Distemper it is a disease that attacks the smallest dogs, but it also usually affects older animals and this disease usually happens when they have not been vaccinated or when old age damages your immune system and is that this disease can affect several organs and can act within the body, being very contagious.
This is a disease caused by a virus found in cold environments, but this is a very heat sensitive virus and it is that animals are infected by the contact with other animals or through the respiratory tract, breathing the same air as an infected animal. The main form of infection is by direct discharge from the nose and mouth with infected animals.
Symptoms of distemper
Among the main symptoms we will notice a loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, eye discharge, fever, and shortness of breath and if it is not treated in time it can cause death. There is no specific treatment for this disease but you can take medications that allow to control the symptoms, the most important thing is that the animal is in a pleasant climate and have healthy nutrition.
This sickness can be prevented by vaccinating the animal and this can be done in any veterinary clinic, since dogs can be vaccinated from six months. As we have said before distemper is a disease that is transmitted by a highly contagious virus that can survive in the air for some time if there are good climatic conditions, that is, if the place is cold and dry, but they can survive for a short time in the hottest and most humid climates.
This virus is also called canine distemper virus, being this very aggressive and that affects dogs that have a very weak immune system, when they are puppies or elderly dogs also they are often affected because a disease may have attacked them before.
Although this is a disease that usually affects animals of any age, puppies between three and six months are usually affected because in this period maternal antibodies are lost.
And you can also affect all racesBut the dogs most likely to be infected are Greyhounds, Husky, Alaskan Malamutes, and the Samoyed. Fortunately, this disease is not considered a zoonosis so it does not have the ability to reach people who have contact with infected animals, but in the animal world infection from dog to dog is possible.
The secretions that are released by sick animals are distemper transmission agents, Also objects can spread this disease, in addition a person who has contact with an infected animal can transmit this disease to another animal.
What is distemper?
Distemper it is a rapidly evolving disease, symptoms are usually seen a week after having it and in most cases this disease occurs so violently that the treatment possibilities are almost non-existent. However, the level of aggressiveness of distemper in a dog will depend both on the regions affected by the disease and the state of the immune system of the dog in question.
All the first affected areas are those that are related to the digestive and respiratory systems and when it is advanced can affect the nervous system, but already in this condition it is impossible to achieve an improvement.
The hardest thing of all is make a diagnosis, because this disease usually has symptoms similar to other diseases and in the first days it is difficult to realize that a dog has distemper and it is that unfortunately, distemper is a disease that can be regenerated in dogs, but there are medications that help improve the quality of life, but unfortunately they do not prevent the death of the animal.