CHAPTER IX 
COURSE, PROGNOSIS AND MORTALITY 
COURSE. 
To attempt to define, with any degree of precision, the 
course which distemper will run, would only mislead the 
reader and misstate the actual facts; but in the great 
majority of those cases which recover, the disease will 
run its course in three to four weeks from the onset 
of symptoms. There are, however, so many factors 
which influence both the prolongation and termination 
of the malady that variations from the rule are frequent, 
and one can never be sure at the beginning what time 
must elapse before the end. 
- Some cases seem so mild as almost to escape attention. 
Thus, beyond a slight indisposition with an occasional 
cough, nothing more is observed, and the animal has 
regained its normal health inside of seven days. At 
other times a dog appears to contract a virulent attack, 
to which he may succumb in three days or even less. 
The vitality of the animal at the time of infection plays an 
important part, for where his natural defensive powers 
are good he will probably only take the disease in a 
mild degree, and recovery may be complete within about 
a fortnight. If, on the other hand, he is debilitated from 
any cause, his body will be unable to withstand the 
invasion of pathogenic organisms, which, meeting with 
little or no resistance, are enabled to multiply at an 
alarming rate. 
Secondary complications supervene rapidly one on the 
other, and the dog is soon in the throes of a sickness 
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