THE DISTEMPER.
By this singular name is distinguished a prevalent disease now about to
come under our consideration, which was first observed on the continent.
The rapidity with which it spread, the strange protean appearances which
it assumed, and its too frequent fatal termination, surprised and
puzzled the veterinary surgeons; and they called it "la maladie des
chiens," the disease or distemper in dogs.
It is comparatively a new disease. It was imported from France about one
hundred years since, although some French authors have strangely
affirmed that it is of British origin. Having once gained footing among
us, it has established itself in our country, to the vexation and loss
of the sportsman, and the annoyance of the veterinary surgeon. However
keepers, or even men of education, may boast of their specifics, it is a
sadly fatal disease, and destroys fully one-third of the canine race.
Dogs of all ages are subject to its attack. Many, nine and ten years
old, have died of pure distemper; and I have seen puppies of only three
weeks fall victims to it; but it oftenest appears between the sixth and
twelfth month of the animal's life. If it occurs at an early period, it
proves fatal in the great majority of cases; and, if the dog is more
than four years old, it generally goes hard with him. It is undeniably
highly contagious, yet it is frequently generated. In this it bears an
analogy to mange, and to farcy and glanders in the horse.
One attack of the disease, and even a severe one, is no absolute
security against its return; although the dog that has once laboured
under distemper possesses a certain degree of immunity; or, if he is
attacked a second time, the malady usually assumes a milder type. I
have, however, known it occur three times in the same animal, and at
last destroy him.
Violent catarrh will often terminate in distemper; and low and
insufficient feeding will produce it. It frequently follows mange, and
especially if mercury has been used in the cure of the malady. When we
see a puppy with mange, and that peculiar disease in which the skin
becomes corrugated, and more especially if it is a spaniel, and
pot-bellied or rickety, we generally say that we can cure the mange, but
it will not be long before the animal dies of distemper; and so it
happens in three cases out of four. Whatever debilitates the
constitution predisposes it for the reception or the generation of
distemper. It, however, frequently occurs without any apparent exciting
cause.
That it is highly contagious cannot admit of doubt. A healthy dog can
seldom, for many days, be kept with another that labours under distemper
without becoming affected; and the disease is communicated by the
slightest momentary contact. There is, however, a great deal of caprice
about this. I have more than once kept a dog in the foul-yard of my
hospital for several successive weeks, and he has not become diseased.
Inoculation with the matter that flows from the nose, either limpid or
purulent, and in an early or advanced stage of the distemper, will, with
few exceptions, produce the disease; yet I have failed to communicate it
even by this method. Inoculation used to be recommended as producing a
milder and less fatal disease. So far as my experience goes, the
contrary has been the result.
Distemper is also epidemic. It occurs more frequently in the spring and
autumn than in the winter and summer. If one or two dogs in a certain
district are affected, we may be assured that it will soon extensively
prevail there; and where the disease could not possibly be communicated
by contagion. Sometimes it rages all over the country. At other times it
is endemic, and confined to some particular district.
Not only is the disease epidemic or endemic, but the form which it
assumes is so. In one season, almost every dog with distemper has
violent fits; at another, in the majority of cases, there will be
considerable chest affection, running on to pneumonia; a few months
afterwards, a great proportion of the distempered dogs will be worn down
by diarrhoea, which no medicine will arrest; and presently it will be
scarcely distinguishable from mild catarrh.
It varies much with different breeds. The shepherd's dog, generally
speaking, cares little about it; he is scarcely ill a day. The cur is
not often seriously affected. The terrier has it more severely,
especially the white terrier. The hound comes next in the order of
severity; and after him the setter. With the small spaniel it is more
dangerous; and still more so with the pointer, especially if he has the
disease early. Next in the order of fatality comes the pug; and it is
most fatal of all with the Newfoundland dog. Should a foreign dog be
affected, he almost certainly dies. The greater part of the northern
dogs brought by Captain Parry did not survive a twelvemonth; and the
delicate Italian greyhound has little chance, when imported from abroad.
Not only does it thus differ in different species of dogs, but in
different breeds of the same species. I have known several gentlemen who
have laboured in vain for many years, to rear particular and valuable
breeds of pointers and greyhounds. The distemper would uniformly carry
off five out of six. Other sportsmen laugh at the supposed danger of
distemper, and declare that they seldom lose a dog. This hereditary
predisposition to certain kinds of disease cannot be denied, and is not
sufficiently attended to. When a peculiar fatality has often followed a
certain breed, the owner should cross it from another kennel, and
especially from the kennel of one who boasts of his success in the
treatment of distemper. This has occasionally succeeded far beyond
expectation.
It is time to proceed to the symptoms of this disease; but here there is
very considerable difficulty, for it is a truly protean malady, and it
is impossible to fix on any symptom that will invariably characterise
it.
An early and frequent symptom is a gradual loss of appetite, spirits,
and condition: the dog is less obedient to his master, and takes less
notice of him. The eyes appear weak and watery; and there will be a very
slight limpid discharge from the nose. In the morning there will,
perhaps, be a little indurated mucus at the inner corner of the eye.
This may continue two or three weeks without serious or scarcely
recognizable illness. Then a peculiar husky cough is heard, altogether
different from the sonorous cough of catarrh, or the wheezing of asthma.
It is an apparent attempt to get something from the fauces or throat. By
degrees the discharge from the eyes and nose, and particularly the
former, will increase. More mucus will collect in the corners of the
eye; and the eye will sometimes be closed in the morning. The
conjunctiva and particularly that portion which covers the sclerotica,
will be considerably injected, but there will not be the usual intense
redness of inflammation. The vessels will be large and turgid rather
than numerous, and frequently of a darkish hue.
Occasionally, however, the inflammation of the conjunctiva will be
exceedingly intense, the membrane vividly red, and the eye impatient of
light. An opacity spreads over the cornea, and this is quickly succeeded
by ulceration. The first spot of ulceration is generally found precisely
in the centre of the cornea, and is perfectly circular; this will
distinguish it from a scratch or other injury. The ulcer widens and
deepens, and sometimes eats through the cornea, and the aqueous humour
escapes. Fungous granulations spring from it, protrude through the lids,
and the animal evidently suffers extreme torture.
A remarkable peculiarity attends this affection of the eye. However
violent may be the inflammation, and by whatever disorganization it may
be accompanied, if we can cure the distemper, the granulations will
disappear, the ulcer will heal, the opacity will clear away, and the eye
will not eventually suffer in the slightest degree. One-fourth part of
the mischief in other cases, unconnected with distemper, would
inevitably terminate in blindness; but permanent blindness is rarely the
consequence of distemper.
It may not be improper here shortly to revert to the different
appearance of the eye in rabies. In the early stage of this malady there
is an unnatural and often terrific brightness of the eye; but the cornea
in distemper is from the first rather clouded. In rabies there is
frequent strabismus, with the axis of the eye distorted outwards. The
apparent squinting of the eye in distemper is caused by the probably
unequal protrusion of the membrana nictitans over a portion of the eye
at the inner canthus, in order to protect it from the light. In rabies,
the white cloudiness which I have described, and the occasional
ulceration with very little cloudiness, and the ulceration, are confined
to the cornea; but a dense green opacity comes on, speedily followed by
ulceration and disorganization of every part of the eye.
The dog will, at this stage of distemper, be evidently feverish, and
will shiver and creep to the fire. He will more evidently and rapidly
lose flesh. The huskiness will be more frequent and troublesome, and the
discharge from the nose will have greater consistence. It will be often
and violently sneezed out, and will gradually become more or less
purulent. It will stick about the nostrils and plug them up, and thus
afford a considerable mechanical obstruction to the breathing.
The progress of the disease is now uncertain. Sometimes fits come on,
speedily following intense inflammation of the eye; or the inflammation
of the nasal cavity appears to be communicated, by proximity, to the
membrane of the brain. One fit is a serious thing. If it is followed by
a second within a day or two, the chances of cure are diminished; and if
they rapidly succeed each other, the dog is almost always lost. These
fits seldom appear without warning; and, if their approach is carefully
watched, they may possibly be prevented.
However indisposed to eat the dog may previously have been, the appetite
returns when the fits are at hand, and the animal becomes absolutely
voracious. Nature seems to be providing for the great expenditure of
power which epilepsy will soon occasion. The mucus almost entirely
disappears from the eyes, although the discharge from the nose may
continue unabated; and for an hour or more before the fit there will be
a champing of the lower jaw, frothing at the mouth, and discharge of
saliva. The champing of the lower jaw will be seen at least twelve hours
before the first fit, and will a little while precede every other. There
will also be twitchings of some part of the frame, and usually of the
mouth, cheek, or eyelid. It is of some consequence to attend to these,
as enabling us to distinguish between fits of distemper and those of
teething, worms, or unusual excitement. The latter come on suddenly. The
dog is apparently well, and racing about full of spirits, and without a
moment's warning he falls into violent convulsions.
We may here, likewise, be enabled to distinguish between rabies and
distemper. When a person, unacquainted with dogs, sees a dog struggling
in a fit, or running along unconscious of every surrounding object, or
snapping at everything in his way, whether it be a human being or a
stone, he raises the cry of "mad dog," and the poor brute is often
sacrificed. The very existence of a fit is proof positive that the dog
is not mad. No epilepsy accompanies rabies in any stage of that disease.
The inflammation of the membrane of the nose and fauces is sometimes
propagated along that of the windpipe, and the dog exhibits unequivocal
proofs of chest affection, or decided pneumonia.
At other times the bowels become affected, and a violent purging comes
on. The fæces vary from white with a slight tinge of gray, to a dark
slate or olive colour. By degrees mucus begins to mingle with the fæcal
discharge, and then streaks of blood. The fæcal matter rapidly lessens,
and the whole seems to consist of mingled mucus and blood; and, from
first to last, the stools are insufferably offensive. When the mingled
blood and mucus appear, so much inflammation exists in the intestinal
canal that the case is almost hopeless.
The discharge from the nose becomes decidedly purulent. While it is
white and without smell, and the dog is not too much emaciated, the
termination may be favourable; but when it becomes of a darker colour,
and mingled with blood, and offensive, the ethmoid or turbinated bones
are becoming carious, and death supervenes. This will particularly be
the case if the mouth and lips swell, and ulcers begin to appear on
them, and the gums ulcerate, and a sanious and highly offensive
discharge proceeds from the mouth. A singular, half-fetid smell arising
from the dog, is the almost invariable precursor of death.
When the disease first visited the continent, it was regarded as a
humoral disease. Duhamel, who was one of the earliest to study the
character of the malady, contended that the biliary sac contained the
cause of the complaint; the bile assumed a concrete form, and its
superabundance was the cause of disease. Barrier, one of the earliest
writers on the subject, described it as a violent irregular bilious
fever. Others regarded it as a mucous discharge, or a depurative; and
others, as a salutary crisis, removing from the constitution that which
oppressed the different organs. Others had recourse to inoculation, in
order to give it a more benign character; and others, and among them
Chabert, considered that it possessed a character of peculiar malignity,
and he gave it a name expressive of its nature and situation--'nasal
catarrh'. It exhibited the ordinary symptoms of coryza: it was a
catarrhal affection in its early stage; but it afterwards degenerated
into a species of palsy. The causes were unknown. By some, they were
attributed to the natural voracity of the dog; by others, to his
occasional lasciviousness; by others, to his frequent feeding on
carrion, or the refuse of fat and soups.
There is no doubt that nasal catarrh is, to a very considerable degree,
contagious on the continent. It often spreads over a wide extent of
country, and includes numerous animals of various descriptions. It is
complicated with various diseases; and particularly, at an early stage,
with ophthalmia. It may be interesting to the reader to trace the
progress of the disease among our continental neighbours. It commences
with a certain depression of spirits; a diminution of appetite; a
heaviness of the head; a heat of the mouth; an attempt to get something
from the throat; an insatiable thirst; an elevated temperature of the
body; a dry and painful suffocating cough; and all these circumstances
continue twenty to thirty days, until at length the dog droops and dies.
The duration of distemper is uncertain. It sometimes runs its course in
five or six days; or it may linger on two or three months. In some cases
the emaciation is rapid and extreme: danger is then to be apprehended.
When the muscles of the loins are much attenuated, or almost wasted,
there is little hope; and, although other symptoms may remit, and the
dog may be apparently recovering, yet, if he continues to lose flesh, we
may be perfectly assured that he will not live. On the other hand, let
the discharge from the nose be copious, and the purging violent, and
every other symptom threatening, yet if the animal gains a little flesh,
we may confidently predict his recovery.
When the dog is much reduced in strength and flesh, a spasmodic
affection or twitching of the muscles will sometimes be observed. It is
usually confined at first to one limb; but the most decisive treatment
is required, or these spasms will spread until the animal is altogether
unable to stand; and while he lies every limb will be in motion,
travelling, as it were, at the rate of twenty miles an hour, until the
animal is worn out, and dies of absolute exhaustion. When these spasms
become universal and violent, they are accompanied by constant and
dreadful moans and cries.
In the pointer and the hound, and particularly when there is little
discharge from the eyes or nose, an intense yellowness often suddenly
appears all over the dog. He falls away more in twenty-four hours than
it would be thought possible; his bowels are obstinately constipated; he
will neither eat nor move; and in two or three days he is dead.
In the pointer, hound, and greyhound, there sometimes appears on the
whole of the chest and belly a pustular eruption, which peels off in
large scales. The result is usually unfavourable. A more general
eruption, however, either wearing the usual form of mange, or
accompanied by minute pustules, may be regarded as a favourable symptom.
The disease is leaving the vital parts, and expending its last energy on
the integument.
The 'post-mortem' appearances are exceedingly unsatisfactory: they do
not correspond with the original character of the disease, but with its
strangely varying symptoms. If the dog has died in fits, we have
inflammation of the brain or its membranes, and particularly at the base
of the brain, with considerable effusion of a serous or bloody fluid. If
the prevailing symptoms have led our attention to the lungs, we find
inflammation of the bronchial passages, or, in a few instances, of the
substance of the lungs, or the submucous tissue of the cells. We rarely
have inflammation of the pulmonary pleura, and never to any extent of
the intercostal pleura. In a few lingering cases, tubercles and vomicæ
of the lungs have been found.
If the bowels have been chiefly attacked, we have intense inflammation
of the mucous membrane, and, generally speaking, the small intestines
are almost filled with worms. If the dog has gradually wasted away,
which is often the case when purging to any considerable extent has been
encouraged or produced, we have contraction of the whole canal,
including even the stomach, and sometimes considerable enlargement of
the mesenteric glands [1].
The membrane of the nose will always exhibit marks of inflammation, and
particularly in the frontal sinuses and ethmoidal cells; and I have
observed the portion of membrane on the septum, or cartilaginous
division of the nostrils, between the frontal sinuses and ethmoidal
cells, to be studded with small miliary tubercles. In advanced stages of
the disease, attended with much defluxion from the nose, the cells of
the ethmoidal bone and the frontal sinuses are filled with pus.
Ulceration is sometimes found on the membrane of the nose, oftenest on
the spot to which I have referred--occasionally confined to that; and
now and then spreading over the whole of the septum, and even corroding
and eating through it; generally equal on both sides of the septum; in a
few instances extending into the fauces; seldom found in the larynx, but
occasionally seen in the bronchial passages. The other viscera rarely
present any remarkable morbid appearance.
The distemper is clearly a disease of the mucous membranes, usually
commencing in the membrane of the nose, and resembling nasal catarrh. In
the early stage it is 'coryza', or nasal catarrh; but the affection
rapidly extends, and seems to attack the mucous membranes generally,
determined to some particular one, either by atmospheric influence or
accidental causes, or constitutional predisposition. The fits arise from
general disturbance of the system, or from the proximity of the brain to
the early seat of inflammation.
This account of the nature and treatment of distemper will, perhaps, be
unsatisfactory to some readers. One thing, however, is clear, that for a
disease which assumes such a variety of forms, there can be no specific;
yet there is not a keeper who is not in possession of some supposed
infallible nostrum. Nothing can be more absurd. A disease attacking so
many organs, and presenting so many and such different symptoms, must
require a mode of treatment varying with the organ attacked and the
symptom prevailing. The faith in these boasted specifics is principally
founded on two circumstances--atmospheric influence and peculiarity of
breed. There are some seasons when we can scarcely save a dog; there are
others when we must almost wilfully destroy him in order to lose him.
There are some breeds in which, generation after generation, five out of
six die of distemper, while there are others in which not one out of a
dozen dies. When the season is favourable, and the animal, by hereditary
influence, is not disposed to assume the virulent type of the disease,
these two important agents are overlooked, and the immunity from any
fatal result is attributed to medicine. The circumstances most conducive
to success will be the recollection that it is a disease of the mucous
surfaces, and that we must not carry the depleting and lowering system
too far. Keeping this in view, we must accommodate ourselves to the
symptoms as they arise.
The natural medicine of the dog seems to be an emetic. The act of
vomiting is very easily excited in him, and, feeling the slightest
ailment, he flies to the dog-grass, unloads his stomach, and is at once
well. In distemper, whatever be the form which it assumes, an emetic is
the first thing to be given. Common salt will do when nothing else is at
hand; but the best emetic, and particularly in distemper, consists of
equal parts of calomel and tartar emetic. From half a grain to a grain
and a half of each will constitute the dose.
This will act first as an emetic, and afterwards as a gentle purgative.
Then, if the cough is urgent, and there is heaving at the flanks, and
the nose is hot, a moderate quantity of blood may be taken--from three
to twelve ounces--and this, if there has been previous constipation, may
be followed by a dose of sulphate of magnesia, from two to six drachms.
In slight cases this will often be sufficient to effect a cure: but, if
the dog still droops, and particularly if there is much huskiness, the
antimonial or James's powder, nitre and digitalis, in the proportion of
from half a grain to a grain of digitalis, from two to five grains of
the James's powder, and from a scruple to a drachm of nitre, should be
administered twice or thrice in a day. If on the third or fourth day the
huskiness is not quite removed, the emetic should be repeated.
In these affections of the mucous membranes, it is absolutely necessary
to avoid or to get rid of every source of irritation, and worms will
generally be found a very considerable one in young dogs. If we can
speedily get rid of them, distemper will often rapidly disappear; but,
if they are suffered to remain, diarrhoea or fits are apt to supervene:
therefore some worm medicine should be administered.
I have said that vomiting is very easily excited in the dog; and that
for this reason we are precluded from the use of a great many medicines
in our treatment of him. Calomel, aloes, jalap, scammony, and gamboge
will generally produce sickness. We are, therefore, driven to some
mechanical vermifuge; and a very effectual one, and that will rarely
fail of expelling even the tape-worm, is tin filings or powdered glass.
From half a drachm to a drachm of either may be advantageously given
twice in the day. There may generally be added to them digitalis,
James's powder, and nitre, made into balls with palm oil and a little
linseed meal. This course should be pursued in usual cases until two or
three emetics have been given, and a ball morning and night on the
intermediate days. Should the huskiness not diminish after the first two
or three days, if the dog has not rapidly lost flesh, I should be
disposed to take a little more blood, and to put a seton in the poll. It
should be inserted between the ears, and reaching from ear to ear.
When there is fever and huskiness, and the dog is not much emaciated, a
seton is an excellent remedy; but, if it is used indiscriminately, and
when the animal is already losing ground, and is violently purging, we
shall only hasten his doom, or rather make it more sure.
It is now, if ever, that pneumonia will be perceived. The symptoms of
inflammation in the lungs of the dog can scarcely be mistaken. The quick
and laborious breathing, the disinclination or inability to lie down,
the elevated position of the head, and the projection of the muzzle,
will clearly mark it. More blood must be subtracted, a seton inserted,
the bowels opened with Epsom salts, and the digitalis, nitre, and
James's powder given more frequently and in larger doses than before.
Little aid is to be derived from observation of the pulse of the dog; it
differs materially in the breed, and size, and age of the animal. Many
years' practice have failed in enabling me to draw any certain
conclusion from it. The best place to feel the pulse of the dog is at
the side. We may possibly learn from it whether digitalis is producing
an intermittent pulse, which it frequently will do, and which we wish
that it should do: it should then be given a little more cautiously, and
in smaller quantities.
If the pneumonia is evidently conquered, or we have proceeded thus far
without any considerable inflammatory affection of the chest, we must
begin to change our plan of treatment. If the huskiness continues, and
the discharge from the nose is increased and thicker, and the animal is
losing flesh and becoming weak, we must give only half the quantity of
the sedative and diuretic medicine, and add some mild tonic, as gentian,
chamomile, and ginger, with occasional emetics, taking care to keep the
bowels in a laxative but not purging state. The dog should likewise be
urged to eat; and, if he obstinately refuses ail food, he should be
forced with strong beef jelly, for a very great degree of debility will
now ensue
We have thus far considered the treatment of distemper from its
commencement; but it may have existed several days before we were
consulted, and the dog may be thin and husky, and refusing to eat. In
such case we should give an emetic, and then a dose of salts, and after
that proceed to the tonic and fever balls.
Should the strength of the animal continue to decline, and the discharge
from the nose become purulent and offensive, the fever medicine must be
omitted, and the tonic balls, with carbonate of iron, administered. Some
veterinary surgeons are very fond of gum resins and balsams. Mr. Blaine,
in his excellent treatise on the distemper in his Canine Pathology,
recommends myrrh and benjamin, and balsam of Peru and camphor. I much
doubt the efficacy of these drugs. They are beginning to get into
disrepute in the practice of human medicine; and I believe that if they
were all banished from the veterinary Materia Medica we should
experience no loss. When the dog begins to recover, although not so
rapidly as we could wish, the tonic balls, without the iron, may be
advantageously given, with now and then an emetic, if huskiness should
threaten to return; but mild and wholesome food, and country or good
air, will be the best tonics.
If the discharge from the nose become very offensive, the lips swelled
and ulcerated, and the breath fetid, half an ounce of yeast may be
administered every noon, and the tonics morning and night; and the mouth
should be frequently washed with a solution of chloride of lime.
At this period of the disease the sub-maxillary glands are sometimes
very much enlarged, and a tumour or abscess is formed, which, if not
timely opened, breaks, and a ragged, ill-conditioned ulcer is formed,
very liable to spread, and very difficult to heal. It is prudent to
puncture this tumour as soon as it begins to point, for it will never
disperse. After the opening, a poultice should be applied to cleanse the
ulcer; after which it should be daily washed with the compound tincture
of benjamin, and dressed with calamine ointment. Some balls should be
given, and the animal liberally fed.
Should the fits appear in an early stage, give a strong emetic; then
bleed, and open the bowels with five or six grains of calomel and a
quarter grain of opium: after this insert a seton, and then commence the
tonic balls.
The progress of fits in the early stages of the disease may thus be
arrested. The occurrence of two or three should not make us despair;
but, if they occur at a later period, and when the dog is much reduced,
there is little hope. This additional expenditure of animal power will
probably soon carry him off. All that is to be done, is to administer a
strong emetic, obviate costiveness by castor oil, and give the tonic
balls with opium.
Of the treatment of the yellow disease little can be said; we shall not
succeed in one case in twenty. When good effect has been produced, it
has been by one large bleeding, opening the bowels well with Epsom
salts, and then giving grain doses of calomel twice a day in a tonic
ball.
While it is prudent to obviate costiveness, we should recollect that
there is nothing more to be dreaded, in every stage of distemper, than
diarrhoea. The purging of distemper will often bid defiance to the most
powerful astringents. This shows the folly of giving violent cathartics
in distemper; and, when I have heard of the ten, and twenty, and thirty
grains of calomel that are sometimes given, I have thought it fortunate
that the stomach of the dog is so irritable. The greater part of these
kill-or-cure doses is ejected, otherwise the patient would soon be
carried off by super-purgation. There is an irritability about the whole
of the mucous membrane that may be easily excited, but cannot be so
readily allayed; and, therefore, except in the earliest stage of
distemper, or in fits, or limiting ourselves to the small portion of
calomel which enters into our emetic, I would never give a stronger
purgative than castor-oil or Epsom salts. It is of the utmost
consequence that the purging of distemper should be checked as soon as
possible.
In some diseases a sudden purging, and even one of considerable
violence, constitutes what is called the crisis. It is hailed as a
favourable symptom, and from that moment the animal begins to recover;
but this is never the case in distemper: it is a morbid action which is
then going on, and which produces a dangerous degree of debility.
The proper treatment of purging in cases of distemper, is first to give
a good dose of Epsom salts, in order to carry away anything that may
offend, and then to ply the animal with mingled absorbents and
astringents. A scruple of powdered chalk, ten grains of catechu, and
five of ginger, with a quarter of a grain of opium, made into a ball
with palm oil, may be given to a middle-sized dog twice or thrice every
day. To this may be added injections of gruel, with the compound chalk
mixture and opium.
When the twitchings which I have described begin to appear, a seton is
necessary, whatever may be the degree to which the animal is reduced.
Some stimulating embrocation, such as tincture of cantharides, may be
rubbed along the whole course of the spine; and the medicine which has
oftenest, but not always, succeeded, is castor-oil, syrup of buckthorn,
and syrup of white poppies, given morning and night, and a tonic ball at
noon. If the dog will not now feed, he should be forced with strong
soup. As soon, however, as the spasms spread over him, accompanied by a
moaning that increases to a cry, humanity demands that we put an end to
that which we cannot cure. Until this happens I would not despair; for
many dogs have been saved that have lain several days perfectly
helpless.
As to the chorea which I have mentioned as an occasional sequel of
distemper, if the dog is in tolerable condition, and especially if he is
gaining flesh, and the spring or summer is approaching, there is a
chance of his doing well. A seton is the first thing; the bowels should
be preserved from constipation; and the nitrate of silver, in doses of
one-eighth of a grain, made into a pill with linseed meal, and increased
to a quarter of a grain, should be given morning and night.
We should never make too sure of the recovery of a distempered dog, nor
commit ourselves by too early a prognosis. It is a treacherous disease;
the medicines should be continued until every symptom has fairly
disappeared; and for a month at least.
It may be interesting to add the following account of the distemper in
dogs, by Dr. Jenner. Several of our modern writers have copied very
closely from him.
"That disease among dogs which has familiarly been called the
'distemper,' has not hitherto, I believe, been, much noticed by
medical men. My situation in the country favouring my wishes to make
some observations on this singular malady, I availed myself of it,
during several successive years, among a large number of foxhounds
belonging to the Earl of Berkeley; and, from observing how frequently
it has been confounded with hydrophobia, I am induced to lay the
result of my inquiries before the Medical and Chirurgical Society. It
may be difficult, perhaps, precisely to ascertain the period of its
first appearance in Britain. In this and the neighbouring counties, I
have not been able to trace it back beyond the middle of the last
century; but it has since spread universally. I knew a gentleman who,
about forty-five years ago, destroyed the greater part of his hounds,
from supposing them mad, when the distemper first broke out among
them; so little was it then known by those most conversant with dogs.
On the continent I find it has been known for a much longer period; it
is as contagious among dogs as the small-pox, measles, or scarlet
fever among the human species; and the contagious miasmata, like those
arising from the diseases just mentioned, retain their infectious
properties a long time after separation from the distempered animal.
Young hounds, for example, brought in a state of health into a kennel,
where others have gone through the distemper, seldom escape it. I have
endeavoured to destroy the contagion by ordering every part of a
kennel to be carefully washed with water, then whitewashed, and
finally to be repeatedly fumigated with the vapour of marine acid, but
without any good result.
"The dogs generally sicken early in the second week after exposure to
the contagion; it is more commonly a violent disease than otherwise,
and cuts off at least one in three that are attacked by it. It
commences with inflammation of the substance of the lungs, and
generally of the mucous membrane of the bronchi. The inflammation at
the same time seizes on the membranes of the nostrils, and those
lining the bones of the nose, particularly the nasal portion of the
ethmoid bone. These membranes are often inflamed to such a degree as
to occasion extravasation of blood, which I have observed coagulated
on their surface. The breathing is short and quick, and the breath is
often fetid; the teeth are covered with a dark mucus. There is
frequently a vomiting of a glairy fluid. The dog commonly refuses
food, but his thirst seems insatiable, and nothing cheers him like the
sight of water. The bowels, although generally constipated as the
disease advances, are frequently affected with diarrhoea at its
commencement. The eyes are inflamed, and the sight is often obscured
by mucus secreted from the eyelids, or by opacity of the cornea. The
brain is often affected as early as the second day after the attack;
the animal becomes stupid, and his general habits are changed. In this
state, if not prevented by loss of strength, he sometimes wanders from
his home. He is frequently endeavouring to expel by forcible
expirations the mucus from the trachea and fauces, with a peculiar
rattling noise. His jaws are generally smeared with it, and it
sometimes flows out in a frothy state, from his frequent champing.
"During the progress of the disease, especially in its advanced
stages, he is disposed to bite and gnaw anything within his reach; he
has sometimes epileptic fits, and a quick succession of general though
slight convulsive spasms of the muscles. If the dog survive, this
affection of the muscles continues through life. He is often attacked
with fits of a different description; he first staggers, then tumbles,
rolls, cries as if whipped, and tears up the ground with his teeth and
fore feet: he then lies down senseless and exhausted. On recovering,
he gets up, moves his tail, looks placid, comes to a whistle, and
appears in every respect much better than before the attack. The eyes,
during this paroxysm, look bright, and, unless previously rendered dim
by mucus, or opacity of the cornea, seem as if they were starting from
their sockets. He becomes emaciated, and totters from feebleness in
attempting to walk, or from a partial paralysis of the hind legs. In
this state he sometimes lingers on till the third or fourth week, and
then either begins to show signs of returning health (which seldom
happens when the symptoms have continued with this degree of
violence), or expires. During convalescence, he has sometimes, though
rarely, profuse hæmorrhage from the nose.
"When the inflammation of the lungs is very severe, he frequently dies
on the third day. I know one instance of a dog dying within
twenty-four hours after the seizure; and in that short space of time
the greater portion of the lungs was, from exudation, converted into a
substance nearly as solid as the liver of a sound animal. In this case
the liver itself was considerably inflamed, and the eyes and flesh
universally were tinged with yellow, though I did not observe anything
obstructing the biliary ducts. In other instances I have also observed
the eyes looking yellow.
"The above is a description of the disease in its several forms; but
in this, as in the diseases of the human body, there is every
gradation in its violence.
"There is also another affinity to some human diseases, viz., that the
animal which has once gone through it very rarely meets with a second
attack. Fortunately this distemper is not communicable to man. Neither
the effluvia from the diseased dog nor the bite have proved in any
instance infectious; but, as it has often been confounded with canine
madness, as I have before observed, it is to be wished that it were
more generally understood; for those who are bitten by a dog in this
state are sometimes thrown into such perturbation that hydrophobia
symptoms have actually arisen from the workings of the imagination.
Mr. John Hunter used to speak of a case somewhat of this description
in his lectures.
"A gentleman who received a severe bite from a dog, soon after fancied
the animal was mad. He felt a horror at the sight of liquids, and was
actually convulsed on attempting to swallow them. So uncontrollable
were his prepossessions, that Mr. Hunter conceived he would have died
had not the dog which inflicted the wound been found and brought into
his room in perfect health. This soon restored his mind to a state of
tranquillity. The sight of water no longer afflicted him, and he
quickly recovered." [2]
Palsy, more or less complete, is sometimes the termination of the
distemper in dogs.
It is usually accompanied by chorea, and it is then, in the majority of
cases, hopeless. Setons should be inserted in the poll, being then, as
nearly as possible, at the commencement of the spinal cord. They should
be well stimulated and worn a considerable time. If they fail, a plaster
composed of common pitch, with a very small quantity of yellow wax and
some powdered cantharides, spread on sheep's-skin, should be placed over
the whole of the lumbar and sacral regions, extending half-way down the
thigh on either side. The bowels should be kept open by mild aperients,
in order that every source of irritation may be removed from the
intestinal canal. Some mild and general tonic will likewise be useful,
such as gentian and ginger.
[Footnote 1: The following is a very frequent and unexaggerated history
of distemper, when calomel has been given in too powerful doses:
'August 30, 1828'.--A spaniel, six months old, has been ailing a
fortnight, and three doses of calomel have been given by the owner. He
has violent purging, with tenesmus and blood. Half an ounce of
caster-oil administered.
'31st.' Astringents, morning, noon, and night.
'Sept. 6.' The astringents have little effect, or, if the purging is
restrained one day, it returns with increased violence on the following
day. Getting rapidly thin. Begins to husk. Astringents continued.
'10th'. The purging is at last overcome, but the huskiness has rapidly
increased, accompanied by laborious and hurried respiration.--Bleed to
the extent of three ounces.
'11th'. The breathing relieved, but he obstinately refuses to eat, and
is forced several times in the day with arrow-root or strong soup.
'18th'. He had become much thinner and weaker, and died in the evening.
No appearance of inflammation on the thoracic viscera, nor in any part
of the alimentary canal. The intestines are contracted through the whole
extent.
'Veterinarian', ii. 290.]
[Footnote 2: 'Medico-Chirurgical Transitions', 31st March, 1809.]
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