Its presence is at once demonstrative that the animal is affected with what is known to the professional as a specific eruptive fever, which will run a definite course, and no amount of medicinal agents can cut it short.
One may control it by good nursing, suitable surroundings, and the judicious use of medicinal agents, but for any man to say that it is within his power to stay its normal progress, would, we opine, be bordering on madness. So much for distemper cures and their curers.
Ordinary small-pox vaccine has been employed as a preventative for distemper. Almost everyone knows that when the arm of the human subject is scarified with the lancet, so as to admit the reception of the vaccine into the system, the part becomes inflamed and swollen, the seat of vaccination also showing a vesicle, etc., typical of a mild form of the disease, and if this does not take place the vaccine is said not to have "taken," _i.e._, it has done no good.
This is exactly what happens when used in the same way upon the dog, there being neither inflammation nor yet other signs, typical of local reaction, therefore it can be no use.
The mere fact of the disease never having occurred in a certain dog that has been vaccinated is not the least evidence in support of its utility.
Many dogs are very refractory to certain diseases, amongst these being distemper.
The Commission of Veterinary Surgeons, appointed to inquire into the utility of Dr Physalix's Vaccine, has convinced the writer that it was a failure from beginning to end, and he advises all dog admirers, Masters of Hounds, etc., to steer clear of its use.
There is no doubt that in course of time an anti-toxin, or some other attenuated form of distemper virus will be produced for the cure, or prevention of, this deadly canine malady.
Regarding the treatment of distemper, it has been suggested that a dose of castor oil may, with advantage, be given at the outset.
The author does not consider this advisable: the oil, owing to its extremely nauseating properties, tends to further weaken the animal by the production of vomition, etc. Moreover, castor oil leaves the bowels in a drier condition than before--an undesirable effect.
A soft--not dysenteric--condition of the evacuations is advantageous, much of the poison being got rid by the alimentary canal in this way.