I have a 6 lb., older Maltese(spayed female.) I keep her clipped, doing it myself...she is about 1 1/4" coat length right now, having grown out a bit since I last clipped her(I use an 8 1/2 blade, and go with the direction of hair growth...don't care if it looks 'professional',but I have a good eye and she doesn't look 'chopped up' when I finish!
Anyway...she likes to go out and lie in my back yard...which, because I no longer have enough well capacity so can't water, is basically now 'dirt', after years of drought...lots of bare area, interspersed w/ scattered clumps of mostly native grasses.
I have never had issues with either ticks or fleas here, even when I DID have some backyard grass, Once in the 31 years I've been here, I found 13 fleas on this same little dog, all in a group over one eyebrow...I carefully removed them, and since, regularly check the dogs thoroughly, but have never found another flea, or a tick, or any other signs of either(and I don't use 'Frontline' or such, because I've never seen a need.) About 10 days ago, my daughter who was here for the weekend, mentioned that Angel had a bloody spot on her back.When I inspected her, there was a small round wound; since Angel has some skin tags, I thought perhaps she'd just torn one off wallowing, which she occasionally enjoys doing. I cleaned it up, put a bit of antibiotic ointment on it...and just kept checking it. After the first day, it seemed to be trying to be an abcess; seemed to be 'filling' under the skin between checks...but I just kept the 'hole' open, gently manipulating it to get accumulating serum/occasional pus to come out; not letting the wound/'hole' scab over for long, and keeping it clean...and the 'enlargement, which I'd taken to be an abcess, began to shrink. Today when I removed the latest scab and began gently manipulating the 'engorged' area, what appeared to be some pus emerged...the something solid appeared, and a GRUB emerged! UGH!! It was about 1/3-1/2" long, very tapered at BOTH ends, white but with a dark 'interior' visible. It WAS still moving...but not for long! I dropped it into a little container of rubbing alcohol, which killed it immediately(of course, I don't have formaldehyde, so just used what was at hand!)I hope it will preserve it so I can show it to someone who might know WHAT KIND of critter it 'intended' to be?!
Now, I've seen grubs on cattles's backs, and believe there are ones that will get on horses(maybe the same ones that prey on cattle?), but never heard of or seen such on a dog of any size or breed! We do not generally have many 'nasty' insect varieties here; it is just too hot and DRY most of the time(and this thing appeared before we'd had ANY rain for months and months); I certainly haven't seen any kind of flying or crawling critter that might account for something like this!!
Has anyone ever seen this on dogs, or know what might have caused it? I am now limiting the hours that the dogs can go and 'hang out' in the yard, which is just as well in the heat of summer(beats me why they'd even WANT to be lying around out there; there IS a big shade tree, but they don't necessarily use it!)--and looking them over even more often.Through it all, Angel has seemed herself, eating, drinking, and carrying on her usual activities, such as they are...thank goodness!
Margo, grossed out in NM
Anyway...she likes to go out and lie in my back yard...which, because I no longer have enough well capacity so can't water, is basically now 'dirt', after years of drought...lots of bare area, interspersed w/ scattered clumps of mostly native grasses.
I have never had issues with either ticks or fleas here, even when I DID have some backyard grass, Once in the 31 years I've been here, I found 13 fleas on this same little dog, all in a group over one eyebrow...I carefully removed them, and since, regularly check the dogs thoroughly, but have never found another flea, or a tick, or any other signs of either(and I don't use 'Frontline' or such, because I've never seen a need.) About 10 days ago, my daughter who was here for the weekend, mentioned that Angel had a bloody spot on her back.When I inspected her, there was a small round wound; since Angel has some skin tags, I thought perhaps she'd just torn one off wallowing, which she occasionally enjoys doing. I cleaned it up, put a bit of antibiotic ointment on it...and just kept checking it. After the first day, it seemed to be trying to be an abcess; seemed to be 'filling' under the skin between checks...but I just kept the 'hole' open, gently manipulating it to get accumulating serum/occasional pus to come out; not letting the wound/'hole' scab over for long, and keeping it clean...and the 'enlargement, which I'd taken to be an abcess, began to shrink. Today when I removed the latest scab and began gently manipulating the 'engorged' area, what appeared to be some pus emerged...the something solid appeared, and a GRUB emerged! UGH!! It was about 1/3-1/2" long, very tapered at BOTH ends, white but with a dark 'interior' visible. It WAS still moving...but not for long! I dropped it into a little container of rubbing alcohol, which killed it immediately(of course, I don't have formaldehyde, so just used what was at hand!)I hope it will preserve it so I can show it to someone who might know WHAT KIND of critter it 'intended' to be?!
Now, I've seen grubs on cattles's backs, and believe there are ones that will get on horses(maybe the same ones that prey on cattle?), but never heard of or seen such on a dog of any size or breed! We do not generally have many 'nasty' insect varieties here; it is just too hot and DRY most of the time(and this thing appeared before we'd had ANY rain for months and months); I certainly haven't seen any kind of flying or crawling critter that might account for something like this!!
Has anyone ever seen this on dogs, or know what might have caused it? I am now limiting the hours that the dogs can go and 'hang out' in the yard, which is just as well in the heat of summer(beats me why they'd even WANT to be lying around out there; there IS a big shade tree, but they don't necessarily use it!)--and looking them over even more often.Through it all, Angel has seemed herself, eating, drinking, and carrying on her usual activities, such as they are...thank goodness!
Margo, grossed out in NM
