Coping With Canine Distemper

Let me start by saying Oso is a beautiful Golden-Aussi-Bassett-Chow.

We were spending the winter in Texas and on a hot sunny Saturday in January we went for a scenic drive. We were in the middle of nowhere and seen a puppy in the road. He started walking toward us so when we got close we slowed down so not to hit him. He crawled under our truck, laid down and refused to move. Once we got him out from under the truck we saw he was a mess. He was covered in crude oil, burrs and God knows what else. He was exhausted, thirsty, starving and very happy to see someone. We went to our sons and cleaned him (4 hrs.) best we could. Being Sat. the shelter was closed. We were stuck with him (in a travel trailer with our 2 dogs) until Monday. When Monday came we took him to the shelter, dropped him off and started crying. By Tuesday we had him back.

We took Oso to the vet and got his shots started and found out he was 6 to 8 weeks old and 14.5 pounds. In the following weeks we had him at the vets 3 or 4 times. It started with diareaha then green discharge from his eyes then sores (pimples)in his ears. Every time Oso was given a different antibiotic. The end of Febuary it was time to head for home and the vet told us we needed a health certificate to take Oso out of the state. Again he went back for a check up and given a clean bill of health (except for an infected toe that was oozing blood) and another antibiotic. We hit the road. Before we got out of Texas, Oso had started having mild tremors and we had no idea what was happening. It took 3 days to get home and back to our regular vet. The tremors were increasing daily and our vet had no idea what was wrong. She did not want to put him down. She refered us to a canine neurologist who diagnosed Oso with distemper He was put on medication and vitamins.

Today Oso is almost 11 months old. He is living with a tremor that seems better some days more than others. He loves to run and dig really deep holes to put his toys in. He brings us more joy than I ever thought possible.