Canine distemper is a highly contagious viral illness with no known cure. The disease affects Orlando dogs, raccoons, wolves, foxes and skunks, it has also been found that ferrets can be a carrier of the disease but it has no outward effect on them. Canine distemper is a relative of the measles virus which of course can affect humans but we cannot catch canine distemper so you need not worry. As with most viral infections it is the young and the old that the virus likes to attack, so if you have unvaccinated puppies or an older unvaccinated dog, or if your vaccination regime is not up to date then your pets are ideal candidates for this virus.



Canine distemper is a really nasty virus for your Florida pet to get, it is spread through the air or by direct contact. At the beginning the virus attacks the dogs tonsils and lymph nodes, this is where the virus replicates itself ready to be spread. After about a week of these symptoms the virus will then progress to stage II which is it will attack the respiratory, urogenital, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. In the initial stage the the main visible symptoms will be a watery discharge from the nose and eyes, the dog will have reddened eyes and a high fever. The next symptoms are persistent coughing, vomiting and diarrhea. In the latter stages of the disease the virus particularly goes after the dogs nervous system, the brain and spinal cord are affected which will result probably in the dog having fits and seizures, progressing onto paralysis.

The most likely animal to catch canine distemper is an unvaccinated one, but unvaccinated Orlando animal coming into contact with an infected animal is believed to be about 90% sure of contracting the virus and as I said earlier there is no known cure. Most vets will advise you that they can actually do very little for the animal except alleviate some of the symptoms. Dogs can survive canine distemper even without any seeming long-term effects but this is generally because the strain of the virus that the animal contracted was not very dangerous and the dog was young and healthy, if on the other hand the dog was old or already had a medical condition then it's survival chances if the virus it caught was a strong one are not very good.

Some obvious things that your dog may go through if it has canine distemper that cannot be undone even if it survives are serious nervous system damage which might mean paralysis, fits and seizures are ongoing due to the amount of brain damage inflicted by the virus. One thing to remember is that if your dog does survive it is no longer a carrier of the virus, once it is completely cured it cannot pass the disease on.

Visit our Orlando animal removal home page to learn more about us.