Treatment

Distemper is a disease which tends intrinsically to end after a certain time, and is therefore self limited. A fatal result is rarely due to the intensity of the disease; death is generally attributable to complications. These facts are of considerable importance in estimating the amount of curative influence exerted by methods of treatment. No reliable means are yet known which can be depended upon to arrest this disease, or even shorten the duration of the febrile career. Active measures employed simply because the distemper exists, without reference to events connected with it, are contra-indicated. The progress should be carefully watched and appropriate treatment be employed as unfavorable symptoms arise; attempts should not be made to abridge or arrest the disease, but rather is nature to be assisted, and remedies be employed to aid in conducting it to a favorable termination.

The management of distemper involves not only the exercise of judgment in the employment of medicinal remedies, but of attention to sanitary and sustaining or supporting measures; a most important object being to obviate the tendency to death by exhaustion, and to forestall a degree of prostration dangerous to life.

When the disease makes its appearance the affected animal should be isolated from others and placed in dry, well ventilated quarters. The importance of an abundance of pure air cannot be exaggerated; in cold weather moderate artificial heat will be needed. The presence of disinfectants about the room is advised, and the preparations of lime and carbolic acid in powder are to be preferred.

It is an urgent necessity that as complete bodily rest as possible be secured from the very beginning of an attack; restraint must therefore be enforced until the period of danger has passed. To unload the bowels at the onset is important, and the syrup of buckthorn and castor oil, of each two or three teaspoonfuls, may be given.

Appreciating the disturbing influence of a high fever it is our first duty to endeavor as far as possible to hold this under control, and for that purpose the following may be employed for the first two or three days. -

℞ Tr. Aconiti Rad. gtt xxx Potass. Chloratis ℥ i.

Ammon. Mur. ℥ ss.

Spts.AEth.Nit. ℥ i.

Aquae ℥ ij.

Ft. Mist. sig. Dose one teaspoonful.

While the fever is intense this mixture may be given in teaspoonful doses every two hours, and discontinued as soon as the high temperature abates.

Taken in the first stage of the disease, the administration of quinine in one large dose generally results in materially reducing the fever. If employed, eight grains should be given in pill form; this is not to be repeated, but the fever mixture can be subsequently used if needed. A constant supply of pure drinking water is an essential, and the chlorate of potassa should be added to it, in proportion of two teaspoonfuls to a quart.

It is a matter of the greatest consequence that an affected dog be well nourished, and a proper amount of food should be insisted upon, even if no desire for it exists. During the first day or two he will doubtlessly eat sparingly of broths, beef tea, or milk, and what is taken voluntarily will suffice. The appetite will then more often nearly if not entirely disappear; when all else is rejected, raw beef in many cases will still be acceptable, and should be allowed. To render it more easy of digestion it should be scraped, and one or two tablespoonfuls given every two hours. The addition of gelatine and raw eggs to the beef renders- it still more- nutritious. In some instances no nourishment of any description will be taken voluntarily; force must now be employed, measured: by the manifest need to support and sustain the vital powers.

The irritability of the stomach and intestines, and the tendency to vomiting and diarrhoea must not be overlooked, and the most easily digested and concentrated nourishment be selected. Milk and lime water, strong beef tea, and beef essences are indicated. Food should be poured down the animal's throat at least four times a day; in shorter intervals if emaciation is great and rapidly progressive. No-more than a cup full should be administered at one time. If vomiting is excited, the quantity of nourishment must be divided and given oftener. Milk and lime water is easily borne on an irritable stomach, but if possible it should be alternated with beef tea and beef extracts; the addition of a raw egg to each cup full renders the nourishment more strengthening and no more difficult of digestion. After the fourth or fifth day it will be well- to give with the food, four times a day, one grain of quinine in pill form.

Stimulants are never to be withheld until that point is reached when prostration indicates a failure of vital powers imminent. If the animal seems fairly well sustained, and the nourishment is well borne on the stomach, a teaspoonful of sherry wine may properly be added to each cup full of milk or broth; as the disease progresses and he grows weaker, the amount should be increased to a tablespoonful; if failure is still progressive, then brandy must displace the wine and should be given in quantities from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful as the need is urgent. Even brandy may prove insufficient to stay exhaustion; then to it must be added one half a teaspoonful of aromatic spirit of ammonia.

It is presumed that in an uncomplicated and properly treated case of distemper, the need of excessive stimulation will rarely occur; cases whore neglect and injudicious dosing have induced extreme depression will be more often seen, and not infrequently will complications exist without being at once recognized. The general disturbance will however be apparent and demand the use of stimulants as advised. Treat the affected animal and not the disease is a wise rule to follow.

It is not always easy to determine just when pneumonia and other affections become complicated with distemper, and to remain inactive while the animal is growing worse, until positive evidence of their existence is manifested beyond a doubt, would be extremely hazardous; the study and treatment of symptoms is therefore imperative.

Vomiting may possibly occur notwithstanding every care in diet, and demands the U9e of subnitrate of bismuth in five grain doses, four times a day. When the stomach is too irritable to retain milk, broths, beef tea. etc., they must be withheld for a few hours, and only scraped raw beef pressed into a pill form be given with the bismuth.

Constipation if it exists will rarely if ever need medicinal treatment; liver and oatmeal have a decidedly laxative action, and if they prove insufficient a rectal injection can be administered.

Pulmonary complications are largely attributable to exposure to cold. and may appear at any time during the course of the disease; more often they occur after the height has been reached, and during the period of convalescence.

Diarrhoea is the more often due to dietetic errors, and the cause should bo obviated. Two or three discharges from the bowels daily call for no remedial agents; in more relaxed conditions, paregoric in teaspoonful doses alone or combined with twice that quantity of chalk mixture, and repeated as needed, should be administered.

The discharge from the nose and eyes should never be allowed to accumulate, a sponge and borax water being used in its removal. During convalescence exercise should be restricted, and exposure carefully arded against. Changes in diet should be made cautiously, measured by the powers of digestion. If recovery is slow tonics are indicated, cod liver oil will prove especially valuable. The different complications will be found elsewhere considered as distinct diseases.