Protect Your Family Pets from Distemper

One of the more dangerous diseases that your pet can catch is distemper, which is often misrepresented as rabies. This disease is viral, and starts to attack several symptoms in the body, changing your pet's entire personality and making them unstable.

Rabies is a fatal disease, affecting the brain and nervous systems. Distemper can only be spread through animals, and not to humans like rabies. Below are some things to keep in mind when coming into contact with distemper.

Types of Animals Who Catch Distemper

Distemper is something that spreads through wild animals, and has certain symptoms you should watch for if you think an animal might be affected. A few examples of wildlife that can spread distemper include:

• Skunks
  
• Opossums
  
• Raccoons
  
• Squirrels
  
• Foxes
  

These are just a few of the wild animals that can get distemper, but these are often the most common that come up to homes and can get near homes. if you've noticed any of these animals coming closer and acting strangely, it’s important to keep them away from your pets since the disease is airborne. 

Distemper Symptoms

Some of the symptoms associated with distemper are similar to rabies, making it easy to confuse the two diseases. Some behavioral symptoms of distemper include:

• Drunk-like, staggering behavior
  
• Animals become clumsy
  
• Confusion on where they are going or what they are doing
  

There isn't much aggression with distemper, but the animals affected will appear drunk-like, staggering around and maybe even walking in circles near your home. You might notice that these wild animals seem confused, and unsure on where they are going, standing in the road, and not seemingly afraid of being among a domesticated community. 

This is not common behavior for any wild animal, and should be signs to get your pet away since the distemper can spread through the air and they do not need to have physical contact with the animal to catch the disease. 

Prevent Wildlife Access

One of the best ways to keep your pets from catching distemper is to keep wildlife off of your property and avoid passing the virus on to your pet. At Critter Guard, our wildlife control products are designed to help prevent wild animals from accessing your property. If you've noticed strange wildlife, or just want to take precautionary measures, contact us today for more information about our wildlife control solutions.