Fly Strike in Dogs

[Tia]

My old collie has been looking a bit under the weather for the past day or two. The flies have been bugging the life out of her and have been trying to feast on the tips of her ears. I have been cleaning them and putting SWAT on them to try to soothe and deter more biting flies from landing on them.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon, she was suffering a bit from the heat - it was very very hot - so I brought her into the house and put on the air conditioning for her to help cool her down. She has a very long, luxurious coat which is awfully thick still, no matter that temperatures are very high she has still not shed out.

Anyway, as she was lying there I went over to give her a nice groom. She is in season right now and when I was grooming round her back end, I found tonnes and tonnes of fly eggs! No wonder the flies were buzzing around her!! I promptly took her outside, none of the dog clippers work anymore so I got out the horse clippers and clipped off all the eggs attached to her long fur. She now looks very odd but I don't care!

Thankfully they were only eggs and not larvae.....however I am now in a dilemma as to how best to stop them laying on her again and am concerned about the risk of strike. I am going out to buy yet another pair of dog clippers today so that I can see what is going on underneath all that fur but can anyone suggest anything else that coule help deter them?

I was hoping for some sort of shampoo that might work? She gets hosed down most days when we have this sort of heat, so bathing her would be no inconvenience to me; however I can't actually find a suitable shampoo

. I have been spraying her with OFF! but it doesn't seem to be effective on her

.

I do have Fly Summer Cream over here though - I brought it with me from England - do you think that this could help?

 

[Faithkat]

She might look a bit weird but I'd be inclined to clip her right off all over and then give her a good bath in a doggy insecticidal shampoo. If the weather is as hot as it sounds, she'll probably thank you for it too!

When I did dog grooming I uses to get a lot of collies, retrievers etc for clipping off during the summer (particuarly if they'd been neutered and had grown that horrible thick fluffy coat). They always seemed much happier with the coat all gone!

 

[Tia]

I usually do clip her out every summer - the clippers don't work and I hadn't been out to buy anymore. I think that will be todays shopping spree though and if I will pick up some insecticidal shampoo at the same time and hope it works as I would be aghast if this did turn into Fly Strike!

Thank you Forester.

 

[rema]

Hello Tia.Fly strike is bloody awful.I have used Reargaurd on my rabbits before.It kills any eggs that have been laid before it turns into maggots.I think i still have half a bottle left if you would like to try it.Let me know and i will post it out to you asap.

 

[Tia]

Aww thank you, but it would cost you tonnes to mail it LOL!!

I might have a look to see if I can get the manufacturer to ship some out to me. I guess it is safe for dogs if it is safe for rabbits.

Thanks for that Rema.

 

[Oneofthepack]

People tell me my rabbit hutch is cleaner than their houses because I'm paranoid about my rabbits getting fly strike. I have a morbid fear of maggots and the thought of them eating into the bunnies makes me puke! I had no idea dogs could get it too....can they get it over here?

 

[Blizzard]

Ive been using that summer fly cream on Beau, it does help but isnt that good. What I found to be excellent was AromaSalve.

Its been keeping the flies off his neck wound, aswell as protecting it from dirt etc, and is waterproof.

He hasnt had any flies hanging around it since I started using it.

I highly recommend it.
http://www.aromesse.com/pages/aromasalve.htm

 

[Tia]

QR -

Thank you everyone for your help and advice.

I went out to the stores yesterday and bought myself one of those good clippers; rechargeable ones, similar to the horsey ones, so hopefully they will be able to cope with Poppy's thick coat. I also got some shampoo which is supposed to deter the blighters landing on her. So today will be a bit of a preening session for the old girl and hopefully will make her a little more comfortable in this heat aswell as stopping the flies from buzzing around her.

I had done a search on the Internet, OOTP, and apparently dogs do get it in England too. Mine never did over there mind you, and they still lived out there as they do here. The flies appear to go for double-coated, fluffy haired dogs; this rings true in my case aswell, because neither my shepherd, nor my springery-type bouncy dog have any eggs on them.

Anyway, hopefully that is the last I'll see of them.

 

[oliviacharley]

JUst had a session with my rabbit and fly strike...horrible things...I used rear guard too and it basically stops the flies from hatching and developing...
Maybe clipping her back end right back will help as just the smell or any facese on the fur will attract flies...old animals are prone to it....
Just keeping an eye...fly cream should help to keep them away but def rear guard should help ...your vets should have a product to help with it....I keep my bunnies hair around her bum really short and yep she does look weird but she is clean and happy and has had no problems since ( touch wood) I but rear guard on in the morning and then in the evening...
Hibi scrub works well to flush any eggs and larve off and cleans any wounds too with a syringe...

 

[Tia]

Well I have clipped her and bathed her and she looks fine.....she just doesn't seem much brighter. I've told her that I just spent a fortune on these new clippers to make her look lovely and cool so she isn't allowed to die on me for the moment. She fell asleep when I was clipping her and she didn't want to go for a walk afterwards. Hopefully she will perk up again as she did last Summer after being clipped.