Sadly, not every dog is saved. Even with these treatments, the odds of saving a dog drop dramatically in the latter stages. Some dogs get treatment too late. Some do not respond. Here are their stories.
My neighbor and good friend Megan Kesterson told me to contact you in regards to my puppy. He is showing signs of distemper, as he has had a runny nose with green discharge for roughly a month now. At first the vet said it was just a cold, but she has begun to worry given that the symptoms have not subsided with medication and antibiotics. He has recently had trouble breathing (which I suspect could be the bacterial-induced pneumonia that I am told often accompanies distemper). Please let me know if you can help in any way. …
Ashley Cannon
Houston, TX
12/23/2010
Hello Ed,
I will apologize for the length of this e-mail ahead of time, but I am just so pleased with how the treatments worked and would like to thank you for all your help. Hachi is now 42 lbs, extremely hyper, healthy and happy. We thought he was very well-behaved when we got him, but it turns out he was just sick. Now he has finished all of his antibiotics and is enjoying life as a regular puppy. I have attached some pictures if you are interested in seeing him. One is him when we first brought him home, the middle two will show you how bad his health was by the constant runny nose, and the last is him within the last couple of weeks.
This would not have been possible without all the help that we received, so thank you very much! I am more appreciative than I could ever express.
Hector was having a happy life, until one day he started crying with pain. He wasn’t able to go to sleep or stand still because of the nervous symptoms. At nights he was screaming in pain, and the owner was in shock because he had two distemper shots before.
He was treated with NDV spinal tap on Feb. 10. Eighteen hours after the spinal tap, he was depressed but you can see that he is looking hopeful, still shaking the legs but much better.
On Feb. 16, he was much happier, alert and started putting the front legs on bed. he is again sleeping with his owner in bed 🙂
With all my best wishes
Vet Sinem Karsli Parmaksizoglu
Istanbul, Turkey
Feb. 17, 2011
Today one of my little foster puppies was diagnosed with Distemper. Being the person that I am I immediately began reading everything I could find online. Your name and Dr. Sears came up again and again. I am hoping you can give me a little advice and hopefully ease my fears. I’ll start from the beginning. I foster with a local rescue who pulls animals from the euthansia lists at local shelters. A few weeks ago a litter of 3 +/- wk old puppies came into our program. There were 9 total and I offered to foster 2 who I named Olive & Otis. They were fat little babies who took their bottles with no problem, then graduated to gruel and eventually to kibble. No problems whatsoever. They were progressing nicely both had learned to sit, were totally crate trained and had started housetraining. They went in for their shots last Tuesday when they were 6 wks and received a glowing bill of health. Then Monday I noticed Otis had eyeboogers when he woke up and sneezed a few times. So I called the vet fearing it could be the beginning of a URI. Otis was started on Doxycyclene (sp?) and as a precaution so was Olive. But Otis continued to decline and he began to have a runny nose and cough. I also noticed the nasal discharge had blood in it. So Wednesday I brought him in to see the doctor who informed me it was most likely Distemper. Otis was given the Newcastle vaccine, subq fluids and started on Zithromax. I was sent home with the fluids to be administered at least twice a day and a nebulizer to be done at least 4 times a day. I have him set up in my spare bathroom now. Every 4 hours I am turning on the steam shower for 20 minutes then nebulizing him for 20 minutes. The steam seems to help him and he perks up a little. I made him some organic chicken soup which he gobbled up. So far his bowels are good and he’s still wagging his little tail. I feel like he’s on the right path, however I am concerned about his sister Olive and my own dog Zoe. Zoe is a 12 yr old Husky who is completely vaccinated and healthy so I’m not as worried about her. But Olive is just a baby and up until the vet told us Otis had distemper they shared a crate and were together 24/7. I’m so afraid it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN and would love to hear any suggestions you have for managing 2 puppies at different stages of this horrible disease. And if you would suggest giving Olive the Newcastle even if she is not showing symptoms yet? Is there anything I can give my older dog just to boost her immune system? While I’m confident she is safe from Distemper, I’m concerned about the other things like URI she might be exposed to.
Thank you,
Cresta Rumery
Austin, Texas
Feb. 14, 2011
I wanted to send you an update on Otis & Olive. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve corresponded and so much has changed. … Olive & Otis were given the NDV at 7 wks and we’ve had really good results. Olive’s decreased appetite & activity level improved within days of receiving it and she showed no further symptoms at all. Otis had pretty severe upper respiratory issues but it never progressed into the digestive or neurological symptoms. It was as though the disease was stopped in it’s tracks at whatever stage it was in when the vaccine was given and it was just a matter of overcoming the symptoms of that stage. Olive was adopted this past week by a lovely family and is doing very well in her new home. Otis is still here with me. He is almost completely symptom free at this point the only thing we are seeing is the occasional sneeze. He is still on antibiotics and supplements but he’s improved so much over the past 3 wks it’s amazing.
…
I’d love for you to post my comments on your website. Especially if you think it will help others who are going through this feel better and give them hope to keep fighting. I only have early pictures of Olive from before they got sick since once she was in the clear I sent her to another foster. I have tons of Otis though! I’m including his before, during and after pics as well as a video of him I took the other night. The video is hilarious! Especially when you consider that for the past few days he’s been doing this every night from about 3 to 5 a.m. =)
We adopted Dexter from a shelter while he was 45 days old. The next day diarrhea started. We took him to his vet. They gave him some serum. He was fine for about the next 4 weeks. But then the spasms had started on his belly area with the crying. Our vet told us that he had parasites and the spasms are the side effects. So he started to a treatment. But the spasm and the crying got worse. So we went to a hospital. They told us that he has canine distemper and we were too late to do something for treatment. They told us to put him on sleep.
Then we started to make some research. And we found your web site, contacted Ed. He shared all the information about the Newcastle Vaccine and the spinal tap treatment.
And on 6th of July 2010 the tab treatment had been applied to him by another vet. He was so bad the following week, it was like a nightmare. Two days after the treatment, when we woke up in the morning we found him on the floor like he had a stroke. He couldn’t move even for an inch. He was urinating himself. And he was very aggressive. And for the first time we seriously thought to put him on sleep to stop his pain. But when we went to the vet we found out that he had a fever. (40 degrees) They gave him some medicine for his fever. He was up again after 24 hours later.
He had up and downs for about 4 months. We tried lots of medicine. (phenobarbitan, potasyum etc.) First his crying had stopped. Then he started to eat again. (we had to feed him for couple of weeks). But the spasms never stopped.
It’s been 7 months since the procedure. We just celebrated his first birthday last week. He is a big, happy boy now. 🙂 He still has spasm but he got used to it and so do we.
Thanks to Ed and Dr. Sears we saved our Dexter’s life.
My name is Amberley Parker. My female catahoula puppy, Phantom, 16 weeks old given a “death sentence” by the vet today. He says she has distemper, and that treating it is costly and ineffective. She has a fever of 105, she is lethargic, depressed, has diarrhea and no appetite. She threw up once yesterday morning, and twice in the car this morning on the way to the vet. They gave her antinausea meds (metoclopramide), and antibiotics amoxycillin, and baytril. He said she will probably die, but if she is alive in 3 weeks, she’ll probably live, most likely with permanent neurological damage leaving her disabled. He seemed to really be pushing euthanizing her. She has had her first round of puppy vaccinations 9 days ago, including against distemper. Please tell me how to get her treated. I live in Fort Worth, Texas.
thank-you so much!
Amberley Parker
Feb. 10, 2011
Dear Ed,
Thank you so much for your fast response! I was able to contact the vet in Houston the same day you sent me the contact info. Phantom showed her first symptoms on Sunday morning, she was diagnosed on Monday morning, I found your site and wrote you as soon as we got home from the vet, and [Phantom was treated] Tuesday afternoon. It is now Thursday morning and Phantom is doing so well! Her fever is gone and she is eating and drinking on her own. She can walk again, and she’s no longer having labored breathing or vomiting or having diarrhea. We’re still treating with antibiotics for any secondary infections, but she is feeling fine. Thank you so much for your quick response and your information which I am sure has saved our sweet puppy’s life. I know we have to wait awhile to know for sure since symptoms can reappear later, but I know we caught it very early and acted fast! I’m telling everyone about your site.
Thank-you so much! I’ve attached a pic of phantom and you can use any of our correspondence or the photo in any way you like.
We had the serum treatment back in October in the clinic in Orlando Fl that you referred us to. They sent her home with instructions to just monitor her. That if she would seizure or the twicth she had got worse and not get any better than at that moment she would need the spinal tap. Here we are 3 months later and she is over 35lbs 7 months old, extremely active and extremely intelligent. The twitch has gotten better, at times she has it a lot but she has learned to deal with it she changes positions or becomes active because that is when the twitch is not even visible. Our only concern is that when she sleeps she is a very active sleeper, she kicks her hind legs a lot and cries out, whimpers and growls… I don’t think it’s a seizure though.. Could it be that she is dreaming? Also my mother is a homeopatchic doctor in California and I treat my kids homeopathically I did some research as well as my mom and we are giving her a liquid called Cerebretik and Polypathick from a company called Soluna these remedies are given to patients that suffer from strokes or seizures and they help repair damage to nervous system. We feed her a holistic diet we give her Blue Buffalo and I strongly believe that a lot of her recovery is the serum we gave her but also the food she eats and the remedies we are giving her and the fact that she is an indoor dog. I want to thank you because if it wasn’t for your help and information on your website our Sumi ( our little lemon dog) would not have survived. I have attached 2 pictures of Sumi so you can see who you helped us save.
Thank You again for answering my email back in October.
Nalua Cuenca
COMMENT FROM DR. SEARS: Ed, very interesting case. Happy they got the serum and recovered. Chorea ! That is the twitching. Has nothing to do with the leg stretching and growling when asleep. that is dreaming. All dogs do this, not neurological. Twitching IS. However, of the neruo problems caused by distemper this is the least serious. Can go on for years waxing and waning. Only serious if one of the other manifestations takes over. Ie Seizures, ascending paralysis, ON (optic neuritis), then and only then would I recommend a spinal tap.
SAD UPDATE 2/11/2011: Darwin didn’t make it. I received this note from Amelia today: “It pains me to say that Darwin will be put down today. He developed strong epilepsy from the brain damaged caused by distemper and now his brain is pretty much fried.”
Photo received Jan. 27, 2011 from Amelia Rohrmoser
By Amelia Rohrmoser
Costa Rica
Jan. 22, 2011
We can’t tell for sure when it started but at around four and a half months our Beagle puppy was diagnosed with the Distemper virus. Despair. All that was prescribed were vitamins and fatty acids to strengthen him, which would be followed in a couple of months by euthanasia. As any pet owner knows, this isn’t a treatment one can settle on. And so the search began for anything at all that could help our pup, Darwin. A name that come to think of it now, a month and a half later, suits him quite well.
The diagnosis and symptoms
Darwin went through a variety of situations from the moment he was born. At a month and a half the little rascal thought it convenient to feed from an adult Bulldog’s plate. Big mistake, he was bitten badly, and we think, not properly treated. This happened the day before we bought him and we were given nothing but a cream to apply to the wounds by his previous owner (from a “respectable” breeder). He had a very bad bite in his tail that we noticed was getting worse and worse and so we took him to our veterinarian. After several tests and X-rays it was clear that the tail had been broken and was quite infected. Amputation of half the tail followed. Since he was with antibiotics, vaccines had to be deferred, a very unfortunate business.
Runny nose started soon enough, eye infections, ear infections. We went to the vet almost every week where he was put on antibiotics, which kept him from getting his shots. Skin problems soon followed and our veterinarian started getting suspicious. He had a lot of dandruff and so had medicated shampoo, to be applied twice a week. His hair started falling a lot and soon after he got pustules mostly in the insides of his hind legs, but also in his stomach and neck. His paws developed keratosis. He may or may not have gotten diarrhea and vomit, but we never saw signs of it and well at this point we weren’t looking for it consdering we weren’t sure what we were dealing with. You see, Costa Rica lacks a lot of tools for veterinarians to work with.
The clarifying symptom came soon after. Seizures. Not full bodied as of yet, he only got the “chewing gum” type but could hold his bowel movements. Six seizures in 24 hours. By the 4th one he could hold it and began losing control over his bowels. To say he was scared would be an understatement. We rushed him to our veterinarian where he got the 7th seizure. He was admitted and put on heavy anti-seizing medication. The veterinarian made all kinds of tests that would unfortuantely take a while to give results, but he warned us the he was almost sure that it would be Distemper.
The first test came as a false negative a week later, and he hadn’t seized ever since he came back home. We got our hopes up, but they soon crashed when he got a full body seizure. We took him straight to the National University’s Hospital, thinking they might do something more for him, it was a University after all. But alas, they could only control the seizures. They released him 3 days after being admitted, and didn’t get a seizure at all after that.
The second set of tests came soon after and Distemper was confirmed. At this point his bone structure was beginning to get affected. His left hind leg now had a second growth line and was getting deformed. He began to avoid using it as much as he could.
The seizures left behind many consequences for him. He had tremors in the top of his head, all day long. He also began with an up and down movement of the head, kind of like a bobble head toy, something he couldn’t control and that never stopped. He stopped measuring distance and depth, something that affected his walk and made it very difficult for him to eat or grab things.
Our veterinarian had seen many distemper cases before and told us that there wasn’t much to be done. He sent us some vitamins to help strengthen him and fatty acids. And a warning of soon to come euthanasia, pointing out that soon enough he wouldn’t be able to walk or eat at all by himself.
As most people tend to do, when looking for something or trying to understand it, one turns to the Internet. I came upon a website which gave some natural solutions to strengthen the immune system, being this what is in charge of fighting off the virus. Oat tincture, or oatmeal if this was too hard to find, so we began feeding him oatmeal mixed with his usual pellets. It also mentioned some vitamins and plant to get him, but we stuck with only vitamins, the plants were hard to find. Still, this wasn’t a solution to our problem.
Soon enough we were lucky to find Dr. Sears’ treatment and Ed Bond’s webpage. I soon got in contact with Mr. Bond and Dr.Sears who were kind enough to answer my many questions and help me as much they could. The Spinal Tap was what should be done for Darwin, he was way into the neurological stage. Our hopes went up once more, it was a dangerous procedure and the chances of success at this point of the disease were slim, but they were better than the alternative.
The Treatment
We contacted our veterinarian soon after that and after a week or so the procedure was scheduled. Unfortunately for us, the La Sotta strain of the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) had been erradicated from Costa Rica, and therefore nowhere to be found. All we had available was the B1 strain. After Dr.Sears’ green light we gave it a go.
The procedure went along with no complications, and the days after that as well. He stayed in the hospital for three days, for pain handling. When he was released we were told by our doctor and by the website that he would have to stay in dark room with little to no noise, for a week or so. Darwin wouldn’t have that, once he got home he got out of his dark room and started walking along, trying to go out to the sun and play. We of course, stopped him from doing so, we let him roam around the house but prevented him from his usual sunbathing. In a day or two he was active and playful, no signs of pain or discomfort were much noticed, although we knew it was there.
He got his first bath almost a week and a half post-procedure, easing our worries, he had no seizures, no noticeable pain either. He was up and running in no time.
The Aftermath
As is our poor puppy’s luck, two weeks after the procedure he got a cold and began teething, all at the same time. His appetite lessened considerably,
Photo received Jan. 27, 2011 from Amelia Rohrmoser
as did his usual active state. He didn’t want to walk, he didn’t want to play and he surely didn’t want to eat. His water consumption lowered radically, which worried us the most. Costa Rica is a very hot and dry place in January, the dehydration potential skyrockets. We started feeding him soups and canned food, and began giving him flavored saline solutions. Forcing him to drink from a needleless syringe. His weight dropped dangerously, so we got him on a dietary supplement to help him gain more body mass. Two weeks went by this way and now he is back to eating, playing and running, slowly but surely.
Now he is six a half months old and there has been great improvement in our puppy’s health, approximately one month after the procedure. His skin improved dramatically, in fact his has a beautiful and shiny coat of hair, no pustules noticeable. He can measure depth and distance now, his walking has improved and he has no problems grabbing things, or eating. He’s had no seizures, no infections and the keratosis has disappeared. His overall state has improved exponentially.
However, it seems the neurological damage was quite extensive and so the tremors remain, weaker though, than they were. The bobble head movement has also diminished greatly, but is still slightly there. His hind leg though, has been deformed and may continue to do so, the second growth line being already there. This is what troubles him the most, it hurts him to walk, he falls down a lot and it’s hard for him to stand up; but he’s a strong puppy and he doesn’t give up easily.
We’ve been doing some therapy on him to strengthen his muscles and help him with his leg so we hope, that in time, he’ll learn to live better with it. He’s still young, so we have faith that his brain will produce more connections and that eventually the tremors might disappear altogether.
Be that as it may, he’s getting healthier by the day and we can’t thank Dr.Sears and Mr.Bond, as well as our veterinarians, enough for Darwin’s improvement. We hope, that this tale of his misadventures through the Distemper Virus, will help other pet owners and give them hope, that no matter what one should never give up on them. With enough love and proper care, there is always a chance for them to get better
We received these videos in January 2011 of Puik in Istanbul, Turkey. Here are some excerpts from e-mails we received about her case from her owner, Gulcin Goker:
Jan. 1, 2011:
“We are living in a forest side of İstanbul and unfortunately there are a lot of ownerless dog in İstanbul, and they are not living in a very good conditions, especially in winter time they need help.
“I owned a dog from the forest when she was nearly 6 months old. She was very underweight, slim and since she is living in our garden she is like anorexia , not eating very well.
“She has lived with us nearly 1 month. At the beginning she had only appetite problem, after 2 weeks when the cold arrived as it’s winter time she had very deep, chronic and [full] cough …”
” … After 10 days of continuously coughing … the right back leg very small notable tick and balance problem, the veterinarian said she has canine distemper …[later] … she started to cough continuously the same day she turned back home, and within 2 days she lost all body balance , she has a tremble also in the chest and head area but she is OK with appetite even if she is really incredibly thin.
“So now what shall we do?”
We responded with information about the NDV treatments and the name of a vet in Istanbul who had performed the NDV spinal tap before. It would take a few days to arranged the treatment, which happened Jan. 7, 2011. The day before the treatment, we received the first video and the picture.
Jan. 8, 2011
“She is ok after treatment , had only the fever 1 degree more than the normal but unfortunately today Sinem noticed that she still has a tremor on the same leg.”
My response: “The idea is that the distemper virus should have been stopped by the NDV, unfortunately a lot of the damage done to the nervous system remains. It takes time for the nervous system to repair itself. Let us hope that the symptoms will subside. We have a discussion forum where others who have gone through the NDV spinal tap can share their experience: http://www.edbond.com/distemper/discussionboard/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=46cddee8bb5104bf75173332759e00d0″
I also put Gulcin in touch with another dog owner in Turkey, whose dog had been successfully treated with the NDV spinal tap: “I talked to Bezen today , thanks for the information , she shared me their story and gave me a lot of support. Today we took Puik back to home , she is strangely good , has no pain , no fever and even after the treatment she had no pain at all , the only sign that she is sick is that she has that tremor on the leg and it’s stronger than before. She has a very good appetite , she is eating very well.”
Jan. 19, 2011
“She had a seizure in complete body plus tremor on the legs during last week. 3 days ago Sinem started with some brain boost medicines with antibiotic, which is very strong on brain inflammation too. She is really very well since yesterday. She started walking, wagging its tail, eating third time a day a full plate. She still has a balance problem when she wakes up for a first step, but then she straightens up. I will send you its video.”
Jan. 20, 2011
This note came with the video: “She is going better day by day and eating really great , hope she will put on weight soon. Thanks and very best regards.” Gulcin
Aug. 4, 2011
We received new video with this note:
Hi Ed,
Do you remember Puik from İstanbul / Turkey?
I am sending you her video and some photos, and you can never imagine how she became a self confident, lovely and very brave dog.
She lives with her right front foot tremor but she used to live with it and it is not something that you can notice when she is in action, only you notice very clearly when she is sleeping but this is absolutely does not
have any effect on her life.This tremor remained the same because I found you 3 days later after the first sign of diagnosis when she had already started with this tremor so we were not able to improve it but thanks to God it is not repeated in the other feet.
On those days I was counting every single lbs she was putting on to keep her healthy and she was approximately 25 lbs but today after 6 months of NDV spinal tap treatment she is 38 lbs.
If you remember I was put her far away point in the garden then my other 2 dogs at home but after 2 months of the spinal tap with very notable improvements on her health conditions we let her come in to our home with the other 2 dogs and since that moment they are living all together very safety since 6 months and for sure they will live all together for many years.
Thanks a lot to you and our lovely veterinerian Sinem in İstanbul that Puik is alive and very healty and happy dog today.
Best regards,
Gulcin Goker
UPDATE
November 22, 2015
Hello Ed,
Do you remember Puik?
She was going to die in 2011 when she was not even 1 year old.
We have spent 5 more years together.
Here is our lovely Puik. She is the guardian of my heart and soul. She is really a guardian dog by instinct . It is also incredible that over the years she has quit with the leg tremor as well.
She has no symptoms, and I hope even no memories of those difficult days for her…
Once more thank you for what you have done for her and helped us.
I’ve sent you a video of Dena, she is the youngest (female) spinal tap treated dog. She is much better. She still has tremor, but she is happy, eats well and runs!
You can check the video. You have her previous video in the kennel.
The other two spinal tap treated dogs are also better. I will make videos of them, too.
she changes positions or becomes active because that is when the twitch is not even visible. Our only concern is that when she sleeps she is a very active sleeper, she kicks her hind legs a lot and cries out, whimpers and growls… I don’t think it’s a seizure though.. Could it be that she is dreaming? Also my mother is a homeopatchic doctor in California and I treat my kids homeopathically I did some research as well as my mom and we are giving her a liquid called Cerebretik and Polypathick from a company called Soluna these remedies are given to patients that suffer from strokes or seizures and they help repair damage to nervous system. We feed her a holistic diet we give her Blue Buffalo and I strongly believe that a lot of her recovery is the serum we gave her but also the food she eats and the remedies we are giving her and the fact that she is an indoor dog. I want to thank you because if it wasn’t for your help and information on your website our Sumi ( our little lemon dog) would not have survived. I have attached 2 pictures of Sumi so you can see who you helped us save.
