La pine processionary o Thaumetopoea pityocampa implies a peligro for our pets, since when the good weather arrives, the phase begins in which the caterpillars descend from the nest to the ground in the form of a procession to bury themselves and continue with their biological cycle. We can see the nests in the form of white bags in the branches of the pine trees.
The caterpillars are covered in stinging hairs that contain a toxin or poison called thaumatopin and that work like poisoned darts, they pierce the skin or mucosa and release the toxin, producing a strong allergic reaction with edematous inflammation and tissue necrosis or death.
Dogs, and occasionally cats, can be affected in different ways:
- By direct contact with the stinging hairs when going to browse the caterpillars. Moving in a row arouses curiosity in animals. That is why the most affected area is the mouth, especially the tongue.
- By detaching the hairs and floating in the air causing, for example, eye irritations.
- When the nests fall to the ground, freeing hairs in the environment.
Symptoms of the processionary in pets
The symptom What we can see are:
- Nervousness, due to peak and malaise
- Excessive salivation
- Facial itching: they touch their mouths with their paws or rub their heads on the ground.
- Swelling of the lips, eyes, tongue or head in general.
- In more serious cases, anaphylactic shock and suffocation can occur, which can cause the death of the animal or necrosis of the tongue with the affected area falling off.
Transmission
It is a veterinary emergency so we must go to a veterinarian as soon as possible, the sooner the treatment is established, the better the prognosis. What we can do while we arrive is to wash the tongue or affected area with hot water since the heat destroys the toxin. We never have to rub the affected area because if there was any hair we would break it, releasing the toxin.
Prevention
Avoid walking through areas of pine trees in the months of February to April and pay close attention to the trees in case we see the typical nests. If there are nests on our property, we must prune and burn the branches that have nests, protecting our eyes and hands well, taking care that the nest does not fall suddenly and not doing it on windy days (so we will avoid shedding hair).
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