I've got you... under my skin... Jess and I have two cats, Cosmo, and Crazy Ivan, aka Itty-Bitty. Last week, Ivan was not in the best of health. He was lethargic, felt quite warm, and had retreated under the bed to hide for a while. So we took him to the vet first thing in the morning on July 1st. He had a lump behind his right ear, stiff and firm, but otherwise seemed unharmed. Dr. Stiff at Kiln Creek Animal Care took a look at him and determined it was probably an abcess, caused by a minor wound from a fight ot something that had become infected, and was inducing a fever. This is pretty common in cats with outdoor exposure, and Ivan loved to romp in the woods behind the house. She prescribed an antibiotic and gave him a shot of an anti-inflammatory and a broad spectrum antibiotic to start the healing, telling us to bring him back if the wound began to drain, or if it softened, so that they could insert a drain. Itty-Bitty perked up quickly as his fever dropped, and the next day he was eating and drinking at close to normal rates. Over the July Fourth weekend, a scabby portion developed over the lump on his neck, and a some scabby dried blood appeared on his throat. The wound on his neck grew a little, and we kept an eye on it. I could feel a small lump, like on his neck, beneath the scab. Itty-bitty scratched at it some, and eventually scraped all the fur away over the course of Saturday and Sunday. The wound was draining and appeared to have enlarged a little. Some necrotic tissue was apparent below the wound. The drainage was cloudy red, indicating blood and pus mixed together. The injury appeared to get slightly worse over Sunday, so I called the vet and made an appointment for Monday afternoon. The lump on his neck developed a scab at one end, either from the cat's scratching or from the infection working itself out through the original wound. Monday afternoon, I took the cat back to the vet, since both wounds had opened. This time Dr. Counsel, our regular vet, was the one to view the animal. She examined the wound on the throat and the scab on the cat's neck and decided that it would be a good idea to shave the area. So Itty-Bitty got shaved, and got a topical antibiotic for good measure. As Dr. Counsel was givning me information on tending the wound, she noticed something odd about it and took Itty-Bitty back to Dr. Stiff for consultation. Dr. Stiff hadn't seen the neck wound, since it had appeared between the two visits. Dr. Counsel came back and told me some interesting news -- Itty-Bitty did not have two abcesses, but rather had what apeared to be only one abcess (on his neck). The wound on his throat was caused by a Cuterebra, something I'd never heard of. Well, Dr. Counsel explained, Cuterebra is a fly larvae that burrows under the skin of a small mammal, cuts a little slit in the skin for a breathing hole, and then develops a cyst beneath the skin where it can grow and feed off the animal, until it reaches the appropriate point where it pushes out of the skin and burrows into the ground for a couple weeks until it becomes a big fly. The flies are called Bot flies or Warble flies, and are fairly large, something like 20-30mm long. Early treatment involves either suffocation with vaseline, or later on the larvae must be surgically removed. We opted for surgery. Dr. Counsel took Itty-Bitty for the night, to fast him for surgery and so that he'd be there for treatment and observation overnight. I asked Dr. Counsel to save the larvae so I could see them. The very concept of a parasitic larvae is nothing new, but I'd never encountered it firsthand. On tuesday evening, I picked up the cat. Drs. Counsel and Stiff had also explored the apparent abcess, and discovered that the abcess was caused by a partial body of another Cuterebra. They'd saved that fragment as well. Itty-Bitty was a little groggy form the surgery, but otherwise appeared to be fine. He seemed to have a sore throat from the intubation for the surgery, but the wounds looked much better and seemed to be on the path to healing. The good Doctors did not remove the necrotic tissue on his throat, since the wound was over the jugular and would present too much of a risk to excise. It should heal normally, and the dead tissue will scab over and slough off in a few weeks. Until then, the kitties are indoor cats. Healthy, sweet, chaotic indoor kitties.