DISTEMPER IN DOGS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3924, 28 March 1929, Page 3

DISTEMPER IN DOGS.

A subscriber to the Palmerston Times who has had much to do with dogs, especially working animals, communicated to the “Times” some points for the detection and cure of distemper which bad been prescribed by the Wallaccville laboratory. The first symptoms of the trouble ,are hard to detect. ‘The dog may have fits, with some frothing at the corner of the mouth. Distdmper takes ten days to incubate. The animal’s temperature is high for two or three days, then drops. This gives the unwary owner the impression that the dog is all right and this is the point at which the animal is lost, for the temperature rises again and stays up for two or three weeks, with pneumonic complications in many cases. Everything should be done to keep the temperature down. The dog should be kept warm and dry and all excitehient or distress should be avoided. No exercise at all should be permitted. Every three hours for the first two or three days, five grain quinine tabloids (a lesser dose for small dogs) should be administered. IE there is constipation, give a tablespoon of liquid paraffin. Cod liver oil twice a day keeps up the dog’s strength. Diet should consist of raw meat, milk, soup with vegetables or toast but no bread. In six months the Wallaceville laboratory hopes to have ready for general use a serum which has been used very effectively in Great Britain.