It has been stated that distemper may exist without any rise of temperature, or even the presence of catarrhal signs, but the author does not attach the slightest importance to such statements, and claims an experience equal to that of any other veterinary expert.
If there is no rise of temperature, no prostration, and no catarrhal signs, one may at once conclude that the animal is not affected with distemper.
Dulness, loss of appetite, sneezing, redness, heaviness of the eyes, slight husky cough, and, it may be, vomiting, are the premonitory signs of distemper.
If temperature be taken in the rectum or vagina, it will probably be about 103° or 104° Fahr.—the best positive evidence. There will generally be either constipation—more especially if a young dog—or an opposite condition of the evacuations. One well-known M.R.C.V.S. believes that distemper in adult dogs is of very rare occurrence.
This is not the author's experience, he having encountered and treated numerous cases when the animals have had distinct attacks of distemper two, and three times. Like scarlatina, measles, small-pox, etc., in the human subject, once the patient has passed through a well-marked attack of the disease, it is to a great extent "protected," but certainly not immune, to succeeding ones.
There is indisputable evidence in support of this statement, even the oldest observers being aware of its truth.
Following upon the preliminary symptoms already indicated, there is a profuse discharge from the nasal and ocular openings, at first watery in character, subsequently creamy.
The discharge (unless cleaned off) irritates the margin of the eyes, occluding these and the nasal openings.
Sometimes the malady remains in this—the so-called simple or catarrhal form—for several days, and then convalescence begins.
In the case of coarse-bred dogs (mongrels, etc.) the foregoing is the usual condition of affairs. Bronchial and lung troubles are frequent, and probably more puppies die from the broncho-pneumonia of distemper than from other causes. Bronchitis is indicated by frequent attempts at expectoration, and the so-called "rale," heard within the chest. This sound is due to the air passing through the inflammatory exudate in the tubes. If pleurisy is present, there will, during the earlier stages, be friction or dry rubbing sounds, heard when the ear is placed against the chest wall. It is generally associated with varying degrees of pneumonia, either single or double. Quick breathing—more especially noticeable in the region of the flanks—is the best guide as to its presence for the amateur physician. Dropsy of the chest is not at all an uncommon result of pleuritic inflammation.