

Treatment for Distemper 



At this season of the year distemper is more 

 than usually rife, and many a valuable puppy 

 falls a victim. By a strange irony of fate, it is 

 generally the pick of the litter that dies; runts 

 and mongrels seem protected by a special provi- 

 dence. While no certain remedy for this most 

 fatal disease is known, there are certain lines 

 of treatment that give a fair average of success, 

 and this is about all we may expect, seeing 

 that we do not even know the cause of dis- 

 temper. 



All dogs are liable to this disease, though the 

 better bred and less hardy breeds suffer the 

 most. Bulldogs are easy victims, and grey- 

 hounds, bloodhounds, pointers and setters 

 pay heavier toll than most of the remaining 

 breeds. The disease is practically confined to 

 dogs under two years of age, and 90 per 

 cent, of the cases occur in subjects that are in 

 their first year. Like measles in the human 

 species — which it much resembles — distemper 

 is a disease to which youth is more subject than 

 age. Dogs brought up in the country, and 

 isolated from others of their kind, sometimes 

 escape altogether, or if they do take the malady, 

 escape until they are old and strong enough 

 to have a fair chance of fighting it. 



When puppies of between three and six 

 months become afflicted they are in great dan- 

 ger, as their strength is not sufficient to enable 

 them to fight the disease, and when death 

 occurs it is usually the result of exhaustion, 

 unless brought about by complications of a 

 relapse. 



The first symptoms are listlessness and loss 

 of energy. A pup that always welcomed his 

 master with vivacity, and had been most eager 

 to accompany him, now shows a reluctance to 

 move, flings himself heavily down to rest, seeks 

 the warmest and darkest corners and responds 

 to caresses by a feeble tail -wag instead of the 

 old boisterous response. The wise master 

 will, on the first appearance of such symptoms, 

 watch his dog very carefully for further de- 

 velopments. Within a day or two a discharge 

 will probably begin from the eyes and nose, 

 and the dog show more indisposition to move, 

 and there will probably be an almost total loss 

 of appetite. Beyond a mild dose of some laxa- 



tive, syrup of buckthorn being one of the best 

 or else calomel, little can be given in the Way 

 of medicine. This is a point to be remembered, 

 for the dog is in a feverish condition and re- 

 quires rest and quiet, together with concen- 

 trated liquid nourishment, far more than drugs. 

 If you allow your dog to take a chill he will die, 

 and if you feed him with solid food at this 

 stage of the disease it will probably be fatal. 

 Procure some flannel, and sew it about his 

 chest and ribs; provide a warm basket or box 

 of clean straw for him to rest in, and see that 

 the straw is changed every day. If possible, 

 it is better to have the sick puppy where you 

 can keep your eye on him, and no place answers 

 better than a corner near the kitchen stove, 

 when the cook can be made to see the reason- 

 ableness of this course. 



For several days your patient will get steadily 

 worse, and you will have to force nourishment 

 down his throat, for you must endeavor to 

 keep up his strength, the disease being a tre- 

 mendous tax on the sufferer. 



Borax is one of the most useful drugs in 

 treating the discharge from the nose and eyes. 

 Sponge the eyes frequently with a weak solu- 

 tion, and if the nostrils are plugged up spray 

 them with a similar solution. But do not worry, 

 the dog with too much fussing. Taking its 

 temperature, per rectum, as some advise, at 

 frequent intervals can serve no good purpose, 

 and merely alarms an animal that needs sooth- 

 ing and petting. A clever, kind-hearted woman 

 — one of the old-fashioned motherly sort — will 

 pull more pups through than all the vets in 

 the land. The three cardinal principles should 

 be: (1) Warmth. (2) Liquid nourishment 

 until the fever has abated, and (3) Not too 

 much fussing with the patient. 



Even in bad cases the dog is generally on 

 the mend or doomed within three weeks of the 

 first symptoms. Complications such as pneu- 

 monia, or the "yellows," i. e. y inflammation of 

 the liver, are usually fatal, and if the disease 

 attacks the brain, as it often does, or the belly, 

 the chances are that your puppy will die. 



Supposing, however, that all has gone well 

 and that at the end of ten days or so the animal's 

 temperature is down to 102 degrees, you must 

 then begin to try and build up his strength, or 



