Prognosis

Distemper is a most treacherous disease, and one of which even an expert cannot foretell the result. Many instances occur in which an animal appears to be on the right road towards recovery, when a relapse suddenly sets in and carries off the poor creature. If the appetite is moderate, the emaciation not rapid or great, the diarrhoea not intense or too frequent, and no complications set in after the end of the first week, recovery may be anticipated. On the other hand, if the weakness be progressive and prolonged, emaciation rapid and great, an offensive odour is given off from the body, eyes sunken in their orbits, pupils dilated, and the facial expression is haggard, death is to be expected. Again, relapses (which are commonly encountered), early youth, obesity, complications, the breed of the animal (such as Siamese and long-haired varieties, especially light-coloured animals), are generally unfavourable towards a certain recovery.

Chronic nasal catarrh, chronic pneumonia or phthisis, and persistent diarrhoea may also give trouble after the distemper has run its ordinary course, and will have to be reckoned with.

Treatment

An old maxim is, " Prevention is better than cure," and ought to be carried out as far as possible by isolating all those animals that have been in contact with the infection.

Animals coming from homes for lost and stray cats, cat shows, dealers in cats, should be kept apart from those in the cattery for at least a fortnight, to see if they develop the complaint. The place of isolation should have no communication with the building or house in which the majority of healthy cats are kept. The baskets, cages, clothing, etc., should be thoroughly 'Washed and disinfected before they are used again for sound cats. It ought not to be forgotten that persons who have been in contact with sick animals may carry the infection on their hands or clothes.

When distemper has declared itself in a cattery and the inmates have recovered, the place should be thoroughly scrubbed, disinfected, and afterwards lime-washed or repainted. Boiling water and soda, used with the aid of a scrubbing-brush, is much more reliable to remove infection than many of the so-called disinfectants, which frequently do not destroy the virus, but often injure the cats. After the habitation has been scrupulously cleansed, it may be well to disinfect it with chlorinated lime (1 lb. to the gallon of cold water), which should be brushed all over the floor, walls, partitions, etc. Baskets, hampers, etc., should be served likewise. Metal and earthenware utensils may be boiled in strong soda-water.

Before any cats are again put into the place, the doors and windows should be opened for at least a week, and fresh air and daylight admitted, as they are the best destructors of micro-organisms.

Where valuable cats are kept and the risk of distemper is great, it would be advisable for the owner to have the cats immunised, or rendered proof against the disease, by means of the Pasteurian system of vaccination with the attenuated microbe of distemper, as introduced into practice by Professor Lignieres and Dr. Phisalix. Several degrees of strength of the vaccine are used. The animal is at first vaccinated or inoculated with a mild degree of virus, and afterwards with vaccine of gradually increased virulence, so that the most virulent virus (which would quickly kill, or cause the disease in a severe form in an animal not previously inoculated with the milder vaccines) would not produce any disturbance in the vaccinated creature.

Medical Or Curative Treatment

The sick animal should be kept in a well-lighted and well-ventilated but not draughty room, which ought to be dry, and kept at a temperature of about 6o°. The floor should be covered with a thick layer of fresh pine sawdust, heaps of which should be placed in tins, boxes, or old coal-scuttles for the convenience of the animals.

If the cat is seen in the first stage of the disease, an emetic of ¼ to ½ grain of tartar emetic in a teaspoonful of warm water may be given to clear out the stomach and bronchial tubes. In place of this drug, 1/30 to 1/20 grain of hydrochloride of apomorphine in tabloid form may be injected under the skin. After the emetic has passed off, easily digested and nourishing food, such as milk, should be offered, and, if refused, forced upon the animal. When the appetite is fairly good, 1/8 to ¼ grain of calomel may be given twice a day, but must be stopped as soon as it causes vomiting or intense diarrhoea.

When the appetite is bad, quinine sulphate (½ grain) given three times a day for a lengthened period may be useful in remedying it.

The eyes and nostrils should be bathed three times a day with the following lotion :

Chinosol . . . • 3½ grains,

Rose-water ... .8 ounces; and then smeared with an ointment composed of Boracic Acid . . . . ½ drachm,

Cold Cream . . . .4 drachms.

When the throat is very much inflamed, it should be painted on the outside, after all the hair is clipped off from ear to ear, with tincture of iodine or the setherial tincture of capsicum, three times a day, until soreness is produced. As it is a difficult job to paint the inside of the cat's throat, the following powder dropped on the tongue will act in a similar manner : Quinine sulphate : . . ½ grain.

Borax.....2½ grains.

To be given morning, noon, and night.

If there is either pleurisy or pneumonia, or both combined, the hair should be cut off over the ribs, and the skin painted with a solution of tartar emetic (composed of 1 drachm of the drug to an ounce of spirit), and then wrapped up with a binder, under which a layer of cotton-wool is placed.

In case there is repeated vomiting, a powder composed of Bismuth carbonate . . 5 grains,

Cocaine hydrochloride . . 1/8 grain, should be shaken on the tongue every four hours until twenty-four hours have elapsed since the last vomiting took place. If there should be a persistent and profuse diarrhoea, it must be moderated, but not suppressed, by means of 2½ grains of tannigen given morning, noon, and night. When there are any convulsions -or much pain, 1/6 to ¼- grain of extract of opium in pill should be administered morning and night.

Light and easily digested food - such as peptonised milk, Mosquera's beef jelly, Benger's peptonised food, etc. - should be given in small and repeated quantities during the earlier or active stages of the disease. Later on, in the convalescent stage, scraped raw beef, boiled fish, rice pudding, etc., may be offered.

Parrish's chemical food and cod-liver oil, given by some cat-owners during the acute stage of distemper when there is no appetite, are harmful and cruel remedies.