped Silky, aka Casey aka Sickie, yesterday. Not a bad harvest and he felt so much better! Anna Nicole, the Great White, was next. This girl is huge and had seemed lethargic for a week or so. I had attributed this to the heat and her full coat. I noticed what looked like a motor oil spill on her back side - WTF? It was blood. This wasn't going to be good.
I clipped off bloody wool for several inches around what turned out to be a small wound. The maggots were living in and off of the festering flesh of the wound as well as in the bloody wool. There were a lot of maggots. And several clumps of fly eggs in her wool that would have been maggots within 24 hours. The thing that maggots do well is exactly what makes them so revolting. They eat dead flesh. The edges of her wound were trimmed perfectly even and her raw flesh was pink and healthy. The hole was small; dime -sized.
I attached the shower attachment to the tub faucet and hosed down Anna Nicole's butt. That removed the rest of the blood and flushed clean the wound. I clipped her wool down to the skin. That's where even more maggots were. Big ones. Medium size ones. Hatchlings less that a quarter inch long. I thought I'd never see the end of them. And Anna was so good, like she was relieved that I had noticed and was finally Doing Something.
She's doing well today; looking alert and happy. I brought her inside for a look-see, killed a few remaining maggots, and applied more antibiotic. Since she also had ear mites (no secrets here) she also received an injection of ivomectin.
Bonnie also received attention today. Two shots at the vet (antibiotics and cortizone) plus a treatment of Frontline and a few other little things. All told, $150. I have to do a major flea destruction in the house. Whoopee. A kept layabout's work is never done.
And apropos of nothing, here are two shots of the Laconia General Store, The Most Happenin' Place in Town!
"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity."
- Harlan Ellison
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