Distemper in Dogs and Cats. it 2, 



cicatricial spots, or black points caused by the adhesion of the 

 uveal pigment remain. 



Digestive and Hepatic Symptoms. Anorexia and vomiting may 

 usher in the disease. Buccal congestion, dryness, clamminess 

 and foetor are marked symptoms and there may be some yellow- 

 ness of the mouth and eye. The patient is at first costive, but 

 diarrhcea often .sets in early, with tenesmus, much foetor, mucus, 

 froth and even blood, also abdominal pain and tenderness. The 

 abdomen is habitually tense and contracted. The alvine flux 

 may rapidly exhaust the animal, or it may continue for a month 

 in dysenteric form with intense foetor, weakne.ss, emaciation and 

 exhaustion. Ulceration of the mouth, gums and rectum, in- 

 vagination, prolapsus ani, jaundice, septic pneumonia, paralysis, 

 chorea, convuLsions, or cutaneous eruptions are occa.sional com- 

 plications. The abdominal type of distemper is especially fatal. 

 Even in its early stages debility, prostration and even drowsiness 

 are marked features. 



Cutaneous Symptoms. Skin eruptions are observed in the great 

 majority of cases, at some stage of the disease, and may remain 

 as a sequel for a time after apparent recovery. Friedberger and 

 Frohner note cases in which the high fever and skin eruption are 

 the only prominent symptoms, and recovery may be looked for 

 with some confidence. The lesions are most patent on white 

 skinned dogs with short hair, and on the more delicate parts of 

 the skin (abdomen, scrotum, perineum, inside of the thighs and 

 elbows) but they may extend over the whole body and even ex- 

 tend on the mucosae. They vary much in different cases and 

 stages. There may be punctiform reddish spots, changing to 

 hard elevated papules, and, in the case of a certain number, to 

 vesicles and even pu.stules. Some vesicles may be small and 

 pointed, but more commonly they are rounded and flat, and as 

 large as a lentil or small pea. When first formed, the contained 

 liquid exudate may be clear and transparent, but often it is red- 

 dish or even violet. The individual vesicles tend to speedily 

 burst, and dry up, but others appear, and thus the eruption will 

 continue for weeks, the skin meanwhile exuding a sticky, greasy, 

 offensively smelling exudate which mats the hairs together. 

 Itching is usually slight, yet in given cases excoriations and sores 

 are produced with considerable moist discharge. It tends to 



