[Deelight]

Hi forum goers, my name's Dee and I'm new to this site.

My boyfriend and I just got a puppy from a local shelter. Her name is Your Face (yes, I'm serious, but we just call her Yuffie) and she's only about 2 months old and a mix (we think she's a German Shepard/Lab mix, but we aren't sure). Saturday night she was showing signs of a cold: sneezing, coughing, runny nose and eyes, diarrhea, depression, and she was starting to eat less. So the next morning I took her to our emergency clinic and they did their tests and we found out she has Distemper.

The shelter has been known for its break-outs of distemper/parvo, but they told us that they had given Yuffie the first vaccination immediately when she got to the shelter. We assumed since she has only been there for 13 days that she would be fine. What we didn't know, and what our vet explained, is that the vaccination doesn't take effect for about 7 days or something so Yuffie could have caught it then.

After they ran their 300+ dollars in tests, we got the bad news, but the vet said that the vaccination seems to be working so it might not get any worse than it is now. She might have some problems with her brain later, but her body is trying to fight it.

It's quite upsetting, this is my first dog since I've been living on my own and she's already so sick. I love her so much though, and I hope her body keeps fighting the distemper and she's with us for a long time.

Anyway, what really got me to post all this (it's a long read, I apologize) is that I was wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar. Some who has raised a dog with distemper, what it's like, what should I expect?

Thanks for taking the time, it's appreciated. =]

[Lunareclipse]

We had a stray dog that had distemper. He got over it with no problems to his brain. He lived for 11 years with us. So I hope your distemper case turns out like ours did. With no serious problems later.

[Deelight]

Thanks for the reply Lunar, you gave us hope. But Saturday night our baby got sick again, even worse this time, and we took her to our actual vet (the one we saw before was just the emergency clinic one) on Friday morning and he gave it to us straight. He said she wouldn't live much longer and that we should probably put her down. We decided to take his advice and took her to be put down. I regret it a lot, but all for selfish reasons. I know what we did was the humane thing to do and hope she's better where ever she may be.

[Lara's mom]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Distemper is a terrible disease. You did the best thing you could do for your baby under very sad circumstances. My thoughts are with you.

[cherylmartin]

I am so sorry for your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you tonite.

[Deelight]

Thank you guys. My boyfriend and I are already discussing getting another puppy, hopefully another German Shepherd Lab mix.

I still have to do a lot of cleaning, but the vet said if we get a 16 week old at least two of it's distemper shots we should be okay.

[dawgplanet]

she could be alergic to the the vacination shots

[Lara's mom]

For goodness sake. Don't borrow trouble!!!