This story was originally published on my vet school blog, “Wet Cleanup on Aisle 5.”
Our town seems to be a mini-hotspot for bot flies. Our relief vet, who works mostly “in the valley” (what locals call anything lower than here), said she sees them only up here.
I wanted to see one, too, after I’d first heard about them. I kept missing the big show, though: the spectacle during which the horrified owner observes as the fearless veterinarian squeezes a live maggot from their precious Fifi. Either I’d be on the phone, or in the next room… whatever it was, I kept missing it.
I was all the more fascinated by the thought that humans could get them, too, especially since I was headed to Costa Rica in a few weeks, and that’s one of the places where the human-infesting bot fly lives. If you want to really gross out all your friends and neighbors, have them search for bot fly on YouTube. Oh wait, here, I did it for you:
I finally got my chance when I welcomed one of our clients and her dog into the exam room. Aha! There it was. The telltale swelling on the abdomen, complete with perfectly round hole in the center, through which one could observe the maggot’s little white head.
“Do you want to watch?” Dr. K asked the already-cringing owner.
“NO!”
“I do!” I said, and leaned in closer.
A little squeeze, and bing! There it was, a half-inch squirmy wormy, thick in the middle and tapered on the ends. I was mesmerized, watching it wriggle on the countertop.
“Sure you don’t want to see it?” Dr. K asked the owner.
“No, and I can’t believe you wanted to see that,” she said to me. “You’re obviously vet material.”
