Coping With Canine Distemper

January 9 I adopted Heidi from a local animal shelter. She was three months old and was a lab/boxer mix. As part of the fee I paid for her it included a visit with the local vet, spaying, rabies vacination, and first set of shots. She was too young to be spayed or get the rabbies vaccine. The vet wouldn’t give her the first set of shots because she claimed she had kennel cough. Afterwards, I took her to a vet that I’ve used for years. Heidi was examined and was announced healthy so she received her first set of shots (this was January 10). I’m in college and I left her with my parents until I was able to get a house.

January 14 my mom called and told me Heidi was short of breath and had thrown up a few times. I left early Tuesday morning to help take care of Heidi later my mom and I took her to the vet. Heidi’s breathing was labored, runny nose that had begun to crust over, and had a loss of appetite. The vet mentioned she could have distemper, but that since she had recently received her shots even if they tested her for distemper it would show up positive. We would have to wait three weeks to test her. Since he couldn’t diagnos her with distemper he gave her antibiotics and medicine to help with the coughing. I had called the animal shelter and asked if they had any cases recently of distemper They told me that they had only had two bad cases that they considered to respiratory and that both dogs made it through.

Over the next week Heidi’s breathing got a little better, she stopped throwing up, her nose was runny but not as crusty, and we were having to force feed her. It was as though her throat was dry and itched. When she coughed nothing would come up and if it did it was a little mucos. She always got worse at night. My mom and I would stay up with her all night. Her coughing spells would last about 30 minutes and sometimes we were able to soothe her and calm her down. January 19 my mom called the vet and asked when we needed to make a decision because we didn’t want her to suffer any more. He suggested to wait until the following Tuesday to come back in before making any decisions.

Tuesday she was taken back in and the vet thought she was doing better, but that the antibiotics she was currently on had done all it could so he prescribed her another antibiotic. We were force feeding her Pedialite and it seemed to help some life back into her. Wednesday and Thursday she seemed to have been doing better. She had life back in her eyes, she was breathing better, and she had a trot back in her walk.

Friday morning she began throwing up non stop. We took her to the vet and admitted her and hooked her up to IVs. Over night she continued to throw up and began having diahrea. This morning we had to put her to sleep because at this point she was so weak that she didn’t have a chance. It wasn’t until this morning that they diagnosed her with distemper.

In addition to her we also had to put our other dog down this morning because he developed the virus. He was so small that it went straight into the neurological stage.

This morning I called the animal shelter to let them know Heidi had distemper and had to be put down. I thought they needed to know so that they would keep an eye out on the other animals. The woman I spoke to told me they had recently had cases of distemper and apologized. My mom called the manager and confronted her about the situation. Why didn’t they warn me in the beginning? Why did they tell me it was a respiratory infection the first time I called?

Overall I’ve spent nearly $800 in two weeks just on vet bills for the puppy. If I would have known in the beginning she had distemper I still would have done it all. I just wish we would have known so we could have expected it instead of hoping that it was a respiratory infection. Even though I only had her a little more than two weeks my love for her was beyond words. The heartache my family has gone through because of this is undescribable. Because of one mistake the shelter made two lives were lost.

If you have a dog with what might be distemper take it to the vet immediately. They can test your dog by doing a bronchoscopy.