SYMPTOMS © 109 
If the dog regains consciousness, it appears such a 
pitiable wreck that one feels constrained to abandon 
hope and end its miseries. In some cases dogs become 
comatose immediately after cessation of convulsions, and 
may remain so for many hours, or may never regain 
consciousness. Opinions differ as to whether fits are an 
early symptom; my own experience is in agreement 
with that of Gray, who says convulsions in the early or 
initial stage of distemper are rare, and when met with 
are usually attributable to causes such as intestinal 
parasites, the presence of cestrum, excitement, or indi- 
gestion, etc. As a rule, these nervous phenomena are 
not regarded as evidences of an approaching attack of 
distemper, especially as symptoms suggestive of the 
disease, such as catarrh of the eyes and nostrils, may 
not appear until from one to three weeks afterwards. 
On the other hand, Ferry has stated: ‘A very im- 
portant early symptom is ‘fits... How many a defenceless 
cur has been condemned to die at the point of a gun, 
with the diagnosis of rabies behind it, when the dumb 
brute was really in the throes of distemper. The dog 
was frothing at the mouth, of course, and its eyes were 
glassy, but that does not signify it was mad.” 
Personally I have encountered but few cases in practice 
in which a puppy brought to me suffering from epilepsy 
has later turned out to be a subject of distemper; and 
one may be excused for diagnosing “epilepsy of 
unknown origin,” or “worms,” where no symptom 
characteristic of any other condition has as yet presented 
itself. 
Epilepsy versus Rabies. — Speaking of rabies, it is 
undoubtedly true that the stage of furious excitement 
associated with nervous distemper has often led to the 
premature death of the animal through a mistaken 
diagnosis, for the dog tears up the ground, runs at its 
