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DISTEMPER. 129 



and no matter how carefully the portable benching has been cleaned and disinfected 

 it is always more or less a conveyance for the germs that produce the disease. 



"The popular fallacy of a meat diet being productive of distemper is entirely 

 at variance with all scientific knowledge, as all carnivorous animals are markedly 

 free from specific germ diseases. 



"The morbid poison of distemper attacks dogs in different ways, but breeders 

 and practitioners as a rule recognize as typical only those cases in which the virus 

 affects the mucous membranes of the eyes and nasal passage and produces a 

 catarrhal discharge. In some cases the intestinal tract is the particular field upon 

 which the virus exerts itself; or the liver may be affected, or the bronchial tubes. 

 But the action of the virus that is least understood, and the symptoms most com- 

 monly ascribed to some other cause, is when it is concentrated upon the brain and 

 nervous system, the animal dying from collapse without any premonitory symptoms 

 or developing epileptic spasms and convulsions, and other symptoms that the 

 breeder ascribes to worms; and the puppy is dosed accordingly. I have had such 

 cases in my own experience as a breeder, and my attention has been frequently 

 called to this condition of things by others whose puppies have died in from a few 

 hours to a week with all the symptoms of worm-fits, careful dissection, however, 

 failing to reveal the presence of these pests or any other exciting cause; and dis- 

 temper, from an absence of all catarrhal and febrile symptoms, would be the last 

 thing thought of. 



"An attack of distemper of the ordinary catarrhal form is usually preceded by 

 listlessness and loss of appetite; the animal avoids the light and courts solitude; 

 all the symptoms of a common cold will then manifest themselves rapidly, as 

 sneezing, a dry husky cough and a watery discharge from the eyes and nose; the 

 animal shivers, seeks warmth and is feverish, the pulse ranging from one hundred 

 and twenty to one hundred and fifty beats per minute; the nose is hot and dry, the 

 lining of the eye reddened, and the small veins that radiate through the white por- 

 tion are injected with blood; the tongue is coated, the secretion of saliva is dimin- 

 ished, thirst is excessive, food is rejected ar.cl prostration is well marked anc so 

 rapid that at the end of a week the dog can hardly stand; the bowels are irregular; 

 in the early stages of the disease there is a tendency to constipation, but the mat- 

 ter in the intestines through failure to digest sets up an irritation, and the dis- 

 charges are more frequent and looser than in health, and the feces are dark colored 

 and fetid. The discharges from the eyes and nose become purulent, the nostrils 

 are covered with a glassy, yellowish fluid, the cough increases in frequency, the 

 bronchial tubes fill with mucus, which is coughed up, giving temporary relief; the 

 animal vomits irothy yellow matter and is unable to retain food upon the stomach; 

 the eyelids become glued together, resulting in blinding the patient; breathing is 

 obstructed by matter in the nostrils; the breath becomes fetid and has a smell that 

 is peculiar to the disease; the lips are covered with ulcers, and the animal either 

 becomes weaker and weaker and finally succumbs, or at the end of twelve or four- 

 teen days the symptoms mentioned above abate in intensity and the animal slowly 

 regains its strength. Complications, however, frequently develop early in the dis- 

 ease, and result in the death of the animal. 



"One ol the complications of distemper is pneumonia, or inflammation of the 

 lungs, brought on by exposure to cold or by a weakened heart action. The animal 

 will not lie down, tut assumes a sitting position with the forelegs braced and sepa- 

 rated, the head hangs heavily, breathing is labored, rapid and heavy, and upon 

 application of the ear to the chest, a dry crackling sound will be heard similar to 

 at made when walking upon dry snow with a clean boot. 



