Dog owners, beware!!! The Arizona Humane Society issued a valley-wide warning about two new strain of Distemper disease, a deadly disease for man’s best friend. If you want to help protect your dog, make sure his vaccination is up to date. Many people ignore their own annual checkups and biannual dentist visits. So, it is easy to ignore the recommended vet visits. But this can be dangerous especially since Distemper disease is very easily spread among pets.

According to the Arizona Humane Society, there is not known cure for this deadly disease, which starts as a respiratory infection and spreads quickly throughout the body. Distemper spreads among dogs just as fast as the flu spreads among humans, especially in communal areas for dogs like dog parks, dog spas, and more. Typically, an increased number of cases of the disease are observed during the spring due to increases in the number of puppy litters. However, signs of the condition have been appearing much sooner and cases have spread as far away as Ohio and Georgia.  Dr. Bradley, veterinary and member of the Arizona Humane Society stated that this was not considered an outbreak as of yet, but the number of cases is noticeably on the rise.

These two new strains of Distemper are indigenous to Europe. The incubation period for these two strains is longer than for the strains that have affected puppies in U.S so far. Historically, this disease has affected young dogs that have not yet had all their “puppy” shots. However, older pets have also been diagnosed this winter.

If you suspect your dog has been infected, isolate him from any other dogs in your house and take him to the vet IMMEDIATELY.  If your pet is diagnosed with the disease, disinfect your entire house especially if you own more than one dog. Symptoms of this condition include couching, lethargy, discharge from the eye or nose, lack of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, and callusing of the nose or foot pads.

The way this disease affects your pet’s body if very interesting. Distemper is contacted through inhalation of the virus. Once inhaled, it moves to the lymph nodes. Here, it begins reproducing.  The next step for the virus is spreading to the blood and cell lining of the respiratory, urogenital, gastrointestinal, and central nervous system. There is no cure as of right now so more times than not the condition is fatal.

So remember, protect your dog and stay on top of necessary vaccinations.!!!