Lump on neck!

[Dancingsquirrel]

This is one of my new baby squirrel batch that just started showing up for the nut handouts. There were 2 black babies in this litter and the other one is fine, but his one, a little girl, has a lump on her neck! I hope the photo shows it well enough, it is not on her cheek but on her neck.
Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

It dosn't bother her in any way that I can tell, she eats, drinks and acts like a normal youngster. I have no idea if squirrels get goiters......

We don't really have a bot fly problem here (san francisco peninsula), and the lump has no visable opening, sore, or sign of puncture.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you have seen this before, I don't know what if anything I can do for her since she is wild and would not even go near a havaheart trap.

I have been keeping my eye on her whenever she comes around and trying to gauge the size of the lump to see if it is getting smaller or not.
(it hasn't gotten any larger since first sighting which was about a week ago)

Thanks,
-Dancingsquirrel

[Secret Squirrel]

It sounds like you have hit every angle on the lump topic.
I had the same thing on my released girl Annie. At the exact same place you Lil Blacky has!!! I could touch the lump and she had no pain while I was touching it. She didn't show up for a few days but when she did the lump was almost gone and a tiny scab was in the center of the much smaller lump. She never got an infection at the lump site at all turned out just fine. I was thinking bot fly too but never really knew. Sorry I have no answer but it is just too much of a coincidence.
I hope she gets well soon.

[thundersquirrel]

the only lumps i've ever dealt with in a squirrel were full of fluid because a nearby injury had gotten infected. i think this little girl will be ok if she doesn't have any injuries or entry-ways into the lump or near the lump. if it's cancer, it could probably be surgically removed, but like you said, she's a wild one. the only benefit is that if she starts to weaken she might be easier to catch. still, it's probably not a big deal. just keep a close eye on her.

[Dancingsquirrel]

Thanks Secret Squirrel and Thundersquirrel, I will keep my eye on her and hope for the best. She is so sweet, I just hate it when I see something go wrong on these little guys!

[Dancingsquirrel]

Yay! Today "lil lumpy" showed up and her lump is gone and there is a scab forming where it drained!
She looks good, and is acting normal and eating like a little piggy!

[Momma Squirrel]

Dancingsquirrel that is great news. Mother Nature picks on our little guys sometimes and we just have to wait it out. She/He is beautiful, we don't have any black squirrels in our area, wish we did. Be cool to have a black one and a white one.

[Secret Squirrel]

Very good news!!!!! It could have been a bot fly....but I am glad she (Lil'lumpy) is looking good!

[Squirrelly]

I'm happy too!

[Dancingsquirrel]

Boy they heal fast! Here are photos, one from yesterday (on the left), and one from today, (on the right )
The open hole is now almost completely gone! I wish I healed that fast!

[Squirrelly]

Dancingsquirrel, they're such tough resilient creatures, aren't they? And yet delicate and graceful. I would guess it was a botfly. One of our squirrels had one, but it was a little elongated, above the eye. It left and that squirrel healed fine & quickly too. Glad she's fine, she's a cute one!

[Squirlgirl]

What a gorgeous "kid"! They are tough...that is for sure! Truly looks like it was a BotFly. Actually, they leave ugly holes, but "use" the squirrel to develope and leave...meanies! Anyway...it is WAYYY better than any kind of cancerous tumor!!!

[Dancingsquirrel]

You are probably right about it being a bot fly, what a horrible thing. I remember when my friend who used to raise cattle had to go out to the cows and with a piece of 1x4, and scrape it down their backs so the bot larve would "pop" out....
I can't even imagine what it would be like to be as small as a squirrel and have one of those things in me!!! I'm glad it dosn't do any major damage to them.

[Timber]

News Flashfor you people. One maybe two botflies may not leave a squirrel with much damage but an infestation will kill a squirrel. Last summer and the summerbefore I caught dozens and took them in for bot bly removels. Some were bad enough that they didn't make it and some I saw and couldn't catch didn't make it I am sure from the infection that I saw in them. You can't take a bot fly lightly. Just because one may have gotten by luckly doesn't mean there is a problem. And just because you just saw one lump and now it is gone that same squirrel could very likely have more tiny ones still under the skin they just haven' t grown so far. I know because I saw some that I had previouly taken in for larve removel a few weeks later with another. When I said something about this to the vet I was told that they removed all that could see but often there were minuet larve that hadn't grown enough at the time for them to see and get but apparently now they had gotten larger.

[Dancingsquirrel]

This is the first time I have seen a squirrel with "the lump" (botfly) so I am hoping that it is not a common fly around here..... but now that I think of it we get alot of deer in our neighborhood and I am sure they are magnets for botflies! I will keep an eye on my squirrels to see if any more are infected.
Unfortunatly they are wild and would be very hard to capture without trauma.

[Squirlgirl]

http://botfly.ifas.ufl.edu/index.htm

This a link to info regarding the Bot Fly...yucky pics..but very educational!!

[island rehabber]

Squirlgirl, do we get botflies up here in NY? I've never seen a squirrel with one but it doesn't mean we don't have them.....

[island rehabber]

News Flashfor you people. One maybe two botflies may not leave a squirrel with much damage but an infestation will kill a squirrel. Last summer and the summerbefore I caught dozens and took them in for bot bly removels. .

Timber, how did you catch all those infested squirrels? I am interested in knowing what type of trap (Hav-A-Heart?) you used that was obviously very effective. Hope I never have to trap that many, but just in case!

[Squirrelly]

I.R. I know you asked Squirlgirl and she's a rehabber, but I'm almost positive that a squirrel here in Amsterdam (Montgomery County, NY) had one. Just like in the picture posted here except a little more elongated rather than round. One day a lump was there with a small hole or scab at the end of it, the next it wasn't and a scab was in it's place. I'll bet the larvae was starting to make its exit when I first saw that lump. I never saw a big hole like in the picture, though. And it's possible that a couple or few days went by before I saw the Squirrel and it had started to heal already. Even before I knew what a Botfly was, I assumed it was something alive under his skin, it just looked that way to me. I think it was that little hole/scab at the end of it that was the telltale sign that it was a parasite.

[island rehabber]

Yuk...I was hoping we didn't have them...after all, we have to contend with releasing our squirrel babies into the ice and snow every winter, seems like at least we could be spared the bot fly thing. But....wishful thinking.

[Squirlgirl]

Hiya island rehabber!! I have never had a Cuterebra...knock on wood!! I continue to keep my fingers and toes crossed...hard to walk and write..heheh! Another rehabber did have a lactating Chipmunk, with one, which she successfully removed. I did have a call about three areas with BIG MAGGOTS under the skin on a squirrel. The finder tried to squeeze them out and the squirrel died of infection.. !! I really don't think that they are very frequent, around us...the snow and cold are enough!!