Distemper.
There are three kinds of distemper, viz., of the head, of the lungs, and of the bowels. Good nursing is nine points out of ten for conquering this fell disease.
Symptoms.—Mucous discharge from eyes or nose, or both, dry, hacking cough, general lassitude, diarrhea of very offensive odor.
Do not try to treat the patient, for, unless you are an M.D. or have had a long experience with the disease, you will probably make a sorry mess of it. Until a veterinarian arrives, keep the patient quiet, warm, out of all draft, feeding only beef-tea with brandy added. Do not give solid food under any circumstances. Bear always in mind that this disease is most contagious, and, to prevent it from spreading, the patient should be quarantined from all other dogs, the farther off the better.
Dr. T. G. Sherwood, a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgery, 127 West Thirty-seventh Street, New York, inoculated four of the author’s dogs, and the result was satisfactory beyond all expectation, as other dogs not so treated quickly succumbed to the disease.
As distemper is about equivalent to pneumonia or inflammation of the lungs in human beings, the reader will readily understand how useless it would be for a layman to try to treat these diseases.