Canine Distemper

[3kidz4me]

Last Thursday we found a puppy at the pound. It was active. Monday we got to play with her and she ran in circles and stuff just like a puppy. Tuesday she was fixed and we picked her up in the afternoon. I called a vet for the free shelter animal checkup & scheduled for Thursday. She seemed to be in pain and stuff but figured it was from the surgery.

Thursday she had greenish puss in eyes but seemed a bit more active. Vet said she has a fever, was dehydrated, underweight, and thinks pneumonia after listening to lungs also suggests maybe distemper She had 3 other sick pound dogs this week. She suggested xray, blood test, and subdermal fluid. We could not afford $500 so she sent us home with Clavamox for lungs and said to come back in 1-2 weeks. By night she was so lethargic I didn't think she'd make it thru the night.

Friday she was much more active & drinking and eating more. I read all over the net.

~ Could the symptoms be something other than distemper?
~ Does Vitamin C and Echinacea really help?
~ Would natural, organic dog food give her a better chance?

We can still take her back for exchange but I am sure most the animals there are spreading the disease around to each new dog that comes in. Also we fell in love with her and I now it would be almost like returning your new baby 3 days after taking it home from the hospital. Not an option. But I don't want to go broke if she is going to die anyway.

Please let me know if you have same experience. I am hoping it is something with similar symptoms but not as bad. Is there a chance with good nutrition and antibiotics that she could end up normal? I don't want her to suffer either.

[Daveyo]

Hi 34me

I am Daveyo

First to answer quickly to your questions: Vitamin C and Echinacea has absolutely no effect against Distemper and it is a waste of your money. Secondly natural, organic dog food has no effect against Distemper

Your VET is bleeding you literally money wise, so pay attention and go to a VET who can do this very simple procedure and you can find out in about 30 minutes right from his office if your dog has Distemper. OK

Here it is:
The most reliable test to confirm distemper,the person needs to do a Brush Border slide/smear of the bladder transitional epithelium of the inside lining from the bladder. Stain with Dif-Quick. These cells ALWAYS have inclusions. So, easy to collect, easy to stain (quick dip) and instantly diagnosed with inclusions in these cells which will stain a beautiful carmine red color and para nuclear in the cytoplasm of infected cells. About 90% of the bladder cells will be positive for inclusions in the early stages of distemper. This is good for at least the first 21 days from onset of the disease. After this point, it gets harder to detect as the disease progresses further in the stages and the physical clinical signs will become quite obvious.

Any Qualified medical person can tell you how to get these cells from the bladder. Use the Urinary catheter. Empty the bladder and flush this with saline and collect some of the last saline. Spin down the saline and remove the cells. Place on slide and dry stain with diff-quick. Very common stain used by most medics or lab people who use medical microscopy. Everyone? I should hope so. Very fast, very cheap, very accurate for Dx of distemper and the results can be seen in about 30 minutes. Rarely inclusions can be seen in the red cells. I have never seen inclusions in the conjunctiva. An IFA test of the conjunctiva to test for inclusions is available. Don’t wait for test results to come back. Time is of the essence. Wait for the test results after treating!!!!!. If wrong no adverse reactions if right you are ahead of the game for stopping the distemper virus.

If NEGATIVE> then either kennel cough or respiratory Herpes or Toxoplasmosis. This test can all be done inside the VET Clinic with no problems and also no danger to anyone in or out of the same area. A very relative safe technique. To date, this test has never failed for us and is extremely very accurate and saves time in making the right diagnosis.

Please make a copy of this and give to your VET and if they cannot do it, find a VET who can do it making phone calls and do some shopping.

In my opinion if a VET cannot do this I would highly question whether or not this VET has any training at all from School where they got their degree from which becomes suspect.

All Medical personal such as Doctors and VETS and those from the Labs should know how to do this kind of test. If not they don't belong in the medical business.

Do write back quickly as this is a very serious and deadly Disease and nothing to play around with especially.

With your dog having surgery, do avoid any vaccinations for the time being, and get this test done. You need to have it - the test to confirmed yes or no.

Daveyo