Tag: canine distemper treatment

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#distemperdogs Blog Book blog Canine Distemper

The legacy of Dr. Sears

Happy New Year, everyone!

This Wednesday, Jan. 3, would have been the 88th birthday of Dr. Alson Sears, who discovered how to use Newcastle Disease Vaccine to save dogs from canine distemper.

Sadly, we lost Dr. Sears seven months ago.

Dr. Sears wanted nothing more in life than to stop canine distemper. Although he lived to see a lot of progress made against this disease, he did not get to see his discovery of NDV serum tested in the early stages of the disease and published in a scientific, peer reviewed journal.

But we could still see that goal reached. We ask that anyone who had been helped by Dr. Sears and his treatments — or anyone who admired the man — to donate any amount, to honor his birthday and his life.

The money raised will be collected by Kind Hearts In Action and will be put towards a new foundation in Dr. Sears’ name, which we hope will someday defeat canine distemper.

In the meantime, we are also running a special promotion on the book, which will be available until Jan 7, 2024.

Thank you,

Ed Bond
project director for Save Dogs From Distemper
Kind Hearts In Action

Jan. 1, 2024

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Blog Book blog Canine Distemper

Dr. Alson Sears, lifelong veterinarian and innovator, dies at 87

Dr. Alson Sears, Jan. 3, 1936 – June 3, 2023

I received this email from Dr. Sears’ son, Skip, on Saturday:

“My Father passed away quietly at his home in Park City. 1/3/36-6/3/23. He had entered the hospital May 1, and had an aortic value replacement on May 8, he never really got a break after that. Just a slow decline. Your friendship and book meant the world to him and from his entire family, thank you. Best of luck in the future, Skip Sears”

We met in 1997, a few months after he had saved my dog’s life. As a then-reporter for the L.A. Times, I wanted to know how he did it. He was shy about having a spotlight placed on him because he had been burned in the past, but he finally agreed to an interview.

I drove up to the Sears Veterinary Clinic in Lancaster, California to have lunch with him and his wife Ruth. [Ruth died in October 2022]. He came out to the lobby to greet me. He was a big, friendly man in his early 60s with a full head of white hair. He held out his hand. “Call me Al,” he said as we shook hands. He spoke with a direct, country-wisdom, often punctuated with humor and a deep belly laugh.

This began an association with Dr. Sears that would outlast my relationship with the Los Angeles Times, my career in
journalism, our residency in California, and even the lifetime of my dog, Galen, who he had saved. Meeting Dr. Sears changed my life in ways neither of us would have expected. Either out of an abundance of politeness or a desire to give him respect, I always called him “Dr. Sears.”

We changed each other because of hope. He taught me to have hope for dogs who the experts had deemed to be hopeless. He showed me repeatedly that dogs could be saved from canine distemper. Even though he lacked the expertise and contacts to get his discovery published in a scientific journal, the plain truth of what he had found became impossible for me to ignore. More than that, I had to do something about it.

As a non-scientist, I knew I had no place in advocating for an unpublished treatment. But when a vet in Romania followed Dr. Sears’ protocols [which I had posted on my little-known website] and found they had the same life-saving properties Dr. Sears had seen, I became a full-throated advocate. Doing nothing would cause harm. Doing nothing meant letting dogs die when I knew at least some of them could be saved.

Dr. Sears and I then spent years working together to record what he had done to the best of our abilities and spread the word about his treatments. More dogs were saved than lost, but the ultimate goal had always been to see some scientist put his NDV serum to the test to determine its effectiveness in saving the lives of dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of the disease. Then, the hope would have been to see those results published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

That would have been the most reliable path to acceptance. I believe that would have ultimately saved the lives of most dogs.

That still has not happened. He always knew it would be a long road to acceptance, a destination he likely would not reach in his lifetime.

“You know what? I’m going to be long gone by the time
that this is accepted by my profession,” he said with a laugh in 2011. “I don’t expect it to be accepted within the next 10 years, OK? I’ve been playing with this for 50 years, and I still can’t get them interested. It boggles my mind.”

But in the years since we began our campaign, something else did happen. People began to have hope that their distemper dogs could be saved. They became more willing to try new techniques and more vets became more willing to support new treatments. Some dogs lived simply because the extra care gave them the time to eventually beat the virus. Some dog advocates have begun to push for further scientific research into how and why distemper dogs survive. This is all useful and encouraging.

But I still hold out the hope that someone will do a full and proper study of Dr. Sears’ NDV treatments and tell the world in no uncertain terms what they have found.

Rest in peace, Al.

— Ed Bond

Find out about the Save Dogs From Distemper book

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#distemperdogs Saved Dogs

Coal’s story

Barbara Bias and Coal in 2017

Excerpts from the book “Save Dogs From Distemper: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears”

Page 368 (2014) …

” … On Dec. 21, I received an email from Debby Simms of Huntington, West Virginia, about a dachshund/Basset hound mix named Coal she was fostering from a local shelter. ‘He tested positive for distemper on Dec 15,’ she wrote in an email copied to her friend Barbara Bias. ‘He is still eating and eliminating. He was first diagnosed with kennel cough and then began losing weight.  The return visit and testing gave the result of distemper. I have been researching on Internet and found you. If you know of a vet near West Virginia please let me know.’ 

They took Coal to Ohio State a couple days later, but that only confirmed the dog had neurologic distemper. The school refused to consider the unpublished NDV spinal tap treatment, so I encouraged them to contact Dr. Harkin and get into his study. 

‘Coal has had the treatment!’ Debby wrote on Jan. 2. ‘We were so impressed with Dr. Harkin and the med student … We will let you know as he improves. We can not thank you enough!!’ … “

Page 372 …

” … According to a post she submitted to the website for the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, WV, Barbara Bias took Coal back to Kansas State for a follow-up evaluation on April 17, 2015, and had been told he was disease-free. ‘Coal’s new life began Jan. 2, 2015, and now a year later he is celebrating his New Year as a very active and happy 2-year-old doggie,’ Barbara wrote in the post … “

Page 405, The Epilogue …

“… Barbara Bias wrote with a cheerful update on Coal.

‘Coal is a very happy and active dog,’ she wrote.  ‘He loves to race around the living room couch playing with his toys.  I love him very much. Thank you for everything you did for him.  Thank you for helping my friend Debby Simms find the right place to take Coal.  Dr. Harkin at Kansas State was very happy with Coal’s improvement.’ “

Coal celebrating the holidays in 2017

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Blog Book blog

Stories of survival video

Here’s a video of some of the dogs included within the pages of “Save Dogs From Distemper: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears.”

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Project Carré

Project Carré

The goal of Project Carré had been to see the NDV treatments published in a veterinary journal. The idea began in May 2011 as a response to the criticism that we needed to document “good records of both the positive and negative outcomes” of the NDV treatments. We had previously attempted to gather this information from participating vets, but with little luck because veterinary clinics are often not geared to keep records for that purpose. Asking vet clinics to look up records after a dog had been treated with NDV didn’t work. By the time we reached them, they moved on to hundreds of other cases and had not kept track of the NDV cases. We collected broad numbers, without consistent diagnosis and the occasional short summaries. 

What we needed was to work with a veterinary clinic ahead of time, get them ready with the NDV serum before treatments and help them document and collect the information on the cases. That opportunity happened at Mountain View Veterinary Clinic in Woodlawn, Virginia, which found itself in the midst of a distemper outbreak in October 2011.

The clinic staff contacted Kind Hearts In Action and reported treating as many as 45 puppies with canine distemper. Later, I collected the case files on 32 of these case files in which the NDV as IV treatment had been used. All but five of those puppies survived.

In December 2011, Mountain View agreed to make the NDV-induced serum as part of Project Carré to document the treatment of distemper dogs and their outcomes. I was able to visit the clinic twice in 2012 and collected the records on 6 cases in which dogs diagnosed with distemper via lab tests were treated with NDV serum. Four dogs lived and two died.

I would have continued to document more cases but ultimately I ended the project for two reasons:

• I’m a journalist, not scientist. I know how to collect stories, but I don’t have the skill set for science. After consulting with a professional medical writer, I learned that the records I had gathered were not detailed and consistent enough to stand up to the scrutiny of a veterinary journal.

• Two university professors began their own studies into the NDV treatments. Professor Ken Harkin at Kansas State ran a study of the NDV spinal tap after a dog in the neurologic stage of distemper recovered after that treatment. A professor at another Midwestern university also ran a small study of the NDV-serum on dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of distemper. From what I had heard, those results were also promising.

It appeared my efforts to document the treatments were redundant and less likely to be successful. So I decided to shelve Project Carré and wait for the outcome of the university studies. Instead, Kind Hearts In Action helped refer cases of neurologic distemper to Kansas State and occasionally helped with travel costs and veterinary expenses when possible.

The Kansas State study ran from 2014 to 2016. After some promising results in early cases, Dr. Ken Harkin ultimately concluded that the NDV spinal tap — injecting Newcastle’s Disease Vaccine directly into the spinal canal — did not help in the recovery of distemper dogs. But he also believe we give up on these dogs too early. The disease can and does go into remission on its own, he said, so dogs can survive neurologic distemper with enough nursing care.

The professor who studied the NDV serum never published the results of his study and we had never been told why.

More details of this story are in the book: “Save Dogs From Distemper: The Impossible Cure of Dr. Alson Sears,” which will be available through Amazon Print On Demand and Kindle Direct Publishing soon. We maintain the hope that these treatments will be submitted to scientific studies and we predict that if the NDV serum could be tested on dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of distemper they would show faster recoveries, few cases reaching neurologic stage and fewer deaths than the traditional supportive therapies.

The records as collected from Mountain View Veterinary Clinic are included in the book and I am also posting them here: MountainViewDistemperRecords.

So today, my message to anyone who loves dogs:

• Not every dog can be saved from distemper, but more dogs are saved when their owners and vets are willing to give them a chance.

• If your dog has not reached the neurologic stage, I believe the NDV serum is the best chance at returning your distemper dog to health. I say that as a non-scientist, non-vet, but also as someone who has worked on this issue for more than 10 years. The value of the NDV serum has not been proven through a scientific study, but I believe it could be with enough distemper dogs, resources, participating vets and support from a foundation and/or university.

• If your dog is the neurologic stage, you don’t have to give up on them. Some vets will still use the NDV spinal tap, but there are other treatments even if you don’t want to go that route. So long as you can keep a dog eating there is usually hope. Dogs that can’t or won’t eat often don’t make it, but there are ways to help a dog eat. Dogs in persistent seizures, complete paralysis or in pain may be considered for euthanasia. As I write in the book: “I will never quarrel with an owner who chooses to spare their dog further pain. Sometimes the disease does strike too quickly and with devastating power. Euthanasia is a blessing in those cases.  However, in many occasions, we are dangerously ignoring to our need to learn.”

• A shelter with an outbreak of distemper does not have to “depopulate” to prevent the disease. There are techniques to identify infectious cases, prevent the spread of the virus and treat sick dogs without endangering healthy ones. For more information, check the research by the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida.

In September 2018, Dr. Harkin sent me replies to some questions I had, which are being published in the book. Here are some excerpts:

Q: If the NDV spinal tap is not beneficial to dogs in neurologic distemper, is the conclusion that these dogs would have recovered on their own?

A:    No, I do not believe the NDV spinal tap is beneficial and I do believe that the dogs that recovered would have recovered on their own.  I had a few clients that wanted to come for the study that I convinced to not have the treatment done.  Two of those dogs went on to recover completely with nothing other than good supportive care at home.  I know that clients report “improvement” in the symptoms after the treatment, but when they returned here for their recheck I did not appreciate significant improvement in any of them.  Maybe there was fractional improvement, but nothing I wouldn’t have expected with time.  I do suspect that the NDV vaccine when given intrathecally does cause a transient inflammatory response in the central nervous system (spinal cord, specifically).  I think that was manifested in several dogs with significant discomfort/pain that prompted the use of codeine or other analgesic therapy.  It is my belief that this inflammation blunts the repetitive firing of the nerves responsible for the chorea (distemper myoclonus).  I think that’s why clients see an improvement but I don’t.  …

Q: Nilla had been scheduled to be euthanized two days after Clark Audiss first contacted me. The vet would have euthanized on that Monday. Instead, she got the spinal tap on Tuesday, and her vision began to return on Thursday. If Nilla was simply going to have a spontaneous recovery on her own, do you think it possible we are giving up on these dogs too early?

A: I had three dogs that did not have myoclonus: Nilla, Coal,  and one other dog.  Nilla was the most severely affected.  Both dogs recovered completely.  Is it possible that the NDV works in a small subset of dogs?  I suppose that’s possible, but I doubt it.  I think both dogs would have recovered without any therapy.  They showed evidence of demyelination and it’s likely that remyelination was happening but that’s a process that just takes time.   Early on every dog I saw had a very inflammatory CSF (cerebrospinal fluid), but then post-NDV it would be normal, so I thought the NDV was inducing remission.  But, then I had a bunch of dogs that presented with  CDV-encephalitis that had completely boring CSF samples, just like the dogs that were post-treatment.  It’s just that none of those dogs had been treated.  I think the disease can and does go in remission.  Interesting, Nilla developed myoclonus long after she left here and recovered.  She didn’t have it originally.  That myoclonus also eventually subsided.  I think we are giving up on some of these dogs way too soon.  I have also worked with a shelter in Denver that has saved a number of these dogs with nothing other than good nursing care.

Copyright © 2020 Kind Hearts In Action Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Canine Distemper effective

Report on effectiveness of NDV treatments

en español

Statistics compiled by Kind Hearts In Action between December 2008 and February 2016.

NOTE: To clarify a couple of issues that have been raised, I’d like to make two points: 1) At no time do we call this a scientific study. This is just a report of numbers I have collected over the years. I understand this is nothing more than anecdotal information. We do not claim here to have proven there is a cure for canine distemper, but we think it would worthwhile to see a full study done. However, we do not have the means to conduct one ourselves. 2) As I say elsewhere throughout the website and on every email I send out, I am not a veterinarian, a doctor or a scientist. I never claim to be one. I do this as an attempt to get the veterinary and scientific community to at least look at this possibility fairly. — Ed Bond, July 2016

“I’m sorry, but your dog has distemper. You should have him put to sleep.”

This is what dog owners around the world are told far too often. According to the experts, distemper is an incurable disease from which few dogs survive. Euthanasia is the frequent course of action.

But we’d like to show you some facts that we hope will give the experts a reason to think again. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dogs could be needlessly dying of this disease every year.

Since December 2008, Save Dogs From Canine Distemper, a project of Kind Hearts In Action, has been tracking the effectiveness of a treatment discovered by a veterinarian in Lancaster, California. Dr. Alson Sears could not get the veterinary community to listen to him when he first discovered NDV-induced serum in the early 1970s. But now, our numbers support – if not yet prove – Dr. Sears’ claim that distemper is curable.

We do not claim here that we have proven this cure, but we consider these treatments to be at least encouraging and worth further investigation.

We have received reports from 23 vets who have used NDV to treat distemper dogs. Of those, 15 vets used NDV-induced serum in the early stages of the disease, and in 86 percent of those cases, the distemper dog survived. Dog caregivers — owners, fosters and rescuers — tell us that 70 percent of distemper dogs were saved by one of the treatments developed by Dr. Sears using NDV — Newcastle Disease Vaccine.

These numbers were compiled from e-mails from dog caregivers and from a survey of vets using the NDV treatments. These statistics support our position that if dogs can be treated within four to six days of the onset of symptoms, the majority of these animals can be saved. Our position is also supported by a study conducted in Korea in 2003, which is included below. However, the survival rate also relies on getting a fast diagnosis, on having a supply of serum available, and in successfully treating the dog for the opportunistic diseases — such as pneumonia — that usually accompanies distemper.

History

Dr. Alson Sears, a veterinarian in the desert community of Lancaster, Calif., discovered how to use Newcastle Disease Vaccine (NDV) as a treatment for canine distemper in the early 1970s . The basic principle of the treatment is to use the NDV as an inducer to prompt a reaction in the dog’s immune system that can create a material to kill the distemper virus. The protocol for making the serum is available here.

Dr. Sears reports treating more than 600 dogs for canine distemper during his years as a practicing vet. He says that dogs infected with the distemper virus treated before going through the sixth day of showing symptoms had a survival rate in the high 90s. Dr. Sears was not able to get his discovery published. He retired in 2006.

However, his treatment had been made available on the Internet since May 2000 [http://www.edbond.com/distemper.html], and some vets have followed his treatments and theories with successful outcomes. Today, the NDV treatments include the NDV-induced serum, the NDV as an IV injection to the body and the NDV spinal tap, which is for dogs in the neurologic stage of distemper.

With a treatment that had been discovered in the early 1970s and available on the Internet for nearly 15 years, the question has often been raised about why more conclusive information has not been published before now.

This is because:

  1. After his discovery, Dr. Sears ran into overwhelming disbelief about his treatments. “Son, that’s impossible. Sit down,” he was told when he tried to explain his discovery at a veterinary conference. He was not given the guidance needed to properly document the treatment.
  2. He lacked the resources and ability to get his work published. When he contacted major universities about his discovery, he was told he would have to pay $500,000 to have a research project conducted. As a simple, clinical vet trying to meet the expenses of running his clinic, he had no way of paying so much. So, he remained quiet about his discovery for decades.
  3. While his treatments were posted on a website in May 2000, the Save Dogs From Distemper project did not get started until December 2008. We have compiled these preliminary statistics on cases treated since then in the hope that this may be useful to researchers.

How this report was compiled

The data for the report comes from two sources:

  1. Veterinarians using NDV
  2. Dog owners, caregivers or rescue groups.

Every case reported to us has been included in our statistics. We are not selective in compiling our information.

Kind Hearts In Action contacted veterinarians using NDV with either a mailed survey, through the Internet and e-mail and sometimes by phone. They were asked:

  • Do you use NDV to treat canine distemper?
  • Do you use NDV serum?
  • How many dogs have you treated with NDV serum?
  • How many of those dogs survived?
  • Do you use NDV in an IV?
  • How many dogs have you treated with NDV in IV?
  • How many of those dogs survived?
  • Have you used the NDV spinal tap?
  • How many dogs have you treated with the NDV spinal tap?
  • How many of those dogs survived?

For this survey, the diagnosis of distemper relied on the judgment of each vet. Very often, the dog owners did not want to pay the additional expense of a lab test. So, the vets often would make the diagnosis based on their experience, the apparent symptoms and in the context of whether they were in the midst of a distemper outbreak. The reports from owners and dog caregivers was largely tracked by e-mail.

Because the means of diagnosis is inconsistent, we do not claim that these numbers prove canine distemper can be cured. Our work to prove the effectiveness of these treatments is not done. But we gathered these numbers as an attempt to give a sample of what is happening around the world. We hardly think that all distemper cases are being reported to us, and very often we are told that the cases we do know of are just a handful of examples out of a population where dogs are dying in overwhelming numbers.

Very often, much of the resistance about Dr. Sears’ theories comes from the conclusion that vaccination alone has the problem of distemper under control. While vaccination is essential to fighting this disease and we strongly encourage all dogs to be vaccinated, the numbers of cases that have been reported to us show that distemper is still a problem. Shelter outbreaks, exposure from wild animals and unvaccinated puppies allow the disease to continue.

It would be useful if a U.S. or international agency took on the role of compiling reliable statistics on how many dogs are dying of distemper. The veterinary community may not even fully realize how big the problem of distemper is.

Still, we feel these numbers at least show that there is hope. If this treatment can be published and accepted in a veterinary journal, we believe the lives of countless dogs can be saved.

We offer a prediction: If Dr. Sears’ NDV serum treatment for dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of canine distemper could be put to the test by approved scientific methods they would dramatically outperform the survival rates of traditional veterinary medicine. The result would be faster recoveries, fewer cases reaching the neurologic stage, a decrease in long-term symptoms and more distemper dogs surviving.

Any vets who have information about dogs they have treated with NDV-induced serum are asked to e-mail Ed Bond at ed.bond.new.york@gmail.com. These statistics will be updated as we receive further reports.

Report on outcomes from veterinarians

According to 23 veterinarians who have reported outcomes to Kind Hearts In Action, 611 dogs infected with the distemper virus have been treated with at least one of the NDV treatments. Of those, 442 survived (72 percent). Fifteen of these vets reported treating 305 cases with the NDV-induced serum of which 265 survived, for a survival rate of 86 percent.

It is important to note that 150 of these dogs were treated in 2010 with NDV-induced serum by a Houston area vet as part of Project Hope. They report that of the 150 dogs that were treated with NDV-induced serum, 90 percent survived – 135 dogs. Combining these numbers with the efforts of other vets, Project Hope reports saving nearly 200 dogs from canine distemper.

The other cases include 162 dogs that were treated with NDV as an IV injection, of which 111 survived and 144 treated with NDV spinal taps of which 66 survived. Two of the surviving dogs treated with NDV as IV in Puerto Rico were also treated with NDV-induced serum.

In one of the spinal tap cases, a vet in South Africa injected the NDV-induced serum in the spinal canal — instead of the straight NDV vaccine — and that dog lived for about five years (put to sleep in October 2016).

Vets who had reported on the effectiveness of the treatments were from Florida, Texas, California, Virginia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Turkey, Israel, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Mexico, South Africa and the Philippines. One vet in the Los Angeles area reported treating five dogs with NDV as IV, but did not learn the outcomes of those cases. Another vet in Southern Florida reported having used NDV on distemper dogs 27 times since 2009, but did not have the reports on outcomes available. These cases where the outcomes were unknown have not been added to the totals from the vets.

Report from Korea

A study on the effectiveness of the NDV-induced serum was also conducted in Korea in 2003. According to Dr. Kim Hee-Young, DVM, MS, PhD, the senior researcher for the Korea Animal Blood Bank, that was when he discovered the website about Dr. Sears’ treatment. He reports:

“In 2003, 102 dogs (from 12 vets) were diagnosed by ELISA as Distemper infection. Of them, the 54 dogs (52 %) were recovered completely on the check-up 6 weeks after the Sears treatment. In Korea, the success rate of conventional treatment in cases confirmed as Distemper (ELISA) was usually lower than 8 %.”

Dr. Sears’ serum has been available on the inventory of the Korea Animal Blood Bank since 2004.
 [http://board-1.blueweb.co.kr/board.cgi?id=vet20&bname=news&unum=14&action=view]

Dr. Kim Hee-Young writes:

“We have used Sears plasma (serum) in Distemper cases and found it works wonderful. … But, cases more than 5 days after symptoms or with neurological symptoms did not show any improvements. Some of the vets reported deterioration after injection. Thus, we don’t recommend to use it in cases which had shown distemper symptoms more than 4 days.”

Report on outcomes from dog caregivers

Since December 2008, dog caregivers — owners, fosters and rescuers — have reported the outcomes of 1062 distemper cases to the Save Dogs From Distemper project. Of these, 768 dogs with distemper were treated with an NDV treatment and 541 survived (70 percent survival rate).

This includes:

  • 316 of 383 distemper dogs treated with serum that survived (82 percent).
  • 123 of 160 distemper dogs treated with NDV as an IV injection that survived (76.8 percent)
  • 102 of 225 dogs with neurologic distemper treated with the NDV spinal tap that survived. (45 percent)

There were also 294 cases that were not treated with NDV, of which 69 survived. (23.5 percent.) Also, 64 cases initially thought to be distemper were later diagnosed with a different disease. Of these, 51 dogs lived and 13 died. These were not included in the 1062 cases listed above.

On Nov. 8, 2011, a dog owner from Monterrey, Mexico, reported that her puppy died shortly after being treated with NDV-induced serum. She wrote that before the NDV-serum treatment, another vet had also treated the puppy with a variety of treatments including Zylexis. After the death, the vet told the owner, “It was a shock MAYBE because of the serum mixed with the Zylexis.” Zylexis, which is used to boost the immune system of horses, is not part of Dr. Sears’ protocols.

Additional photos, videos and owner testimonials of dogs successfully treated for canine distemper are available at https://kindheartsinaction.com/

If you have additional reports to share with us, please e-mail ed.bond.new.york@gmail.com and we will update these numbers as we receive them.

Conclusions

If anything, the numbers above show that distemper can be a treatable and survivable disease. Even without using NDV, about 23 percent of dogs can survive the initial infection of distemper. However, those dogs that do survive without treatment often have done so through the extraordinary efforts of the owner or caregiver. Such dogs often survive with neurologic problems, damage to teeth, organs and other issues. But these dogs are also at risk to continuing and advancing neurologic problems that may lead to death later on.

The timely use of NDV can greatly increase the odds of survival and limit the damaging effects of the distemper virus. According to caregivers, the overall survival rate for dogs treated with one of the NDV treatments is 70 percent. According to vets, the overall survival rate is 72 percent, but that climbs to 86 percent when considering only those cases treated with the NDV serum before the onset of neural problems.

According to Cornell University’s Wildlife Health Lab, canine distemper “is often fatal with a mortality rate of 50% in adult dogs and 80% in puppies.”

Our position continues to be that treating with the NDV serum before the dog goes through the sixth day of symptoms is the most advantageous way of treating distemper. The report from Korea recommends treating within four days of symptoms, and that also seems to be a reasonable goal. The sooner a dog can be treated, the better.

As to why these treatments work, our theory is that the NDV causes a reaction within a dog’s immune system that produces a previously unknown material or group of interacting materials, that is able to neutralize the invading virus. However, finding the answer would require extensive scientific research, most likely including a mass spectometry comparison of NDV serum against untreated dog serum.

The IV injection of NDV does exist as an option for treating distemper if the NDV-induced serum is not available. The NDV vaccine can be acquired and given to a sick dog as an IV injection very quickly. So, many dogs have been saved that way, and it spares the dog owner from an agonizing delay as they would have to persuade a vet to make the NDV-induced serum with a donor dog.

However, the problem with giving the sick dog a straight injection of the NDV is that recovery relies on the animal’s immune system being strong enough to create the needed response to fight the distemper virus.

NDV as an IV injection may save a dog or puppy:

  • If the immune system is intact.
  • If it is older than 12 weeks.
  • If it is not a pure breed known to not have a response to NDV. This should not be the primary way to treat dogs, but might be used if the NDV-induced serum is not available.

If the dog’s immune system is strong enough, this material can be made from the NDV injection and save the animal. If the immune system is too damaged to respond or if the dog is of a breed that does not make the needed response, the straight NDV IV injection will not save the dog.

According to Dr. Sears, breeds that do not have the needed response to NDV include:

  • German shepherds
  • poodles
  • Irish setters
  • Gordon setters
  • English bulldogs
  • Shar Peis.

For puppies younger than 12 weeks, the best option to save them is to use the NDV-induced serum before the neurologic stage of the disease.

It has been with vets who already have the serum on hand that the most success has been seen. The timely diagnosis of distemper in dogs is also critical in saving lives. This is why Dr. Sears came up with a quick and reliable test for distemper by checking the cells of the bladder in what is called a Brush Border Smear.

Dr. Sears was able to save dogs at a rate in the high 90s because he was able to quickly identify distemper cases and treat the dogs before the narrow window of opportunity closed. Similarly, the vet in Houston was able to save a large majority of dogs because of the ability to treat dogs quickly with a readily available source of serum.

However, the use of the serum does not guarantee that a dog will be saved. Distemper often opens the door to opportunistic infections such as pneumonia. Vets and caregivers have reported that even though they saw distemper symptoms reverse after NDV treatment, the dog died of pneumonia, another disease or medical problem. Dr. Sears has written a protocol of recommended treatments to give dogs an improved chance of survival.

As to the NDV spinal tap, it may offer some hope for the owner of a distemper dog that has gone into the neurologic stage of the disease. However, the chances of survival are less than 50 percent. For some of these dogs with neurologic distemper, they were saved because the caregivers put in extraordinary effort and intensive nursing care in addition to the NDV spinal tap.

From 2014 to 2016, Kind Hearts In Action helped a professor at Kansas State do a study on the NDV spinal tap, and he reported back that he did not find it beneficial. He thought it might help a dog who was dealing with paralysis issues but he didn’t have enough of those dogs to be sure. What he said was that he did not see any real improvement in dogs with myocolonus, also called chorea.

But he also says that we give up on these dogs too early and many can survive and have a decent quality of life if they can get enough nursing care over a period of a few months to outlast the initial attack and let the virus go silent. Long term neurologic problems may continue, but these may be managed with drugs, hydrotherapy (physical therapy in water) and other treatments.

Here are some additional notes from Dr. Sears on measures to take after the NDV spinal tap.

Further information is available at https://kindheartsinaction.com/

We invite any reasonable, skeptical inquiries into this report.

Ed Bond
ed.bond.new.york@gmail.com
Kind Hearts In Action
Feb. 13, 2016

UPDATE JANUARY 2019: A study of the NDV spinal tap at Kansas State University has concluded. Comments by Dr. Ken Harkin are included in the book. You can read an excerpt along with an update on the book project here.

Copyright © 2016 Kind Hearts In Action Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Categories
Canine Distemper

Why I care about canine distemper

I care about this disease because:

1) We lost two puppies in a row to distemper.

2) The next year, another dog of ours, Galen, also came down with distemper, but was SAVED because of the NDV-induced serum discovered by Dr. Al Sears.

3) Even though this serum has saved dogs AROUND THE WORLD, it has not yet been accepted as a treatment by the veterinary profession.

4) Until this treatment is accepted, dogs will NEEDLESSLY DIE of this disease.

Please send our videos and website to your friends or anyone who cares about dogs.

It all depends on you.

Thank you,

Ed Bond
Kind Hearts In Action

Categories
Canine Distemper

The Brush Border Smear

en español

The symptoms of the early stages of distemper include:

  • Gunky/runny nose
  • Dry eyes
  • Dry/cracking nose
  • Dry/cracking pads of feet
  • Vomiting and diarrhea
  • Fever

However, not all dogs get all of these symptoms, nor do they get them in any particular order. And there are other diseases that can easily mimic distemper. The problem is that by the time the vet sends out samples to a lab to check for distemper antibodies, the disease will have advanced too far for the NDV-induced serum to do the job it is designed to do. Dogs must be treated with the serum before going through the sixth day of symptoms to give the animal the best chance of survival and to avoid the neurologic stage of the disease.

You need a diagnosis, but you also need to act fast in case this is distemper. Dr. Sears recommends sending blood samples to the lab anyway, but still to treat immediately as if it is distemper because if you’re right, you have saved the dog. If you’re wrong and it is not distemper, the NDV treatment does not harm the dog.

From Dr. Sears:

“The best test for rapidly diagnosing ACUTE distemper is to do what is called a brush border smear of the cells of the lining of the bladder. These cells ALWAYS have inclusions if distemper is present. So, easy to collect, easy to stain (quick dip) and instantly diagnosed inclusions in these cells are carmine red and para nuclear. These inclusions will NOT be present in long term distemper cases.

“Any medical person can tell you how to get cells from the bladder. Urinary catheter. Empty bladder, flush with saline and collect some of the last saline. Spin down the saline and remove the cells. Place on slide and dry stain with diff-quick. Very common stain used by most medics or lab people who use medical microscopy. Everyone? I should hope so. Very fast, very cheap, very accurate for Dx of distemper. If present then Distemper. If negative, then either Kennel Cough or Respiratory Herpes. or Toxoplasmosis.”

BREAKING NEWS: On Oct. 11, 2011, a much more reliable lab test for distemper was announced, which can tell whether distemper antibodies are caused by an active infection rather than from a recent inoculation. This would probably still take a matter of days to get an answer back, but it would be a way of confirming the disease after the dog has been treated.

UPDATE AS OF JUNE 2020: I’ve been hearing lately that distemper test results can be returned much faster with today’s technology.

Copyright © 2011 Kind Hearts In Action Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Categories
Canine Distemper FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

en español

Based on our anecdotal information, here is what we generally believe is, and is not possible with the NDV treatments for canine distemper.

 

NDV-induced serum

May save a dog or puppy of any age, but has to be used within 6 days of onset of symptoms. (Before going neuro.) A 90 percent survival rate is possible.

 

NDV as an IV injection

Might save a dog or puppy IF the immune system is intact, IF it is older than 12 weeks, and IF it is not a pure breed known to not have a response to NDV. This should not be the primary way to treat dogs, but might be used if the NDV-induced serum is not available.

Neither of these can help the nervous system, so when a dog gets to the neural stage there’s the …

NDV spinal tap

Has a nearly 50 percent survival rate. A professor at Kansas State who studied this treatment is not convinced that it helps. However, it may be that if given enough time and care many of these dogs can achieve a decent quality of life. Long term neurologic problems may remain, but may also be managed with drugs and physical therapy and other options.

But remember, even in the best of circumstances, distemper doesn’t play fair.

Here’s the rest of our FAQ …

Will these treatments save my dog from distemper?
It depends on whether your dog can be treated fast enough. Dr. Sears recommends that a dog be treated within six days of seeing symptoms. Unfortunately, many dog owners do not find out about this treatment until it is nearly too late. And often if the treatment is delayed too long other opportunistic diseases can set in. By then, even if the distemper symptoms are reversed, the dog could still die of the other diseases. In medical science there are no absolute guarantees, but if a dog is treated quickly and properly with Dr. Sears’ protocols, we believe there is an excellent chance of recovery.

How do these treatments work?

We don’t know the full story, yet. But here’s a possible explanation: The treatments are based on the Newcastle Disease Vaccine (NDV). Newcastle Disease is something that infects chickens. The vaccine was designed to give chickens immunity from the disease, but in the dog something else entirely happens. The Newcastle Vaccine may create a response within the dog’s immune system. We believe this is a previously unknown material or group of interacting materials that is able to neutralize the invading virus. We don’t know how or why, but it works and it works quickly, often within 24 hours.

What are the symptoms of distemper?

Distemper is often seen in two stages. In the first pre-neurological stage – before neural problems such as tics, twitches, spasms, seizures and paralysis – you may see hardening of the pads of feet, dulling of the eyes, mucous in the nose, coughing and respiratory trouble. Distemper attacks every system of the dog, so the damage is happening everywhere and there are symptoms you may not see. It can attack the stomach and make your dog vomit. For a while it may not attack the nervous system, this is because of the blood-brain barrier. However, it will eventually attack the oligodendrocytes,  which controls the production of myelin. With the destruction of the myelin sheath that protects the nerves, the neurological stage begins. The neurologic problems could be seen as chorea – a kind of involuntary twitching and shuddering – as well as a loss of balance, chewing gum seizures – which look like the dog is trying to chew a piece of gum – to a full-body shaking and convulsions. Since other diseases may mimic the symptoms of distemper, your first step should be to confirm that your dog has the disease. Your vet can take a blood test for you, but by the time you get the results back the dog may be too sick to help. We recommend you get the blood tested anyway, but then treat for distemper without waiting for the results. Then later if the test does come back positive for distemper, you know you have saved your dog. But Dr. Sears has come up with a faster test called the Brush Border Smear.

My vet prescribed antibiotics and fluids. Won’t this cure my dog of distemper?

Sadly, no. Antibiotics and fluids are supportive therapy. The prevailing wisdom in veterinary medicine is that there is no cure for canine distemper. The vet prescribed the antibiotics not as a way to fight the distemper, but to prevent other opportunistic diseases such as bacterial pneumonia from attacking the dog. This makes sense, though. Distemper knocks down the immune system, allowing these other diseases to attack. So, even with the NDV treatments, you should pursue aggressive treatment with antibiotics. However, antibiotics do nothing against the distemper virus itself. The fluids are another supportive strategy that can help, but this is still part of the traditional approach of trying to control the symptoms and waiting to see if the dog lives or dies. Most dogs die without the NDV treatment.

So, what kind of treatment will save my dog?

That depends on how old your dog is and what kind of symptoms you are seeing. If your dog is pre-neurological, your  dog might be treated with Dr. Sears’ serum. Unfortunately, the serum may not be available or you may not have enough time for a vet to make the serum. In this case, if the dog is old enough — more than 12 weeks — and has a strong enough of an immune system, an injection of the NDV vaccine may save the dog. Some dogs recover that easily. But this is not as reliable as the serum, and you won’t know for sure that it will work until you try it. If the animal is too young a puppy or has a compromised immune system, you will need to use the serum. If the dog is neurological, then the treatment is an injection of the NDV vaccine into the spinal canal. This allows the treatment to attack the distemper virus that is destroying the nervous system.

How did Dr. Sears discover his serum?

Dr. Sears discovered the serum when he was a practicing veterinarian in Lancaster, California. After being overwhelmed with distemper cases, Dr. Sears tried a variety of possible treatments, but none worked. Then, he read an article in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association of a study that showed Newcastle Disease virus could boost levels of Interferon in cats. [Here is an example of an article on the NDV studies in cats. Click for PDF ] He thought it worth it to try the same procedure in dogs, but made a mistake and did not withdraw the blood serum at the same time as reported in the article. With the change in timing, the serum he created did not have Interferon. Tests from Cornell University confirmed that his sample did not contain Interferon. However, before he got that result back, he had already treated a distemper dog with the serum and it completely recovered. Obviously, some other new material or combination of materials had saved the dog’s life. But Dr. Sears does not know what that material is.

What is Dr Sears’ serum?

The serum is created by using a donor dog, which is injected with the NDV vaccine. The donor dog’s immune system is triggered to create a disease-fighting material, which is still unidentified. But at a crucial time, blood is drawn from the donor. The serum is separated from this blood and then can be used to save a dog in the pre-neurological stage. The NDV-induced serum does not include the NDV virus. If used within the first six days of symptoms, the serum can stop a dog from ever having seizures.

Is the donor dog hurt?

No. When done properly in a veterinary clinic and monitored by a vet, the creation of the serum does not hurt the donor dog.

Can I use this to treat my dog without a vet?

No. These protocols are meant to be used by vets treating their sick patients. You should not be treating an animal on your own and without veterinary guidance. If your vet is not interested in using these treatments, contact us and we can make a referral to a vet who is.

But why doesn’t every vet use this treatment?

Because this is not taught in veterinary schools, and it is not yet published in a veterinary journal. It has not yet been accepted by the veterinary community. But that doesn’t mean it is not valid. We believe this is a previously unknown ally in our battle against disease. And it was discovered by accident, by a simple veterinarian in a California desert community, not at a major research facility or university. In the 1970s, Dr. Sears tried to present his discovery to a veterinary conference in Las Vegas, but he was told to “sit down, that’s impossible.” So, he sat down and then spent years quietly saving hundreds of dogs from this disease. His work drew no attention until it was published on a Web site in 2000, and it has only been in the past couple of years since his retirement that other vets have quietly picked up his work. We understand the reluctance of vets to try these treatments. They have not yet been proven or published yet. But we are gathering statistics on their effectiveness. It will be a long road before these treatments attain publication and acceptance. But we are working toward that goal. We have faith that this will happen eventually.

But this is so wonderful. It’s a miracle cure, isn’t it?

Whoa. Don’t get ahead of yourself. If the dog is treated within six days, there is an excellent chance of recovery. But so many people find out about these treatments late.  This is not  a resurrection technique.  It cannot save a dog who has been on the brink of death for weeks and return them to health. And with the spinal tap treatment for the neurologic distemper, you must remember that the seizures usually do not go away immediately. Sometimes it takes days, weeks, months. But remember, there is always the danger of pneumonia and other diseases that can kill your dog. Also, please realize that every dog will react to this differently, just as they react to distemper differently. Factors that can affect the outcome include age, the strength of the immune system, neutering, loss of T-cell function and the genetics of the virus and of the vaccine. Even under the best of cases there will be those who do NOT respond. We aren’t promoting a miracle, but we can offer hope for distemper dogs.

What happens if I don’t get my dog treated within six days?

Then you are likely to see the neurologic phase begin.  There still is hope for your dog, but the odds of success start to drop. Dr. Sears says that when he was in practice, the survival rate of dogs treated with the serum within six days of symptoms was in the high 90s. But so many dogs do not get treated in time and go into the neurologic phase, and the serum cannot help neurologic symptoms. The spinal tap might help, but the survival rate for dogs treated with the NDV spinal tap is about 50 percent. The longer you wait, the more the odds of survival drop. And a professor at Kansas State who studied the NDV does not believe it is beneficial. However, many dogs who reach neuro stage of distemper have a chance to achieve a reasonable quality of life even with good enough nursing care.

And who are you?

We are Save Dogs From Canine Distemper, a project run by Kind Hearts in Action, a nonprofit based in Los Angeles to rescue and find homes for stray dogs. The project director for Save Dogs From Canine Distemper is Ed Bond, whose dog, Galen, was saved by Dr. Sears in 1997. When Galen’s story was first published on the Internet in 2000, Dr. Sears finally posted the protocol for his NDV-induced serum.

How do I order the serum?

The serum cannot be mailed or shipped within the U.S., but vets can make the serum in their clinics, store it there and treat dogs brought to them.  We do not sell any veterinary product ourselves. And it is up to the vet clinics themselves to decide how to reach out to the public.

What other diseases in dogs does the serum treat?

According to Dr. Sears, it has also cured dogs of herpes. It may have a beneficial effect on dogs with canine influenza. However, that depends on what strain of the virus that is attacking. However, we know for certain the serum and the NDV treatments do NOT cure parvo.

Tell me more about Dr. Sears

Dr. Al Sears was born in the Canal Zone of Panama. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Davis and spent 40 years practicing small animal medicine in Lancaster, Calif. He retired in 2006. More information: http://alsears.wordpress.com/

So, who is Ed Bond?

Ed Bond is the project director on canine distemper for Kind Hearts In Action, a 501c3 charity in the U.S. He also runs a group of websites on behalf of Dr. Sears. He became involved in this issue after his dog was saved from distemper by Dr. Sears in 1997. He has been an activist for this cause since December 2008, when he started the Save Dogs From Canine Distemper cause on Facebook. He now manages information about Dr. Sears and his treatments on Facebook, WordPress, Twitter and YouTube, as well as a discussion board on neurologic distemper. However, he is not — and does not claim to be — a vet, a scientist, a researcher or an expert. He is a former journalist, using the tools of media and the Web to spread the story about Dr. Sears and his treatments, as well as documenting the outcome of as many distemper cases as possible. Ed Bond can answer many questions about the NDV treatments as Dr. Sears has explained them to him, and most of the information needed to use the treatments are on these websites, which are reviewed and approved by Dr. Sears. However, when questions become too technical, Ed will refer you directly to Dr. Sears or to another vet. More about Ed Bond.

DOWNLOADABLE FILES

Copyright © 2014 Kind Hearts In Action Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Categories
Canine Distemper Saved Dogs

Mater gets to be a puppy again

Here is Mater today. You wouldn't know that Mater had gone through this and was a couple of days from being put down to avoid the misery of distemper.

Here is Mater today. You wouldn't know that Mater had been a couple of days from being put down to avoid the misery of distemper.

This is Mater.

Mater already has an interesting tale to tell at the tender age of 6 months, but only because of Kind Hearts in Action, we are able to show the above picture just two weeks after he was diagnosed with canine distemper.

We picked up Mater from the local animal shelter already malnourished with little hair on his ears due to a fungus.  Except for a missed case of some worms, we figured it wouldn’t

Here's Mater when we picked him up from the shelter. We were happy to find him. My son named him on the way to the shelter even before we saw him.

take much to bring this pup around and make him a part of the family.  He made a quick impression.  He bonded immediately with us and his older brother, a pound mutt we have had for 12 years now.

A week after we brought Mater home, I noticed that he was developing a dry cough.  Our initial thought was kennel cough that was picked up before he left the shelter.  We let it go for a couple of days before I took Mater to our usual vet.  He expected it to also be kennel cough and prescribed some antibiotics and anti-cough medicine to take over the next 2 weeks.  One thing he did mention that I didn’t pay much attention to was that it could be distemper.  I probably should have listened a little more intently, but he didn’t seem to emphasize it too much.

I went away that weekend for a business trip.  On the day before I came back, my wife mentioned that Mater wasn’t really eating much anymore, was very lethargic, and looked even skinnier than before!  I told her to get him some soft food, as his throat was probably sore from his coughing spells.  He was probably tired from the medicine he was taking.  We hoped.

Upon returning from my trip, just a week after the coughing had started, I started fearing the worst- distemper.  Mater rarely left his kennel, would only eat a few mouthfuls of food, and had lost over 10% of his already low body weight.  I knew that I needed to see the vet the next day.

Driving to the vet, I wasn’t sure that I would even be able to bring Mater home.  He didn’t want to move much and only perked up to go outside for his breaks.  The vet didn’t have to look for long before telling me that Mater had distemper.  He could run tests, but he had seen this enough times to see the symptoms- crusting nose, gunky eyes, non-productive coughing, loss of weight, sensitivity to light, and so on.  There would be no saving Mater if this was true, but just in case it wasn’t distemper, I was given a different antibiotic to treat the developing pneumonia free of charge.  I could tell the vet felt sorry for what we were about to go through.

I went home pissed off!  This dog had endeared himself to us.  His personality was perfect, he had had only one “accident” in the house even while deathly sick although this was the first house he had lived in, and he was a fighter.  I had to find some videos of other dogs that went through distemper to see just how bad it would get so I would know how soon to put Mater down.  The first few videos were terrible.  I could tell that I would have to take Mater back to the vet in just a couple of days just so he could avoid the attack on his nervous system.  He had already had the respiratory symptoms for about 8 days at this point so he didn’t have much longer until twitches and seizures would set in.  The last video I looked at piqued my interest; it was of a pair of dogs that were taken to a vet in New Mexico for treatment of distemper.  One of the dogs lived, one died.

With visions of an overnight drive to New Mexico already racing through my mind, I watched the movie clip to see a seemingly easy procedure done to save a dog that had distemper.  Fortunately for Mater and me, there was a website address at the end of the video that saved me the drive- kindheartsinaction.com.

It was already late in the afternoon so I quickly skimmed what I could to see if this was a legitimate website.  If my vet said that there is no cure, then there is no cure.  This had to be some type of scam.  Against my better judgment, I emailed Mr. Ed Bond for some info on any local vets.  An email came back within minutes with the name of a local vet.  Yep, a scam, but I was dealing with a dying puppy.  I decided to call the vet.

The lady on the other end of the phone seemed patient enough with me when I asked her about treatment for distemper.  She, in fact, talked about it like it wasn’t necessarily a big deal.  I tactfully brought in my final question, “How much?”

I laughed at the answer!  Not because of the high cost but at the ridiculously low cost.  I jumped at the first available appointment the following afternoon.  My hope was that Mater would make it through the night and wouldn’t develop any symptoms that would show that the virus had entered his nervous system.

Mater did make it through the night and to the vet’s office.  The vet explained what I had already read through on the website.  Mater would need 3 serum injections, 12 hours apart, and some more penicillin for the respiratory infection.  Mater’s white blood cell was in the normal range, a good sign.  I told you he was a fighter.

At home, we waited for my wife to come home from work.  She thought that Mater already looked livelier although it would take 24-36 hours to get back to normal.  Mater’s next serum shot would have to be done by us in the middle of the night.  To make a long story short, we visited an urgent care clinic at 4 in the morning where a nurse offered to inject Mater out of the kindness of his heart, as we weren’t the best at getting just under the skin.  Even better would be the next injection where I was the only one around.  I got lucky and it went right in.

My wife arrived home from work a couple of hours after the last serum injection.  With nervous anticipation, she called out Mater’s name.  Joy rang out as Mater ran around the corner towards her already on a fast path to recovery.  This was the same day I had originally set aside to put Mater down after the last visit to my regular vet when I was told that there was nothing that could be done.

It has been less than two weeks since Mater received his treatment.  He is back to being a puppy- chasing the ball, chewing on my slippers, wagging his tail by the door when he needs to go outside.  I bet Mater feels fortunate to be here.  I know we feel fortunate to have Mater here and to be able to spread the word that there is a treatment for distemper.

Craig Blackburn
Feb. 20, 2012

Mater's first bath, the day after we picked him up.