New here - Disinfecting After Distemper

redshoe

Hi all,

I apologize in advance that my first post will be so long!

At the beginning of December, we brought a dog home from the shelter. Rhett was a loving, beautiful, well-behaved mixed breed, probably golden retriever/afghan. He was instantly part of our family. He had several health issues - hookworm, roundworm, ticks, a nasty case of kennel cough, he was very matted, dirty and underweight, and in the two days since the shelter had neutered him, he had licked his underside raw to the point of bleeding. He had obviously been through the ringer, but it didn't matter. All of that was treatable, he was our dog, and we loved him. We promptly began the process of getting him well and spoiling him silly. He was perfect on a leash, and we were hopeful that he would make an excellent running partner for me (our beagle Buster's short legs and flea-like attention span make him impossible to run with). Buster and Rhett were instant buddies, and he fit right into our family with no adjustment issues at all, other than a minor and easily corrected chewing incident or two.

Not long after he came home, it became evident that Rhett had contracted distemper at some point before he was given his vaccinations by the shelter. We tried everything we could think of for him, did everything that the vets suggested and more, but of course with distemper the odds aren't good and he went downhill fast. On his last day, he had a massive seizure that caused his tongue to become caught in his teeth, and he couldn't dislodge it to get the drink that he so badly wanted after he finished seizing. We knew it was time to let him go. The day after he was gone, we got the results of his tick titer back. We weren't expecting it to be positive, but the vet ordered it as a precaution. It turned out that on top of the distemper, the kennel cough, the worms and the neuter recovery he was dealing with, Rhett also had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Our poor baby really didn't stand a chance at all.

This was a month ago. We were devastated. I've never seen anything so horrible as that disease, and I never want to again. Every dog deserves better, especially as wonderful a dog as Rhett was. We do take comfort in the fact that his last weeks were spent in love and dignity.

Now, though, we're going to give another dog a chance at a home. And we feel that since the shelter that Rhett came from is the only kill-shelter in our area, those are the dogs that need us the most, so our new baby is coming from there, too. I feel like if I can turn the situation around and give another dog a good, loving home and a chance at a happy, healthy life, Rhett's death won't have been for nothing. We have chosen a dog, a darling little golden retriever girl, and we will be bringing her home tomorrow evening. We're terrified, but so excited!

She'll have her shots, including her distemper vaccine, before she ever comes near our house. The distemper virus can only live about half an hour outside the body...at most a month, if it's kept cold. Rationally, I know it's gone from our house and yard. We've had more than one warm spell, and we keep our house warm. Still, I'm scared.

I'm planning on washing all the couch cushions this evening. The cover of the dog bed (Buster doesn't use it, but the new pup might) is going on a hot cycle with bleach, and the foam padding is getting doused with a bucket of bleach water and then rinsed out extra well. I can't do much about the carpet, I wish I could. The dog crate is getting sprayed down with bleach and rinsed, also.

I KNOW I'm being silly. I know that if she has it, she has it, and it won't be because she caught it here. I know it's theorized that virtually every dog is exposed to the distemper virus at some point during their lifetime. I also know that she probably won't get it...it's obvious that she was very well-cared for before she became a stray and wound up at the shelter. She's recently been bathed and groomed, has been worked with enough to understand and respond to all basic obedience commands and is wearing a very lovely, obviously handmade beaded macrame collar. Odds are that someone loved her enough to vaccinate her.

I guess what I'm looking for is a little reassurance, and some possible further precautions I could take (what else can I clean?!). She's scheduled for a full blood workup, including distemper test, tomorrow - to the vet straight from the shelter before she even comes home. We got a waiver signed by our vet saying she'd take responsibility for all of the post-adoption care, vaccinations and spaying that the shelter usually does. Without that, we wouldn't be able to pick her up until Friday, and we don't want to leave her in the shelter a single minute longer than necessary. The only reason we're waiting at all to get her out of there is because she doesn't officially come available for adoption until tomorrow at 10am (they were waiting to see if she would be claimed by her former family - 3 business days is all the time they get, and they haven't shown up).

Guess what time we'll be there signing the papers?? Yup. 10am!

I'd probably be doing all this even if had been a year since Rhett, instead of just a little over a month. I have a feeling I'm always going to be a little gun-shy about distemper.

Anyway. Suggestions?

Thanks,

- redshoe (mom of a 7-year old genius human boy, a well-immunized and extremely healthy beagle boy, and soon to be mom of a sweet golden girlie)

Dana1384

Please be very careful about bringing any other dog into your home now that it is infected with parvo. The virus is now all over the house. And parvo is a very hardy virus.

First throw away EVERYTHING the dog used...bed, collar, bowls, toys, chews, food.

Then, the best thing to do, sooner the better, is to wash every hard surface with bleach and water (20% bleach:water). Do not dry the surfaces but rather wash, then wipe off excess water leaving a damp surface, and allow to air dry. It is the oxidation during the air dry that kills bacteria (works like waterless hand sanitizer kinda). Anything that can be thrown into the wash machine should be washed in the hottest water possible for that fabric. Where ever possible, what cannot be washed, spray with Lysol (only that brand, no other) until damp, again do not dry, allow to air dry. The rest of the house just really clean, I mean REALLY clean...like your mom is coming to visit.


This is a quote from another member, Sorry about your past pup. I hope this helps.

mastiffmama27

She said distemper not parvo......is it the same for both?

redshoe

Sorry, I guess I wasn't real clear...it wasn't parvo, it was distemper. We're not reusing anything except possibly the bed and the crate, which are both having the snot bleached out of them as I type this (the crate's been gone over a couple of times already), and we disinfect hard surfaces pretty regularly anyway. I've done most of them again tonight, just to be sure.

Luckily, the distemper virus isn't near as hardy as parvo, and we've waited the maximum length of time for the virus to survive. Still, I think I'm going to take your advice and go bleach and lysol some more...if nothing else, I'll feel better!

mastiffmama27

BTW I use the old fashioned lysol that smells like bandaids to disinfect. We had a dog a few years back with parvo (and 5 other dogs at the same time including two pups) and thankfully he made it and no one else got sick. After learning more about the virus I hae to assume that it was the lysol that killed the virus so that no one else got it. You can usually find it at the dollar stores for about $4 and a bottle makes 9 gal of regular cleaner or 4.5 gal of hospital strength cleaner.

Puppy & Dog Forums

 

Dana1384

Sorry about that ::thump self in the head::

I would say it would be close to the same cleaning though?

mastiffmama27

Hey better to be too cautious than not cautious enough right?

Dana1384

yup, I am just happy I never had to deal with something like that.

redshoe

Thank you to both of you! I have no more Lysol and very little bleach left, but I felt better for it.

She's at the vet right now, getting vaccinated, bathed and groomed. I pick her up after work. She's a sweet girl...a little hyper, but I would be too if I had just gotten out of a place like the shelter!

I talked to the vet about my distemper concerns, of course. Here's what he told me:

1) There's no point getting her tested. If she came up positive, that means either she has it or she's been vaccinated for it already, because once a dog has been vaccinated for distemper, the titer for it will always come up positive. Either way, the only thing to do is vaccinate her and wait a couple of weeks to see if symptoms develop. And if she comes up negative for it, all that tells us is that she hasn't been vaccinated for it yet...a moot point since after today that will no longer be the case.

2) If she was exposed to it at the shelter, or at our house for that matter, the vaccine that she's getting for it today will work quite a bit faster than the incubation period for the virus. This means that unless it's been more than a week or so since she's been exposed, she'll most likely be protected even if this is her first distemper vaccine. Rhett very likely went through the first stage of distemper days or weeks before he was in the shelter...what we dealt with were the neurological effects of the 2nd phase. If our new girl is in the same situation, there's nothing we can do for her at this point, but the vet said that there have been very few distemper cases in the area lately, so it's fairly improbable.

3) The virus is definitely gone from our house after this amount of time.

So now I get to try and stop obsessing over the (remote) possibility of another dog with distemper while we deal with whatever other issues she might have that need taken care of. She's intact, so she'll be getting spayed within the next 2 weeks. It's possible she's already had one heat since she's 8-9 months old already, but we can at least catch her before a 2nd one or take care of it if she got pregnant while she was a stray. Her skin looks good, her coat looks good, her weight is normal and her teeth and gums are absolutely pristine. No signs of kennel cough...she was scratching and biting her haunches, so possibly a few fleas, but that's easily dealt with, too, and it's nowhere near an infestation if they're present at all.

Anyway, that's the update on our still as yet unnamed new baby. If you've made it reading this far, thanks!

Dana1384

Well good luck, it sounds like you are doing everything right. Make sure you post some pictures for us when you get the new pup home!

Puppy & Dog Forums