Canine distemper – a malign disease, dangerous not only for dogs

Canine distemper was brought to Europe from America. It travelled across the ocean to the old continent sometime in the 18th century. It was mainly dogs and minks who started to succumb to this aggressive disease. Records of occurrence of the canine distemper on Czech territory appear after the First World War

Canine distemper has several forms: dermal, nervous, pulmonary and intestinal. In most cases, puppies catch the distemper, but it also transmits to an adult dog quite often. The treatment is usually demanding and very often unsuccessful. Rather than curing the disease, the veterinarians can suppress its symptoms in the long term.

It affects both skin and inner organs

Now, let’s talk about how various forms of distemper manifest themselves. In general, the disease is accompanied by fevers and loss of appetite. Other symptoms are directly connected with a specific form of the disease.

If it manifests on the skin of a dog, the skin will keratinize and crack – on the balls of the paws, for instance. This is probably the least aggressive form of the disease.

When distemper attacks the nervous system of an animal, there are, apart from other things, spasms and seizures that resemble epilepsy. The disease sometimes manifests itself on the nervous system together with its pulmonary or intestinal form.

When the lungs are affected, an inflammation of the air passages develops, which appears like a cold at first, later the phlegm is joined by pus and blood. Further, a cough appears in the animal.

In the intestinal form of distemper, the animal suffers from vomiting, diarrhoea, but sometimes also from congestion. There’s tonsillitis, pharyngitis, inflammation of the stomach and intestines.

How to fight back against the disease

Distemper incubation period is 3 to 7 days. Infection occurs, for instance, when an animal licks an object that was previously licked by an infected animal. Dogs that survive distemper can bear the consequences in the form of damaged teeth, affliction of the joints or, for instance, occasional twitching. The illness does not endanger only dogs by far, but also minks, for example, foxes, wolves or ferrets. The most effective weapon is vaccination, which we should remember already in two-months-old puppies. Afterwards, it is necessary to regularly re-vaccinate during the dog’s life.

Is your dog vaccinated against canine distemper?