Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Using Cochliomyia macellaria larvae to treat infected dog wounds
By F. S. Masiero et al.·Published in Journal of medical entomology·2019·View original on Semantic Scholar →
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Original publication title: First Report on the Use of Larvae of Cochliomyia macellaria (Diptera: Calliphoridae) for Wound Treatment in Veterinary Practice
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog with a severe infected wound and dead tissue was treated using maggot therapy, specifically with larvae from the Cochliomyia macellaria fly. Five sterile larvae were placed on the wound for just 48 hours. Remarkably, the wound showed nearly 50% healing by day five and was completely healed by day 14. Despite a poor initial prognosis due to sepsis, the dog started to recover and improved significantly after the treatment.
People also search for: dog infected wound treatment · maggot therapy for dogs · Cochliomyia macellaria wound healing
Abstract
Abstract Factors contributing to the delay or prevention of the natural wound healing process include infection and ineffective conventional treatment. Alternative therapies, such as the maggot debridement therapy (MDT), may be helpful for successful treatment in these cases. Aiming to disseminate information about the possibility of using other species of flies for wound treatment, besides the best known Lucilia sericata Meigen, 1826 (Diptera, Calliphoridae), we report here a successful MDT case with the application of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) larvae to treat an infected wound with extensive area of necrotic tissue in a dog. Five sterile larvae were applied to each square-cm of lesion and kept on the animal for only 48 h. The healing was successful, from both qualitative and quantitative points of view. The ratio of wound healing (RWH) reached almost 50% on the 5th day and 100% on the 14th day after MDT. Although the overall animal prognosis had been unfavorable, mainly due to the sepsis, the patient began to recover and had improved clinical condition from the fifth day after MDT. This study shows the importance and effectiveness of MDT in promoting faster and more complete healing of a complex wound.
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Search related cases →Original publication on Semantic Scholar: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/31819964