Canine distemper is a highly contagious, often fatal viral disease in dogs that is prevented with regular vaccinations. Affected dogs spread the virus through body fluids, usually by sneezing and coughing. Pregnant dogs can infect their unborn puppies, leading to miscarriage or stillbirth. Most puppies who survive delivery die soon after birth.
Distemper affects the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems. Survivors often experience permanent neurologic damage, including deafness, blindness, and paralysis. Unvaccinated dogs don't need direct contact with infected dogs to contract the disease. The virus can survive in kennels and on such objects as chew toys.
Risk factors and symptoms
Cases in domestic dogs have dropped significantly since the vaccine's introduction in the 1960s. However, vaccinated dogs need annual boosters to remain protected. Unvaccinated dogs are at risk because many wildlife species, such as foxes, raccoons, and skunks, also spread the disease.
Signs of distemper include:
- fever
- thick, pus-like discharge from the nose and eyes
- depression
- appetite loss
- weight loss
- vomiting
- diarrhea
- coughing.
The first warning signs are often mild, and some owners assume their dogs have a common cold. As the disease advances, these symptoms disappear and neurologic impairments emerge, including seizures, incoordination, weakness, tremors, paralysis, and blindness. Some dogs develop thickened footpads and noses.
Call your veterinarian immediately if you see these signs in your dog. He or she will examine your dog thoroughly and may conduct blood tests to check for other diseases that cause similar symptoms, such as parvovirus infection. Because there isn't a practical, reliable distemper test, the diagnosis is based on the characteristic symptoms and a history of inadequate vaccination or exposure to an infected dog.
Prevention and treatment
You can prevent this deadly disease by completing your puppy's vaccination schedule and returning for annual boosters. Puppies receive a vaccination when they're 6 to 8 weeks old and boosters every three weeks until they're 14 weeks old. If you plan to breed your female dog, make sure her yearly distemper boosters are updated.
If your dog's doctor diagnoses distemper, you'll need to isolate your dog from other dogs. There are no antiviral medications to treat this disease, so your veterinarian will try to alleviate the symptoms. He or she will provide intravenous fluids for dehydration and antibiotics for secondary bacterial infections in the early stages, but few treatment options exist for dogs suffering neurologic impairment.
Prognosis
The death rate in affected dogs is 50 percent for adult dogs and nearly 80 percent for puppies. Death can occur within three months after infection. Dogs who do recover often are left with persistent nervous muscle twitches and recurrent seizures.
