Dr Kavi­ta Per­sad

Vet­eri­nar­i­ans are see­ing it again: a rise in con­firmed ca­nine dis­tem­per cas­es across the coun­try, along with no­table cas­es of dogs show­ing signs very much con­sis­tent with the dis­ease. This is an im­por­tant re­minder that one of the most se­ri­ous dis­eases is still out there, and vac­ci­na­tion mat­ters.

More im­por­tant­ly, it rais­es the ques­tion to pet own­ers – is your dog ac­tu­al­ly pro­tect­ed?

Ca­nine dis­tem­per is more than just a “dog flu”. It is a high­ly con­ta­gious vi­ral dis­ease that can at­tack mul­ti­ple sys­tems in the body, in­clud­ing the res­pi­ra­to­ry, gas­troin­testi­nal, im­mune and ner­vous sys­tems. An in­fect­ed dog can de­vel­op fever, cough­ing, sneez­ing, eye and nose dis­charge, vom­it­ing, di­ar­rhoea and loss of ap­petite. As the dis­ease fur­ther pro­gress­es and moves in­to the ner­vous sys­tem, signs such as mus­cle twitch­ing, weak­ness, dif­fi­cul­ty walk­ing and seizures are seen. Some dogs that sur­vive the in­fec­tion may be left with per­ma­nent neu­ro­log­i­cal prob­lems, while sad­ly, oth­er dogs don’t sur­vive.

So, how does a dog catch this dis­ease? Dis­tem­per spreads eas­i­ly be­tween in­fect­ed dogs, par­tic­u­lar­ly through res­pi­ra­to­ry se­cre­tions.

This means ex­po­sure can hap­pen dur­ing every­day ac­tiv­i­ties such as walks, sa­van­nah vis­its, groom­ing, board­ing, vet­eri­nary vis­its, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed en­vi­ron­ments, or sim­ply be­ing around oth­er dogs. With this be­ing said, “in­door dogs” are al­so at risk; there­fore, re­duc­ing ex­po­sure may be help­ful.

One im­por­tant thing for own­ers to note is that your dog does not have to look sick for ex­po­sure to oc­cur. Pup­pies and dogs with in­com­plete or out­dat­ed vac­ci­na­tion his­to­ries are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble.

How do we di­ag­nose it? Dis­tem­per can look sim­i­lar to oth­er dis­eases, so di­ag­no­sis isn’t based on symp­toms alone. Your vet­eri­nar­i­an will con­sid­er the dog’s clin­i­cal signs, vac­ci­na­tion his­to­ry, pos­si­ble ex­po­sure and may per­form a rapid ca­nine dis­tem­per anti­gen test us­ing sam­ples such as eye or nasal se­cre­tions.

A neg­a­tive rapid test, how­ev­er, does not al­ways com­plete­ly rule out in­fec­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly when the tim­ing or amount of virus present af­fects de­tec­tion.

The good news is that we can pre­vent it. Vac­ci­na­tion re­mains one of our most pow­er­ful tools against ca­nine dis­tem­per. Pup­pies need a se­ries of vac­ci­na­tions be­cause an­ti­bod­ies re­ceived from their moth­er can in­ter­fere with ear­ly vac­ci­na­tion. The pri­ma­ry vac­ci­na­tion se­ries starts at 6 weeks of age with re­peat vac­cines every 3 weeks un­til 16 weeks of age. A boost­er vac­cine is giv­en ap­prox­i­mate­ly one year lat­er. One of the biggest mis­con­cep­tions is that vac­ci­na­tion is some­thing that ends once a pup­py grows in­to adult­hood; how­ev­er, this is un­true. Your adult dog should have reg­u­lar vet­eri­nary check-ups and an up-to-date vac­ci­na­tion plan. An an­nu­al vis­it al­lows your vet­eri­nar­i­an to re­view your dog’s vac­ci­na­tion sta­tus, as­sess dis­ease risk and give any boost­ers that are due.

I must em­pha­sise: if you can’t re­mem­ber when your dog’s last vac­ci­na­tion was, check the vac­ci­na­tion card. If you are un­sure whether your dog is ad­e­quate­ly pro­tect­ed, speak with your vet­eri­nar­i­an.

If your dog de­vel­ops cough­ing, nasal or eye dis­charge, vom­it­ing, di­ar­rhoea, fever, se­vere lethar­gy or neu­ro­log­i­cal signs, par­tic­u­lar­ly if vac­ci­na­tion sta­tus is in­com­plete, over­due or un­known, please con­tact your vet­eri­nar­i­an prompt­ly. If you sus­pect an in­fec­tious dis­ease, call the clin­ic be­fore en­ter­ing the wait­ing room so pri­or arrange­ments can be made to pro­tect oth­er pa­tients. Iso­late the sick dog from oth­er dogs in the house­hold un­til it has been as­sessed.

Ca­nine dis­tem­per can be heart­break­ing, so please do not wait un­til it is too late.

Un­like many dis­eases, we have a high­ly ef­fec­tive way to re­duce the risk be­fore ex­po­sure hap­pens, so talk to your vet­eri­nar­i­an about vac­ci­na­tion.

The best time to act is not af­ter your dog gets sick, but it’s be­fore they ever en­counter the virus.

Dr Kavi­ta Per­sad (Hons) is a vet­eri­nar­i­an at Lu­na Light Vet­eri­nary Clin­ic. She is com­mit­ted to pre­ven­tive health­care, client ed­u­ca­tion, and com­pas­sion­ate vet­eri­nary med­i­cine.

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