Grooming one of the dogs yesterday came across a mat of hair, on closer inspection small but visible, creamy coloured eggs, probably around 30 had been laid up & around a small clump of standing hair. They weren't that easy to remove, using the flea comb caused him discomfort so picked them off with my nails. He is Lemon & White, groomed most days, checked for fleas with a comb every week. Have been looking on line but can't find anything that looks like them. No sign of fleas and always thought they were loose & mostly fell out of the coat. He has been washed & treated with stronghold, will worm, any ideas?

Are you sure they are not ticks?

Fleas aren't supposed to lay eggs on the animal, bit of mystery, they sound like some sort of fly egg, but that sounds just as unlikely.

Justine. Not from the pictures I've seen, tick eggs look round, laid en masse & dark in colour. These were rice shape, individual & creamy white.

> they sound like some sort of fly egg,

Celli, That is the only thing I've come up with so far.

Have you checked for any little wounds that could be there? Just thinking aloud here, but do dogs get fly strike?

Anything can get flystrike.

Image of fly eggs.

> Have you checked for any little wounds that could be there? Just thinking aloud here, but do dogs get fly strike?

Did have a very good look durring & after his bath yesterday & again today but will look again. His coat is so thick I could have missed something.

Thanks JG I saw that picture yesterday, certainly the eggs are the right size & shape but - could be wrong - when I've seen fly eggs they've looked like a mass, rather than placed individually around the base of the hair clump and then up. An artistic fly perhaps?

I wonder if there could possibly be anything that *smells* like a wound and cause flies to lay eggs in the coat rather than in a proper way?

Traces of poo that the dog has rolled in and not toally been washed out?

Has anyone seen a fly yet?   It's too cold here for them !

As the eggs are attached to the hairs, I'm wondering about louse eggs?  

http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Dog-Health-Center/Skin-Disorders/Lice.aspx

No idea where your dog could have picked them up from though :-(

> Traces of poo that the dog has rolled in and not toally been washed out?

No I don't think so, being low to the ground he is always (well almost always) rubbed down with a damp cloth after field walks & being very light in colour any grime & loose dirt shows. As our home is also our business the poor boy is kept clean & groomed. Should have taken a photo but was so taken a back just wanted them gone.

> I'm wondering about louse eggs?  

Dill, I too thought of louse eggs & looked at that page - thank you - but normaly eggs are laid along the individual hair strands, it would have had to have been one big louse as the area of hair used to lay the eggs around & up was about the tip of my small finger.

Has anyone seen a fly yet?

No but I've seen mosquitoes!

I saw a lone bluebottle yesterday but it didn't have any sense of purpose,  just woken up after winter, and easy prey for my canine flytrap.

We've got flies and the eggs are tiny, white and long in shaped like a tiny grain of rice.

Yes, but flies don't glue the eggs to anything - these eggs were difficult to remove from the hairshaft ;-)

I saw a feral cat once in our garden.  He was covered in louse eggs, they were all through the coat.     I'd have treated him, but he'd get close but not let me touch him.   Felt so sorry for the little chap as he was clearly not very well with that many lice :-(

Many thanks for your replies, still at a loss as to what they were, been over every inch of him again today with flea comb, thankfully haven't come across anything & no signs of any wounds or sores.

Fly eggs are laid in clusters, sounds like lice eggs to me !

> sounds like lice eggs to me !

Yes I thought of lice, but from recollection eggs are elongated (as in the pictures I found) rather than egg shaped & laid along the hair shaft rather than at the roots & then up around a tuft of hair, also smaller. I'm at a loss & if I find any more, going to incubate them to find out what the critters are!

Bot eggs?  The horses used to get them but I have never found them on a dog

Absolutely the wrong time of year for bott eggs, and they are found on horses and cattle !!

Flystrike does sound a possibility. On another board  a Texan dog of my breed had similar situation,but the fly laid eggs around his anus. Some  maggots hatched and invaded the rectum and later the intestine. the specialist was dumfounded....something totally unheard of for him.In the end they used panacur to get the maggots out of the intestine.
I would continue using the flea comb to remove all the eggs,use an insecticidal shampoo as well and see if he gets any more.

Lacy, in which country are you ? In England we are coming to the end of our winter, it is too cold for fly strike as mentioned !!

Wee Man. Small island of the south coast, The isle of Wight & B freezing at the moment!!!

Have sen few flies here on thE IOW when we had few days of warmer weather  Would think that it is too early for flystrike.