Not for the weak of stomach. . .

Bejuca has had a bout with dermatobia. It's pretty much like a botfly larvae (picture) and botfly larvae are easier to find on the Web for pictures. If the Internet connection weren't so slow here, we'd try to put up a video, but it's pretty gross and graphic in getting the buggers out. . .

We noticed that Bejuca had been licking certain areas quite a bit a while back, and when we parted the fur to look, we noticed little holes, almost like dimples, that were red and a little swollen. . . Raeann, one of the owners of the hotel and the owner of Bejuca, knew right what they were: botflies, or a variation of it as the vet told us. . .

One simple way to get rid of them, which doesn't necessitate a trip to the vet's office, is to smear vaseline over the hole, and cover it with duct tape. . . the worm cannot breathe through the jelly and the tape, so it reverses and heads back out. . . After about 6-8 hours, you peel off the tape, and the worm is there to be plucked out. . . We did that for one of them, but Bejuca had a lot. . . Some of them were in places where we could not wrap successfully in duct tape, hence the visit to the vet. . .

We took her to the vet, and he gave her a shot that killed the worms. . . Two days later, we took Bejuca back to the vet, and they squeezed and tweezered the buggers out. . . Knocked Bejuca out, thankfully, as it looked pretty painful. . . It was like popping a giant zit, except these worms were in no hurry to come out, being dead and embedded pretty deeply. . . There were six in total that they pulled out, so seven if you count the one that we pulled out here at the house. . . Lot of queasy moments and funky liquids spurting about in the vet's surgical room. . .

If you have a strong stomach, google botfly and dog and you can see some videos, but don't do it right before a meal. . .