Maggot Monday! (Warning, it's a bit gross)

One of the worst Mondays ever. Seriously. And I have had a lot of crappy Mondays.  My day started off just fine, I even had one less morning dog to walk!  I fed a neighbor cat and then headed to my first dog over on 11th st.  I had seen him the night before.  He is an older dog with some hind end mobility issues, but he is just the sweetest boy! Loose poo has been his ailment this week so I knew to be prepared for a good bum cleaning (It's all part of the job)

He was sound asleep when I arrived so I prepared his pill and his food and his butt wipes before waking him up.  I go over to him and lift his tail and I see a maggot. (Ugh!!)  I start wiping and I see more.  And more. And more.....This was not an isolated maggot.  They were big too! About 1/2 inch long.  I started freaking out because maggots are really the ONE THING that I cannot deal with.  I start to see them drop off the dog and wriggle on the floor towards me. NOOOOOO  I was armed with paper towels and lysol, but honestly nothing kills them except squishing them.

Let me take a moment to preface this by saying that I had a traumatic experience with maggots when I was 16.  I was working in a pet store, my first job, and they told me to clean out the hermit crab tank.  I picked up the 10 gallon tank full of hermit crabs (dead and alive) and took it to the big back sink. I started by putting the live ones in another container and soon realized that the dead ones (and the water surrounding them) were filled with tiny maggots!  I lost my shit, threw everything in the sink and ran to the bathroom to wash my arms and hands!  My boss saw how freaked out I was and told someone else to finish.  I finally regained my composure and went back on the floor to help customers.  Someone came up asking for a dozen crickets. I grabbed a bag and on my finger was one tiny crawling maggot.  Again, freaked out!!! To this day they are the one thing that I cannot deal with.  Give me puddles of blood, protruding bones and organs, abscess, anything!  Not maggots!

So here we are, over 16 years later and I am in a house by myself with a dog that is covered in maggots that are mobile.  I'll admit, I cried a little and got a bit lightheaded.  This was at 8am. I had to get a level head and figure out the most logical thing to do.  If I were still working in a vets office, what would we do?  (well, the first thing I would do is pass it off to someone else and buy them lunch) I knew that I had to shave him down to see what I was working with because there had to be a wound under all that hair that was attracting the maggots.  I called my husband in a panic to see if he could drop off my clippers and rubber gloves before he went to work.  He agreed and was there in about 10 minutes, I was on the verge of breakdown.  He told me to put on my clinical face and do what I had to do.  I agreed, walked back into the house and cried for a couple minutes, and gathered my strength. I couldn't walk him through the house or put him in a car or take him to a vet until these little fuckers were all gone!!

I got down on the floor armed with rubber gloves, electric clippers, Lysol, and paper towels.  I started shaving, uncovering more and more creepy little maggots.  They just decided to jump ship at the same time! I kept shaving, they kept appearing.  They were falling to the ground and I was killing them one by one.  Stepping on them, squishing them with my paper towel.... and it got to a point where the fear just left and I was on a mission!!  Bug! Squish!  Bug Squish!  It really is true what they say about immersion therapy!  It was gross, but I stopped shaking and just did it.  It took about 30 min to clean up and do a butt shave on this large dog and he was a trooper!  I then saw that there was a large hot spot and a bed sore type hole near his anus.  Sigh...

Long story short, I took him to the emergency vet just before 11 am so that they could fix him up and get him antibiotics. It was super busy and I sat there forever because his case was not critical (totally understandable).  I removed all maggots before he got to the vet (they were appreciative) and we all came up with a plan. They are keeping him overnight to monitor him and keep him happy and clean. Poor buddy - this was about 3 hours out of my day.  I faced my fear for a dog that I love.  I wish that I never have to encounter maggots like that ever again... but in my field I know that I probably will.  If you could all jut say a little prayer though... just in case.