is also epidemic. It occurs more frequently in the spring and autumn than in the winter and summer. If one or two dogs in a certain district are affected, we may be assured that it will soon extensively prevail there; and where the disease could not possibly be communicated by contagion. Sometimes it rages all over the country. At other times it is endemic, and confined to some particular district.
only is the disease epidemic or endemic, but the form which it assumes is so. In one season, almost every dog with distemper has violent fits; at another, in the majority of cases, there will be considerable chest affection, running on to pneumonia; a few months afterwards, a great proportion of the distempered dogs will be worn down by diarrhœa, which no medicine will arrest; and presently it will be scarcely distinguishable from mild catarrh.
It
much with different breeds. The shepherd's dog, generally speaking, cares little about it; he is scarcely ill a day. The cur is not often seriously affected. The terrier has it more severely, especially the white terrier. The hound comes next in the order of severity; and after him the setter. With the small spaniel it is more dangerous; and still more so with the pointer, especially if he has the disease early. Next in the order of fatality comes the pug; and it is most fatal of all with the Newfoundland dog. Should a foreign dog be affected, he almost certainly dies. The greater part of the northern dogs brought by Captain Parry did not survive a twelvemonth; and the delicate Italian greyhound has little chance, when imported from abroad.
Not only does it thus differ in different species of dogs, but in different breeds of the same species. I have known several gentlemen who have laboured in vain for many years, to rear particular and valuable breeds of pointers and greyhounds. The distemper would uniformly carry off five out of six. Other sportsmen laugh at the supposed danger of distemper, and declare that they seldom lose a dog. This hereditary predisposition to certain kinds of disease cannot be denied, and is not sufficiently attended to. When a peculiar fatality has often followed a certain breed, the owner should cross it from another kennel, and especially from the kennel of one who boasts of his success in the treatment of distemper. This has occasionally succeeded far beyond expectation.
is time to proceed to the symptoms of this disease; but here there is very considerable difficulty, for it is a truly protean malady, and it is impossible to fix on any symptom that will invariably characterise it.
An early and frequent symptom is a gradual loss of appetite, spirits, and condition: the dog is less obedient to his master, and takes less notice of him. The eyes appear weak and watery; and there will be a very slight limpid discharge from the nose. In the morning there will, perhaps, be a little indurated mucus at the inner corner of the eye. This may continue two or three weeks without serious or scarcely recognizable illness. Then a peculiar husky cough is heard, altogether different from the sonorous cough of catarrh, or the wheezing of asthma. It is an apparent attempt to get something from the fauces or throat. By degrees the discharge from the eyes and nose, and particularly the former, will increase. More mucus will collect in the corners of the eye; and the eye will sometimes be closed in the morning. The conjunctiva and particularly that portion which covers the sclerotica, will be considerably injected, but there will not be the usual intense redness of inflammation. The vessels will be large and turgid rather than numerous, and frequently of a darkish hue. Occasionally, however, the inflammation of the conjunctiva will be exceedingly intense, the membrane vividly red, and the eye impatient of light. An opacity spreads over the cornea, and this is quickly succeeded by ulceration. The first spot of ulceration is generally found precisely in the centre of the cornea, and is perfectly circular; this will distinguish it from a scratch or other injury. The ulcer widens and deepens, and sometimes eats through the cornea, and the aqueous humour escapes. Fungous granulations spring from it, protrude through the lids, and the animal evidently suffers extreme torture.