Canine Distemper

[jess05]

We rescued a puppy from a animal control facility in North Carolina. From day one she has had diarrhea. Her 1st episode of diarrhea was full of worms.
She also wouldn’t eat or drink for me. I took her to our vet who did a blood count on her. Her white blood cell count was extremely low and the vet suspected Parvo. But the Parvo test was negative. She also had a fever of 104. Our vet gave her a less then 50% chance of survival because of how low her white blood count was. She was given fluids under the skin, and improved over night. She started eating & drinking on her own. She seemed like she was really improving and would be fine, then the diarrhea started up again. It was mainly just blood, and some mucus. Our puppy then went down hill again from there she began throwing up again, and stopped eating & drinking. She then had a discharge from her nose. This was all a time span of about 5 days. Now our puppy is hospitalized and the runny nose is gone, and she is eating & drinking again on her own (since she‘s been at the vet for 3 days now). I am so confused as to what is going on with her. The discharge from her nose lasted maybe 3 days. The vet who is treating her now seems to think it is from coccidia (fecal test was very positive for coccidia), accompanied by bronchitis. I visited my puppy today and she acted perfectly normal, barking and wagging her tail. She acted like a normal healthy pup. Her nose was clear of discharge, and was wet like a normal dogs nose. Her eyes looked clear and healthy, and she has even gained weight.

Also I did ask our normal vet which we aren’t using now about our pups teeth. They aren’t white like a normal puppy’s teeth. They appear brownish and the one K-9 tooth is broken out of her mouth. Our vet told us it is probably due to trauma since she was biting the bars of the kennel.

Does this sound like Distemper? or is it really coccidia and other intestinal parasites that are bringing her down? I am really worried about her. Even though we have had her a short period of time our family has fallen in love with her.

[Daveyo]

Hi I am Daveyo

All signs of your descriptions point to Distemper. How is the animals paws right now?? Are they getting hard? If so, it is clinical and positive of Distemper. If not your in the early stages of the disease but past day 6. I suggest you do the brush border test of the bladder to confirm yes or no.

Here is what the vet needs to do

The very best test for rapidly diagnosing ACUTE distemper is to do what is called a brush border smear of the cells of the inside lining of the bladder. These cells ALWAYS have inclusions. So, easy to collect, easy to stain (quick dip) and instantly diagnosed with inclusions in these cells which are carmine red and para nuclear.

Any medical person can tell you how to get cells from the bladder. Urinary catheter. Empty bladder flush 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. If present then Distemper. If negative then either kennel cough or respiratory Herpes or Toxoplasmosis.

If confirmed by the pads or eye goop discharge or nasal discharge, etc, or heavy labor breathing which is pneumonia setting inside the dogs lungs, you need to give it the NDV injection to the body ASAP Absolutely no vaccines are to be used right now because the dog is sick. Then you need to give Baytril and Penicillin G to stop the pneumonia.

After the body then you need to do the NDV-CSF tap procedure to get rid of the virus in the cerebral fluid area and stop the demylination of the nerves and this also will stop the ODE progression and vacate the death sentence your dog is facing right now. If you don't do this one, I can guarantee you that your dog will have full blown ODE sometime between 10 days up to 8 years. No dog has survived past 8 years with distemper in the spinal fluid.

As of the worm condition please get that treated as quickly as you can and you also need to check the heart as well because heartworms will also kill dogs. Very nasty indeed. Comes from mosquitoes. The favorite prescription to kill worms is PRYRANTEL.

Let me know what you intend to do.

Daveyo