Canine Distemper

[gemmaashford]

We have a puppy over 6 months old who had measles- which we assumed was Distemper We were very happy that she didn't get to the neurological stage and recovered fully- although for about an hour every day she used to get spasms- they were small and seemed like hiccups.. they stopped and she has been fine now for 3 months. Now, within the last 3 days, she has more serious spasms that last for a 1 hour a day. Will she definately deteriarate and how likely are the other dogs that she lives with to get the disease? (as unfortunately, due to her supposed recovery have not been seperated from her)

[stulchinsky]

More information on this topic can be found at http://www.animalhealthchannel.com/distemper/index.shtml#transmission. Best wishes to you in finding answers to your medical questions.

[Daveyo]

Just to clarify your wording when you say spasms are you saying convulsions or seizure.

What is the WBC count on your dog??

Neurological symptoms on dogs surviving Distemper without any NDV can occur from recovery to 8 years later, but always will be a guaranteed death sentence. NDV stops that sentence.

What is happening is your dog is having demyelination. This is progressive and it will get worse over the course of time because the C-4 T cells is destroying the animals own good cells. So basically this switch is now turned on. The only way to turn off this switch is via NDV doing the CSF tap.

If you wish to know further please make a post and I will try to help you out.