A local veterinary clinic is encouraging dog owners to make sure their furry friends are up to date on their vaccines as Grande Prairie is going through a visible spike in distemper cases in pets.
According to Bear Creek Animal Clinic Practice Manager Loni Boychuk, several local clinics have seen incidences of distemper in dogs over the past few weeks, and while the disease is highly preventable with vaccination, cases seem to be spiking throughout the swan city.
“The first case that we saw come in was in a younger puppy, it was lethargic, feeling up and down for the past weeks, some days were good some days were not good, and by the time we saw it, it had stopped eating and drinking for a couple days,” she says. “From that point, the doctors suspected it could be distemper and we sent it off to a lab and they confirmed it was.”
The clinic says distemper comes in two forms- respiratory, where a pet might display symptoms like coughing, runny nose, congestion, fever, and discharge in mucus membranes like the eyes or nose, and can progress into neurological distemper where symptoms like seizures, tremors, ataxia, and ultimately leads to an “extremely poor” prognosis for the affected pet.
While the disease is highly contagious, Boychuk maintains distemper is preventable through vaccination.
“If you have specifically young puppies or anybody that’s not vaccinated, make sure they’re not out and about around town, make sure they stay home,” she says. “I would stay out of the dog park for now, but 100 per cent the best thing you can do for prevention is making sure they are vaccinated.”
Still, Boychuk says pet owners should be mindful that the disease only tends to stick around in cool, moist environments common during Grande Prairie’s winter season, so further caution in the cold weather could mean returning to the dog park with the confidence that your pooch can have fun in the sun without the worry of distemper.
“Every so often, diseases spike and then they go down, I mean Grande Prairie has always been endemic for parvo, which is another awful disease we can vaccinate for,” she says. “It’s just distemper is not something we commonly see and the fact that it’s out and about now, it just means we need a bit more caution for the short term here.”
Any resident who is unsure about their pet’s vaccination status is encouraged to call their regular clinic for additional information.
