Warning about fruit flies!!

[Frogeye 1050]

Some of you (well 111 of you to be more accurate) will remember my post about my ill cham and maggots in the droppings.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/urgent-advice-required-ill-14072/

The cham didn't make it and after my post when he did a dropping on my thumb (urate white, dropping brown although a little runny) with two maggots in it I went back in and he was really lethargic. I moved him to check whether he was alive and I noticed a fruit fly on his vent which looked swollen, looked inside and it was full of FF maggots!!

They were not the standard ones but the horrible jerky moving flying ones that you get when your cultures have gone over a bit. I tried removing them and treating the area with surgical alcohol but he didn't last out the day.

That is all I can put it down to as there was absolutely nothing wrong with him previously.

Post mortem had evidence of the maggots inside the body cavity which I assume got in through his vent.

Awful and shocking to see, will now be keeping a much closer eye on what type of flies go in the vivs!

 

[dodolah]

Some of you (well 111 of you to be more accurate) will remember my post about my ill cham and maggots in the droppings.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/urgent-advice-required-ill-14072/

The cham didn't make it and after my post when he did a dropping on my thumb (urate white, dropping brown although a little runny) with two maggots in it I went back in and he was really lethargic. I moved him to check whether he was alive and I noticed a fruit fly on his vent which looked swollen, looked inside and it was full of FF maggots!!

They were not the standard ones but the horrible jerky moving flying ones that you get when your cultures have gone over a bit. I tried removing them and treating the area with surgical alcohol but he didn't last out the day.

That is all I can put it down to as there was absolutely nothing wrong with him previously.

Post mortem had evidence of the maggots inside the body cavity which I assume got in through his vent.

Awful and shocking to see, will now be keeping a much closer eye on what type of flies go in the vivs!

Lethargy and the runny droppings/ diarrhea are symptoms consistent with parasite problems.
Not that i am dismissing your findings, but is it possible that the maggots aren't FF maggots at all? if only you have a pic of the necropsy with the maggots in there, I have a feeling that it might actually be small nematodes or some kind of aggressive parasitical insect's larvae (a bit unlikely).

I can be wrong; but, i don't think fruit fly maggots are equipped to survive inside a chameleon's stomach.

 

[Frogeye 1050]

I can be wrong; but, i don't think fruit fly maggots are equipped to survive inside a chameleon's stomach.

Definately not nematodes, I am a zoologist and know the difference and they were definately fly maggots.

Should have taken pics but was too concerned at the time to think of it.

Add to that the fact that it was a CB animal and my female was from the same place and kept in the same conditions and has no problems at all.

I don't think they survived in the stomach, but I do think the eggs were laid in the vent and that the maggots moved up into the body cavity causing stress, illness and ultimately death.

 

[kinyonga]

The flies you are describing with the jerky movements are not fruit flies but phorid flies...
http://www.controlfireants.com/phorid-flies.htm
http://books.google.ca/books?id=iAt...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

That's terrible. Sorry to hear about the loss of your chameleon. I honestly don't think those ffs or ff maggots would survive inside the stomach of a chameleon. It is possible that they crawled into the vent however.

 

[Frogeye 1050]

The flies you are describing with the jerky movements are not fruit flies but phorid flies...
http://www.controlfireants.com/phorid-flies.htm
http://books.google.ca/books?id=iAt...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result

Thank you

I knew i had heard the name but couldn't remember it. Those are definately the chaps in question.

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

Wow,
Sorry to hear about your loss.

I did a little looking around and suspect that this large genera of (coffin/scuttle flies)
may have been introduced in with his feeders (dirty pet store supplied crickets)
infections do seem quite nasty if the eggs can make it past the stomach
I'm fairly certain that hatched maggots might be able to make the trip
and infect the gut.
Theorizing about this... I wonder what the best course of treatment might have been
I'm of the opinion that IF the animal could have been fed enough material to expel the infestation
or if some type of insecticide might be able to be safely applied.
Perhaps some sort of copper ion solution?

again, sorry to hear of your loss
thank you for alerting us with your post mort
just another reason to keep all the feeder containers clean.

Personally, I keep a UV bug zapper above the containers 24/7 nowdays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorid_fly
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/eycb/scorpions/Gennemis.htm

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

Personally, I keep a UV bug zapper above the containers 24/7 nowdays.

That's an amazing idea...

 

[studiocham]

Maggots of flies can survive digestion unharmed and fully functional, as long as the protective skin of the maggot is not compromised. Digestive juices have to get into the maggot through a wound, in other words, to kill & digest them. This is why bird keepers puncture maggots before feeding them to birds.