Q: Warble??

Answered by used_to_be_red_kitty-cat on 7/15/2005, 11:51 am

A: Warble??

> I think my kitten about 8 weeks..Has a warble...what can I
> do to get it away? and what does it look like??
>

Your kitten needs to see a vet immediately. The longer a worm stays in your cat, the more likely complications are.

A warble starts out as a small bump on the skin. It grows tremendously quickly over the course of about 2 weeks. The warble looks like...well, a big lump in the skin. Usually, it will not have fur on it. As the warble gets bigger, you will notice a hole at one end of the lump. This is called the warble pore. It's basically a breathing hole for the larva which is growing inside the skin. Toward the end of the 2 weeks, you'll probably be able to see a black worm inside the warble. When it's mature, he may even be poking out of the warble pore.

The only safe way to get rid of a warble is to have a vet remove the worm. Please DON'T try to remove it yourself. Very often, when people try to remove the larva, they burst it. This quickly leaks toxins into the cat's blood stream and can be fatal.

You may find sites that say to cover the warble pore with Vaseline to smother the larva, or to pour alcohol in it to kill it. These will kill the larva, most times. But a dead worm also leaks toxins into the blood stream. Again, possibly deadly.

Then you'll find some people suggesting to just let the larva back out on its own at the end of its incubation period. This is another bad idea. Some of them CAN'T back out, because they've grown too big to fit through the pore. Even if they do back out, the warbles left behind are terribly prone to serious infection.

A vet needs to extract the larva with extreme care. If the worm is small enough, the vet may be able to remove it with forceps. If the worm is fit too snuggly in the warble, a surgical ecxision will need to be performed.

Please do get your kitty to the vet right away. In a kitten, matters are much more urgent than in adult cats, and a warble is serious in any situation.

I'm not sure when your kitten may have picked up this warble. But if he goes outside at all, please keep him indoors permanently. Inside is the safest place for a cat.

There may be a possibility that your kitten has other eggs on his coat that are waiting to hatch, which will create further warbles. You can bathe him in warm water, which will help cause the eggs to hatch early and kill the developing larvae. After that, keep him inside to prevent re-exposure.