Distemper, probably the worst ailment one has to contend with in all animals, may appear in several forms - the catarrhal, which chiefly affects the eyes, nose and air passages, the throat form affecting the membrane as in diptheretic affections, with pneumonia following as a complication, and lastly, but most fatal, the gastro-enteric form.

We will deal first with the catarrhal form; this is perhaps the most tiresome, though not so fatal. It requires much treatment and in many cases of months' duration; that is to say, the patient is usually left with weak eyes or chronic catarrh, which only good feeding and care, with bright warm weather, can cure. The first stage of the disease is usually loss of appetite, accompanied by vomiting of white froth, this more often on the first day. The eyes become inflamed and watery, the nose discharges a thick mucous. To treat the eyes see chapter on eye diseases.

Keep the nose bathed with a little warm water and grease with lanolin around the nostrils to prevent soreness.

Vaseline smeared inside the mouth three or four times a day eases the breathing and takes the inflammation from the back of the throat.

In cases where the breathing is very laboured, steam the air passages by placing the animal in a bag tied around the neck and holding the nose and mouth over a jug of hot water to which vinegar or a few drops of eucalyptus oil has been added; repeat this treatment several times a day.

If sickness continues give carbonate of bismuth every two hours, as much as will lie on a ten cent piece at each dose; make into a paste with a few drops of water and smear on the tongue; give oftener if required.

Quinine, given in one grain gelatine coated pills, night and morning, all through the disease, is very beneficial as a tonic and fever reducer, but should be discontinued if it causes sickness; then one drop of tincture of aconite three times a day may be given.

Give to drink, instead of water, Robinson's Patent Barley, made with water, not milk, and add a tea spoonful of lime-water to a saucerful; make the barley thin enough to drink and give cold; this is a means of giving soothing nourishment when all solid food is refused or disagrees; in addition to this give raw beef juice and lime-water three or four times a day with a spoon or syringe.

When the patient shows signs of recovery, feed scraped raw beef, only a little at a time, and continue the beef juice for several days. (See invalid diet.)

In case the throat becomes very much swollen and inflamed and the cat constantly swallows with a jerky motion of the head, the throat should be well painted inside with a 2 per cent. solution of Resorcin three times a day with a throat brush.

When the throat is only slightly inflamed the vaseline may be used also in conjunction with Resorcin in severe cases. Great care should be taken to prevent infection of well animals, as cats and kittens which have not already had this disease become quickly infected, the infection even being carried on the shoes, hands, and clothes of persons attending to distemper patients; if you have only one cat do not handle other people's cats, or you may spread the disease; if this complaint breaks out in one part of your cattery, do all that is possible to keep it there; let only one person attend to those which are ill, never going near the well cats, also be careful to keep all sanitary pans, saucers, etc., well away from the other cats. It is useless to isolate cats which have already been in the same room with infected animals, as they are sure to develop it later, even if ever so slightly, but those that are really very ill should not be allowed to sleep with the slightly infected ones, as such complications as pneumonia, sore throat, etc., are contagious though not infectious.

Great attention must be paid to the atmosphere in which a distemper patient is kept; the air should be clear, and fresh air admitted through an open window in which a muslin screen has been fixed, or a few inches left open, and a screen placed around to prevent draughts; and an even temperature of not less than sixty degrees or more than sixty-five should be kept.

When the fever leaves the cat great care must be taken that the patient does not contract a chill, which usually causes a relapse or pneumonia. (For treament see chapter on pneumonia.) Keep the cat in a warm bed and give warm bedding; cats which are very bad should be kept in a small division or pen, so they cannot crawl away into cold corners in the night or when the person in attendance is not present.

The gastric form of distemper is the most deadly; the first hours of sickening are very dangerous, as though highly infectious, the animal appears to be in perfect health, that is to say, unless the temperature be taken.

The eyes are bright, but the animal is in a high fever, much more so than in ordinary distemper; in a few hours it commences to vomit; you can then decide whether to chloroform or try to cure your cat, for should the froth which is vomited be a clear bright yellow colour there is no hope of the cat's recovery, and a dose of chloroform is the kindest end.

No cure has been discovered for cats with this violent form of gastritis, and if allowed to die naturally the cat succumbs in twelve to twenty-four hours. This form usually attacks cats of from six to twelve months of age and those of a light colour or whites, which are evidently more delicate in the stomach and, therefore, have it in the worst form.

The peculiar thing about this disease is, that the cat either gets the violent form just mentioned and dies in a few hours, or contracts it so slightly that in most cases it needs no special treatment beyond continued doses of quinine to reduce the fever; in saying this I am speaking about cats which have been properly fed on meat and are strong and healthy to start with. I have known cases where a whole cattery has been wiped out by this disease, but that is only when the inmates have been fed on farinaceous foods with little or no meat all their lives, and though they may look large and fat, they have no real strength to withstand disease of any kind.

Gastritis is most dangerous when a cat is six months to a year old, but I have never lost a cat over one year or under five months of age.

In the mild form white froth is vomited and the cat has excessive fever for several days; this must be reduced by one grain doses of quinine three times a day; if this cannot be given try one drop of tincture of aconite, three times a day, until the fever is reduced; care should then be taken that the cat does not get a chill; afterwards feed as directed before.

Some cats get this form so slightly that it is only noticed because the other cats are ill, that is to say, they only miss one or two meals and then continue to eat as before.

Some weeks after they have had this disease, abscesses are likely to appear, either underneath the stomach and other parts of the body, but more frequently on the glands of the throat, just under the chin; so if any loss of appetite should be noticed, an examination should be made; these lumps often partly form and then absorb, therefore they should be gently rubbed daily, and if they form a head they should be bathed with warm water daily until they break, which will be found better than lancing, as if the latter is not done carefully blood poisoning is apt to follow.

These abscesses discharge very freely after breaking, in which case they should be syringed out every day with dioxide of hydrogen or some other good disinfectant not too strong; wipe dry and cleanse outside with absorbent cotton, then sprinkle protonuclein powder well over and as far into the wound as possible. I have found nothing so beneficial as this powder for these abscesses, and the protonuclein tablets should be given internally, one three times a day.

This powder is used extensively in medical practice, and is a preparation manufactured by Reed & Carnrick, of Jersey City, but can be obtained at most of the largest drug stores.

After treating the wound for several days with the powder, being sure to syringe it first, you may discontinue this treatment and then wash off the surface of the wound with warm water and a disinfectant; dry and then grease thoroughly with crude lanolin; in a few days it will only be necessary to apply the grease.

The great point is to keep the wound open on the surface so as to allow it to heal right from the bottom; if the surface wound is allowed to heal the first few days the abscess will form again.

If these abscesses break inwardly they are apt to cause death by blood poisoning, but in strong cats they are not dangerous. If a cat is fed large quantities of finely minced raw meat to build up its constitution, it would thus prevent many of the after-effects of distemper.

Before these abscesses break the cat will not eat for several days, as the pain then is very great. The protonuclein tablets and raw beef juice should be given. When they break the cat should be kept separate, as they appear to be highly contagious.

As the wound heals it should not be kept bandaged in any way, as this annoys the cat and causes it to scratch the part affected, and therefore does more harm.

The causes of distemper are many; some seasons it is worse than others; colds, neglect, unsanitary conditions in a cattery will cause this disease, also sitting about out of doors in bad weather, overcrowding of the cattery, sending on long cold journeys or coming in contact with other cats so affected will also cause it.

Distemper is similar to influenza in people, epizootic in horses and distemper in dogs; but here I may mention for the benefit of those keeping dogs and cats that distemper and other diseases are not communicable from one to the other.