Distemper
Although more than one hundred years have elapsed since this was
first imported to this country from France, a great amount of
misunderstanding still prevails among a large section of dog-breeders
regarding its true nature and origin.
The fact is, the disease came to us with a bad name, for the French
themselves deemed it incurable. In this country the old-fashioned plan
of treatment was wont to be the usual rough remedies--emetics, purgatives,
the seton, and the lancet.
Failing in this, specifics of all sorts were eagerly sought for and
tried, and are unfortunately still believed in to a very great extent.
Distemper has a certain course to run, and in this disease Nature
seems to attempt the elimination of the poison through the secretions
thrown out by the naso-pharyngeal mucous membrane.
Our chief difficulty in the treatment of distemper lies in the
complications thereof.
We may, and often do, have the organs of respiration attacked; we have
sometimes congestion of the liver, or mucous inflammation of the bile ducts,
or some lesion of the brain or nervous structures, combined with epilepsy,
convulsions, or chorea.
Distemper is also often complicated with severe disease of the bowels,
and at times with an affection of the eyes.
_Causes_--Whether it be that the distemper virus, the poison seedling
of the disease, really originates in the kennel, or is the result of
contact of one dog with another, or whether the poison floats to the
kennel on the wings of the wind, or is carried there on a shoe or the
point of a walking-stick, the following facts ought to be borne in
mind:
(1) Anything that debilitates the body or weakens the nervous system
paves the way for the distemper poison;
(2) the healthier the dog the more power does he possess to resist contagion;
(3) when the disease is epizootic, it can often be kept at bay by proper attention
to diet and exercise, frequent change of kennel straw, and perfect cleanliness;
(4) the predisposing causes which have come more immediately under my notice
are debility, cold, damp, starvation, filthy kennels, unwholesome food, impure air, and grief.
_The Age at which Dogs take Distemper_--They may take distemper at any
age; the most common time of life is from the fifth till the eleventh
or twelfth month.
_Symptoms_--There is, first and foremost, a period of latency or of
incubation, in which there is more or less of dullness and loss of
appetite, and this glides gradually into a state of feverishness. The
fever may be ushered in with chills and shivering.
The nose now becomes hot and dry, the dog is restless and thirsty, and the
conjunctivae of the eyes will be found to be considerably injected.
Sometimes the bowels are at first constipated, but they are more
usually irregular. Sneezing will also be frequent, and in some cases
cough, dry and husky at first.
The temperature should be taken, and if there is a rise of two or three degrees
the case should be treated as distemper, and not as a common cold.
At the commencement there is but little exudation from the eyes and
nose, but as the disease advances this symptom will become more
marked, being clear at first. So, too, will another symptom which is
partially diagnostic of the malady, namely, increased heat of body
combined with a rapid falling off in flesh, sometimes, indeed,
proceeding quickly on to positive emaciation.
As the disease creeps downwards and inwards along the air-passages,
the chest gets more and more affected, the discharge of mucus and pus
from the nostrils more abundant, and the cough loses its dry
character, becoming moist.
The discharge from the eyes is simply mucus and pus, but if not constantly
dried away will gum the inflamed lids together, that from the nostrils is not
only purulent, but often mixed with dark blood. The appetite is now clean gone,
and there is often vomiting and occasional attacks of diarrhea.
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