about two hours ago I found about 10 brown maggot-ish creatures crawling around the bum/right hind leg of 'Annifrid' my almost 10 year old Netherland dwarf female. They can't have been there for very long as Annifrid is suffering from a prolonged bout of 'Intermittent Soft Cecotropes' which means I check (and wash if necessary) her rear end every morning; and this morning there was no sign of any maggots.
I removed the intruders and bathed Annifrid's back end in warm water with a little disinfectant dried her off with a hair dryer. I then proceeded to blitz her hutch with the hosepipe and a ton of disinfectant. on inspecting the corner where she goes to the bathroom I found a large number of these creatures wriggling around below the top layer of poop.
to my untrained eye they don't appear to be the traditional green bottle type maggots being a different shape and a darker brown color.
I'm not sure what to do next, not so long ago I would have been off to the emergency vet in a hart beat. However, Annifrid is of a very old age and suffering from advanced arthritis and what I believe may be a chest infection; making strange noses when she breaths. I have stopped taking her to the vet for minor complaints as I strongly believe if the vet sees her on a bad day they will advocate putting her to sleep and I feel; judging from past experience with other bunnies, that we haven't reached that point just yet.
I had kind of conceded that I would continue to look after her the best I could and that our next trip to the vets would most likely be the last, but the whole idea of her being attacked by these nasty little creatures just seems too horrible for words.
any advice would be really appreciated.
thanks in advance
I removed the intruders and bathed Annifrid's back end in warm water with a little disinfectant dried her off with a hair dryer. I then proceeded to blitz her hutch with the hosepipe and a ton of disinfectant. on inspecting the corner where she goes to the bathroom I found a large number of these creatures wriggling around below the top layer of poop.
to my untrained eye they don't appear to be the traditional green bottle type maggots being a different shape and a darker brown color.
I'm not sure what to do next, not so long ago I would have been off to the emergency vet in a hart beat. However, Annifrid is of a very old age and suffering from advanced arthritis and what I believe may be a chest infection; making strange noses when she breaths. I have stopped taking her to the vet for minor complaints as I strongly believe if the vet sees her on a bad day they will advocate putting her to sleep and I feel; judging from past experience with other bunnies, that we haven't reached that point just yet.
I had kind of conceded that I would continue to look after her the best I could and that our next trip to the vets would most likely be the last, but the whole idea of her being attacked by these nasty little creatures just seems too horrible for words.
any advice would be really appreciated.
thanks in advance