Definition. Synonyms. Animals susceptible: dog, fox, jackal, hyena, wolf. Historic notes. Causes: contagion, inoculation, immunity, contact with sick, clothing, bedding, kennel: infection fixed—little diffusible, dogs at large, chill, domestication, high breeding, special breeds, shows, public conveyances, vegetable diet, debilitating conditions, catarrhs, change of climate, recurrent attacks, youth, native susceptibility, teething. Microbiology: micrococci, bacilli, mixed cultures, Shantyr’s observations, Lignieres’. Virulent products—all secretions and exudates. Vitality: virus survives drying, freezing, dilution in water. Destroyed by disinfectants. Forms of distemper: catarrhal, ophthalmic, cutaneous, gastro-hepatic, bronchitic, pulmonary, nervous. Duration 20 to 30 days. Mortality 20 to 70 per cent. Prognosis: unpromising conditions. Incubation 4 to 7 days. Symptoms: hyperthermia (103° to 104°), dulness, debility, anorexia, staring coat, tremors, seeking warmth, early fatigue, dry burning nose and footpads, irregular temperature, simultaneous congestion of all visible mucosæ; Respiratory phenomena; sneezing, congestion of nose, discharge, blocking, snuffling, rubbing, cough, retching, vomiting; percussion flatness in lungs, in islets or along the lower part; auscultation râles, wheezing, crepitus, creaking, etc.; epiphora, swollen eyelids, weeping, photophobia, muco-purulent discharge, sticking of lids together, opacities, vesicles, ulcers; red, hot, buccal mucosa, costiveness, fetid diarrhœa, tenesmus, weakness, emaciation; skin eruption, on delicate areas, papules, vesicles with colored contents, pustules, sticky, greasy exudate; irritability, restlessness, taciturnity, depraved appetite, spasms, delirium, paresis, epilepsy, chorea. Lesions: inflammation, degeneration, ulceration on air-passages, alimentary tract, lymph glands, kidneys, liver, cerebral and spinal meninges, leucocytic infiltration: offensive odor. Lignieres’ views of microbes. Prevention: quarantine new dogs for 14 days, wash, disinfect all collars, etc., avoid shows and meetings, exclude street dogs, protect against mice, rats, birds, shut up all dogs during an epizoötic; separate a pack into small lots; seclude the sick and all belonging to them. Immunization: by lung exudate, by weakened cultures. Treatment: hygienic, dietetic, warm baths, antipyretics, antiferments, calomel, phenic acid, eliminants, expectorants, collyria, emetic, demulcents, bismuth, etc., pepsin, quinine, nerve sedatives, tonics.
Definition. A contagious, febrile affection attacking dogs (and by inoculation cats), and tending to local inflammatory and degenerative lesions in the mucosæ, lungs, bowels, liver, skin, kidneys, and nervous system,—a first attack usually immunizing against a second.
Synonyms. Contagious catarrhal fever; Dog ill; Bronchial Catarrh; Intestinal Catarrh; Fr. Maladie des Chiens, Maladie du jeune age, Typhoïde, Typhus des chenils, Variole du chien; Ger. Staupe; It. Cimurro.
Animals susceptible. Dogs, especially puppies and young dogs, and other members of the canine race, fox, jackal, hyena, wolf. Cats suffer from inoculation (Laosson), also apes (Cadeac). Old cats and dogs are often immune, also all animals that have passed through one attack of the disease.
History. The older English veterinarians quote the epizoötics in dogs described by Virgil, Aristotle and even Homer as probably distemper. Laosson attributes to it a canine epizoötic which prevailed in Bohemia in 1028. It appears to have been unknown in Europe in the earlier third of the 18th century though prevailing in Peru. According to Ulloa, it was introduced from Peru into Spain in 1735, whence, it spread into France (1740), Germany (1748), Ionian Isles, Greece (1759), England (1760), Italy (1764) and Russia (1770), Sweden and Norway (1815), Siberia (1821). Since that time it has prevailed in Europe and many dependencies of European nations.
Causes. Its advent in Europe as a new disease in the second third of the 18th century, its steady spread, its continued prevalence, and extension, concur with the infection of kennels and districts by the introduction of a sick dog, in demonstrating its purely contagious nature, and this implies a living microbe transferred from animal to animal. If any doubt remained it must be dispelled by the inoculations which have been constantly successful when made on young puppies, or dogs that have not previously suffered, and on cats. A first attack confers immunity.
Among accessory causes may be especially named contact with the sick dog, its clothing or bedding, and above all its kennel. A kennel may retain infection indefinitely, especially if there is a constant accession of puppies or susceptible dogs. On the contrary it is not readily carried on the clothes of attendants, and the inmates of a kennel often remain sound, though only separated by a yard from the infected one, and though cared for by the same attendant. Yet so universally diffused is the contagion that few dogs escape it until they are a year old.
The habit of letting dogs run at large, to meet in roads and fields is a most prolific cause, which might easily be done away with where distemper is prevalent.
A chill is a common condition, hence injudicious washing, swimming in cold water, exposure of house dogs to cold storms, or outdoors at night, sleeping in cold, damp cellars, on cold stones or metal plates, or in passages in a current of cold air are frequent factors. Yet it often spreads rapidly in the summer, the heat favoring the preservation and diffusion of the germ.
House dogs as a rule suffer more severely, as their systems are more sensitive to the cold, and the resisting power to invading microbes is lessened. Country dogs and those living in the open air are hardier and more resistant and often have the disease in a mild form.