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Posted in Parasite Worms

Wolf Worms and Dogs

A reader recently asked us a question about wolf worms and dogs through our All About Worms Facebook page. More specifically, she asked if we ever “heard of the wolf worm in a dogs skin,” and she also asked whether a veterinarian would recognize wolf worms if he or she saw them. By “wolf worms,” we presume the reader means blow fly larvae, which are a type of maggot. (There are many names for blow flies – carrion flies, cluster flies, bluebottles, and greenbottles, to list a few – but one of them isn’t “wolf fly,” so it is somewhat strange that people call blow fly larvae “wolf worms.” If there aren’t wolf flies, then why are there wolf worms? Or, if there are such things as wolf worms, why don’t they turn into “wolf flies?”) In addressing dogs and wolf worms, we’ll also be addressing dogs and blow fly larvae, as wolf worms are blow fly larvae, just to be perfectly clear with all these alternate names flying around.

Posted in Gross Worms Parasite Worms Screw Worms

Wolf Worms

Wolf worms (genus Cuterebra) are parasites that can infect animals ranging from farm animals to animals in the wild. Although only one species of wolf worm has been identified in North America and it is more common among animals such as cattle, it is not uncommon to come across a wolf worm infection in domestic pets, even cats.