Dog among 2 new screwworm cases; Canada blocks Texas livestock imports<\/a><\/p>\nWhy you should care<\/p>\n
Regardless of jurisdiction, many Texans have been left to wonder if their pet is safe from the flesh-eating parasite.<\/p>\n
FOX 7 Austin spoke with Dr. Alexandra Ives from Austin Urban Vet Center to better understand what pet owners might want to be aware of.<\/p>\n
“If your animal does have an open wound and you are starting to notice like a weird smell or maggots definitely call your vet as soon as possible,” Dr. Ives said. “It is something we would report to the state boards as well.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Ives says modern monthly flea and tick medications work as a first line of defense.<\/p>\n
“The biggest thing is keeping them on flea and tick prevention things like Credelio Quattro, Simparica Trio, Nexgard and Brevecto,” Dr. Ives said. “They do prevent and treat these screwworms.”<\/p>\n
The New World screwworm fly is drawn to even the tiniest scratch on your pet, unloading hundreds of eggs surrounding the break in the skin.<\/p>\n
Within 12 hours, those eggs can hatch into flesh-eating larvae.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ives says dogs working on ranches and farms are at a greater risk.<\/p>\n
“Screwworm we’re seeing most often in our cattle so if these dogs are spending a lot of time with cattle or sheep or you know on these big farms where these animals don’t have that kind of protection, they are definitely more susceptible just with the exposure risk,” Dr. Ives said.<\/p>\n
Whether on a ranch or a daily sidewalk stroll, Dr. Ives says vigilance is the key to staying safe.<\/p>\n
“It’s most often in a wound, but they can get in the mouth, nose, orifice, it\u2019s just not as common,” Dr. Ives said.<\/p>\n
“I feel like people are watching their pets a little more than a thousand head cattle farm so just keep an eye on them.”<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Information in this report comes from reporting\/interviews by FOX 7 Austin’s Alec Nolan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Livestock, pet owners on high alert after case of New World screwworm confirmed in dog Case…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[117506,117507,117508,6252,5877,60339,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-328843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-alexandra-ives","tag-austin-urban-vet-center","tag-austin-vet","tag-fox-7-austin","tag-new-world-screwworm","tag-screwworm-fly","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}