Symptoms

The period of incubation, or slow development after expo-sure to contagion and preceding the first symptoms of distemper, is from four to fourteen days; probably the latter is the limit in the large majority of cases. An attack is usually preceded by dulness, disinclination to exertion, loss of appetite, and chilly sensations as shown by shiverings. Then rapidly follow the symptoms of a common cold, sneezing, dry, husky cough, and a watery discharge from the eyes and nose. The fever soon becomes prominent, the pulse full and decided, the nose hot and dry, and the lining membrane of the eyelids reddened, the tongue slightly coated, and the secretion of saliva diminished. Vomiting is not uncommon, food is rejected or eaten sparingly; there is thirst, a tendency to constipation, and still greater prostration. On the second or third day the discharge from the eyes and nose becomes purulent, gluing the inflamed eyelids together, and drying in crusts around the nostrils as the fever grows more intense. Muscular weakness and prostration increase, the animal is less easily disturbed, and when in motion hangs his head, makes but little effort, soon lies down, becomes indifferent, or dozes into an unquiet sleep.

The cough at first short and dry, loses its husky tone as the mucous secretion becomes abundant, and in mild cases soon ceases. As the disease progresses the pulse and respiration are increased in frequency; the appetite more often entirely disappears; the stomach and intestines become irritable, and a stale, even offensive odor proceeds from the mouth.

The fever runs a course of variable intensity; in uncomplicated cases it usually reaches its height in four or five days, and then rapidly subsides. So favorable a result is by no means the rule; more often complications arise, prolonging the illness, and rendering recovery more uncertain. If reaction is delayed, and the constitutional disturbances persist, prostration becomes more marked, and is accompanied with rapidly increasing emaciation.

In the progress of distemper seemingly trifling influences often induce disastrous results; a system vitiated by the specific poison of the disease, deranged and prostrated by an intense fever, its vital energies exhausted, has but little resistive power, and is predisposed to further disorder. The digestive organs already suffering from catarrhal conditions, are easily inflamed by medicine or food unwisely selected; an irritable condition of the mucous membrane of the air passages renders it easy to excite a catarrh of the smaller bronchial tubes; weakness of the heart's action invites certain congestive changes in the lungs; pneumonia constitutes a frequent and serious complication of distemper. In this disease as in all others characterized by prolonged high fever, certain degenerative changes occur in the internal organs, the vessels, the blood, and in the muscular system. The change in the liver is shown by the markedly diminished secretion of bile, the constituents of it being retained in the blood and giving rise to jaundice.

The muscular degeneration is a part of the manifestation of the fever, and depends upon the derangement of a centre regulating the nutrition of the muscles. In many cases of distemper the functions of the brain become more or less disturbed and weakened; occasionally effusions take place within the cranial cavity; epileptiform or general convulsions, meningitic symptoms, apoplectic seizures are in a high degree prejudicial to the chances of recovery; for they indicata some unusual cause of disturbance, often a grave disease of the brain or its attachments. There is a decided tendency to constipation among some, while among others diarrhoea and even dysentery exist.

During the period of dentition poppies are predisposed to convulsions and intestinal catarrh; the transition of the latter into a more serious dis-ease of the bowels, attended by profuse discharges and rapid emaciation, occasionally occurs, and in some instances terminates in collapse and death. The influence of age is strikingly manifested in distemper; the fever usually running a course of greater intensity among puppies. The presence of worms is a complication which by functional disturbances prejudices recovery.

Of notable influence upon the course of the disease under consideration is the constitution of the dog attacked. Some breeds are more sensitive and excitable; others in comparison might be called sluggish; in the former the general disturbances of the system are more pronounced, and brain symptoms are more easily induced. It is presumed that the in-and-in bred animals for this reason have less resistant capability; the same may be said of dogs improperly fed and generally neglected.

Occasionally distemper is aggravated and protracted in its course by irritable and painful ulcers of the cornea, resulting from an inflammation of the eyes, at first superficial and unimportant. An eruption of the skin, and loss of hair from some portions of the body, is a frequent complication, due doubtless to weakened vitality and impaired nutrition.

Thus it will be seen that during an attack of distemper the predisposing influences which invite farther disorder are many, powerful, and not infrequently beyond control. The duration of the disease depends upon the complications which may arise; where none appear the fever reaches its height about the fifth day, then gradually declines, and recovery is complete at the end of the third week. In cases running a fatal coarse death usually occurs before the fifteenth day. Chorea and paralysis are two important affections consequent upon certain attacks of distemper; the latter usually affecting the hind quarters only.

The duration of complicated cases of distemper is problematical. In many instances convalescence is for a long time delayed, and recovery takes place slowly and is only completed after many weeks. When we consider that the important organs in all parts of the body are weakened and otherwise injured by the distemper process, that important constituents have been destroyed, that nutrition is retarded by defective digestion, it becomes intelligible to us that complete restoration is slow after the severer attacks of the disease.