If eggs or maggots are seen on a pet, veterinary attention should be sought immediately for the best chance of successful treatment. Under optimal conditions eggs can hatch in as little as 18 hours! The maggots can cause extensive damage to weakened tissues in just one day. Pupa: The pupae have hard, brown shells and are about 10mm long.Īdult: After another 10 days, the flies emerge from the pupae and can breed and lay eggs in around one week. The larvae eat dead animal tissue and grow rapidly, going through three developmental stages. Larva: The eggs hatch into larvae, commonly called maggots. Individually they are hard to see but en masse they look like a clump of sawdust. There are four stages to the life cycle of Green BottlesĮgg: Fly eggs are very small, just over 1mm long and less than 0.5mm wide. Although treatment is possible, up to 50% of rabbits diagnosed with flystrike die or are euthanased. Rabbits are the pet most commonly affected by flystrike, but guinea pigs are often victims too. Flystrike causes rapidly growing, painful wounds and can cause septicaemia (infection in the bloodstream) and toxaemia (toxins in the blood) from the dying tissues. If the wound is contaminated by urine and faeces, more tissue dies and is eaten by the maggots. Maggots won’t eat healthy tissue but will find any skin that is damaged by prolonged contact with urine or faeces. The most common fly causing flystrike in the UK is the Green Bottle (Lucilia sericata). They lay their eggs on the animal’s fur and maggots can hatch out in as little as a day. Flies are attracted to animal housing, especially if this has been allowed to become dirty. Flystrike, also known as myiasis or being ‘fly-blown’, is a painful and often fatal condition where maggots eat away at an animal’s flesh.
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