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The heaviness

The recent article in Time magazine by Naomi Osaka: ‘It’s O.K. Not to Be O.K.’ was a welcome reminder that we all need to take care of our mental health. It’s an issue I needed to deal with in writing my book, and I’d wager it is something that everyone who fights to save a distemper dog must be aware of. We all need to take care of ourselves even when trying to help others.

Just received a new box of these books, first published a year ago.

In the spirit of sharing and lifting the stigmas of mental health, I’m sharing some of the excerpts from the book “Save Dogs From Distemper: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears.” These are struggles we all have.


[The first excerpt is from spring of 2013 …]

“For me, the daunting problems also fueled another issue I had been grappling with. At this point, I walked with cane and
my foot in either a cast or a special boot. I had not regularly
exercised since the injury in January 2012. Looking back at
spring of 2013, I’ve come to realize I also had an undiagnosed
injury: clinical depression.

“This book is supposed to be about canine distemper, but
the depression does play a small role in the story. Since I believe
that stigmas about mental health issues need to be dispelled, I’ll
try to talk about it briefly and without being … depressing.

“Compared with many others, my experience with depression created only a temporary setback. My case is more
like receiving a sharp injury that took a while to recover. More
like that injury to my foot in the marathon.
That foot injury had plagued me for years. By continually
using my foot, the tendon could not recover. The point of the
surgery was to repair the damage so that the foot could heal
and get stronger. The mental injury also needed to be repaired
so recovery could happen.

“The mental injury happened in the spring of 2010 when
both my journalism and teaching careers had ended. In my
brain, I had shrugged at this turn of events. ‘I’ll find something
else.’ After all, this was possibly a chance to pursue my fiction
writing. I was also glad to have the time to devote to a cause I
cared about.

“But even though my brain shrugged, my emotions had
their own reaction. Letting go of both of those careers had been
a big blow to my identity. For 25 years, I had either been a
journalist or a journalism teacher.

“Simply put, I was sad. This did not surprise me. No big
deal. People have sad things happen to them all the time, and
much worse than what I had. For example, Amy lost her dad
and her sister within six months. So, my career setbacks do not
come close to what she went through. However, a counselor
later explained to me that after about two years, the sadness I
still felt could change the chemistry in my brain. This makes it
difficult to attempt tasks.

“For anyone who just says depression is “all in your
head,” they are right. It is. But that doesn’t mean it is not real or
that you can just “get over it.” Back in the 1980s, Rodney
Dangerfield had a bit in his comedy routine where he talked
about “The Heaviness.” He would say, “The heaviness is
always there.” Now, I understand what he was talking about.
Tasks and goals now came with an extra weight. I could feel
them grow heavier as I approached them, as if slogging through
a tar pit. Anxiety and self-esteem problems also go along with
depression. It took great effort to make phone calls, and
receiving phone calls from people I didn’t know or expect sent
me into a tail-spin.

“Makes it difficult to be an advocate for a cause. I had fallen a long way from what I had been at the L.A. Times.

“As I write this, my feet are stronger than they had ever
been. I can walk barefoot without pain. I can run or walk for an
hour or more. I just played a game of badminton on my brother-in-law’s front lawn IN MY BARE FEET! And just as my feet
could be fixed, so could my brain. The damage to my brain
chemistry has been adjusted, and the heaviness has gone away.
But diagnosis always comes first, and in spring of 2013,
diagnosis remained more than two years away.”


[This next passage is from fall of 2014, when my buddy Jeff visited and I realized I had depression.]

“By the end of his visit, I realized I was happy. From that, I finally understood I’d been depressed for a long time, probably since the end of my journalism and teaching careers. To be honest, the thousands of emails I’d received about canine distemper also deepened the depression. More dogs were saved than lost, but many were lost. In the past five years or so, I’d received photos and videos of sick, dying and dead dogs from all over the world.

“Even though I always explained up front to people that I
am not a vet or a doctor and could not possibly diagnose their
dogs for them [something that cannot happen over email] I still
got copies of lab reports and close-up photos of dry paw pads,
dry eyes, poop, diarrhea and rashes. Sometimes owners would
send me videos of operations, dogs in seizures, dogs spasming,
shaking and scared. Photos of dead dogs on blankets, pillows
and next to shallow graves landed in my Inbox.

“These owners needed to send these videos and photos
because they were scared or grieving. They needed to express
what they were going through and know that someone else
understood without judging or blaming them. When our puppy
Selkie died back in 1996, the vet who euthanized her
admonished us afterwards, saying that we should make sure to
get our next puppy vaccinated. That still pisses off Amy, the
assumption being we had done something wrong to kill our
puppy. We’d taken Selkie to our vet immediately for a checkup
and vaccinations after adoption, but she had already been
exposed.

“When a dog gets distemper that is not the time to
admonish the owner. A distemper case does not always mean
vaccination was neglected. The veterinarian and staff should
remember that vaccinations do not always work, especially if
the dog is somehow immune compromised. They should at
least ask about the dog’s vaccination history before leaping to a
conclusion.

“For whatever reason the dog got infected, it happened.
It’s a fact that must now be handled. Do what you can to protect
other dogs from infection. Most importantly, what you do have
is a patient sick with a disease. What can be done now? The best
time for the vaccination lesson is before (or at least when) the
dog is adopted. If it is clear the owner of a distemper dog did
miss the lesson on vaccination, you might find a compassionate
way to let them know before they get away. But while I have
your attention right now: Always get your dogs vaccinated!

“When someone writes to tell me their dog died, I
sometimes tell them I still remember what it was like to have
puppies die of distemper. Sometimes I skip that part because
not everyone feels the loss the same way. So, it’s arrogant to
assume you know what they are going through, how long the
pain will last or whether a new pet will make things better. In
my replies to these emails, I usually say some variation of ‘I’m
so sorry for your loss. Distemper is a nasty disease that does not
play fair. It is a terrible way to lose a good friend and family
member. My hope for you is a future with happy, healthy
dogs.’

“When I write these condolences, I remind myself of the
joy of the dogs who have lived and the hope that someday
perhaps dogs will no longer have to die of this disease. That’s
what kept me going.

“The other weight that added to the depression was the
unremitting silence. The unanswered phone calls and emails.
The vets and scientists who refuse to even consider that
distemper is a problem worth solving or that a solution is
possible. I am aware of the dismissive criticisms online. I have
no standing within the veterinary or scientific community, so I
understand. Were I in your position I might say the same. But
the universe gave me a choice: Do nothing and dogs would
certainly die. Do something and perhaps some could be saved.
Do something, and maybe canine distemper would stop being
such a deadly disease.

“So in December 2008, I chose to do something. I chose to
try. I made that choice because I don’t like dogs dying when
they don’t have to.

“Recognizing the depression broke the hold it had over
me. I quickly realized the anxiety and self-esteem issues that
came with it and began to deal with those. When I felt dread as
I approached a task, I recognized what was going on and fought
to overcome it. In the next few months, I gradually got better
but I would eventually decide I did not have the power to
completely defeat the depression on my own. I’d need a little
help.


[This passage is from a year later when I finally went to get help.]

“A blog post on another website changed my life for the
better. Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek:
The Next Generation,” had posted a video online describing a
panic attack he’d had at an airport. In that moment, his wife
helped him realize he had a mental health issue. In his video, he
explained how those with depression, anxiety and other issues
could get help.

He helped me realize that although I had come a long way to climb out of the depression, I couldn’t quite get all the way out of the hole without a little help. So, I went to counseling. The counselor had me get a prescription from my doctor. With the medication, counseling, much longer walks with Romeo at night and the music of Brandi Carlile, I began to climb out of the hole. Brandi taught me to feel joy despite the regrets of the past and to not let others tear me down.”


Today I believe I have overcome the bout with depression. I have learned to believe in myself because others believe in me. As Naomi Osaka says, you can’t please everyone. I have learned to see the truth and value of those who would criticize me. I try to learn and grow from that point of view, but without letting it tear me down.

— Ed Bond

Here’s a PDF of the pages I quoted from the book:

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Blog Book blog Canine Distemper

Additional reading

Dr. Peter Cook connected with me on LinkedIn and sent me some additional research on ways that the distemper virus may affect humans:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/brb3.1920
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9701477/
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#distemperdogs Blog Book blog Canine Distemper

A message to the future about canine distemper

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Blog Book blog

Help will always be given

Here’s an excerpt from my book “Save Dogs From Distemper: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears.” As an ordinary guy in Horseheads, N.Y. — not a scientist, vet, doctor or scientific researcher — I have pushed this cause as far as I am able. But if anyone would want to pick this up and pursue it further, this is my best advice to you. At minimum, three individuals would be needed to work together as a team to advance this cause:

• A veterinarian

• A medical writer / science writer

• A dog rescuer, preferably the head of a rescue group or shelter.

If anybody does pick this up, I would be willing to offer advice. Most of what I have to say is in the book and on the websites, but as Dumbledore told Harry Potter, “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”

You can reach me by emailing ed.bond.new.york@gmail.com or message the Save Dogs From Distemper Page on Facebook.

– Ed Bond


What’s Next

… My best way to help now is offer advice and insights to anyone else who would take up this cause.

Saving Dogs: The Next Generation

            You might call the anti-distemper campaign in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s as “Save Dogs From Distemper I,” with a goal of identifying the cause and developing the first vaccine. They largely succeeded but also closed the book on developing treatments for dogs after they fall ill. The campaign of “Save Dogs From Distemper II” began on Facebook at the end of 2008, with a goal of demonstrating the need for a treatment and to prove NDV could save dogs from this disease. That goal had not been met, but the campaign did identify some of the issues that must be overcome. However, I would also point out that the first campaign raised more than £8 million in today’s value. My campaign operated on barely a shoestring budget.

            It is now time for “Save Dogs From Distemper III,” a concerted effort to test the contending treatments that are now emerging to determine which offers the best benefits and chance of survival for distemper dogs. The message has to get out that distemper does not have to be a death sentence. That’s a fact many are now realizing, but Dr. Alson Sears knew decades ahead of anyone else.

            I’ve often told dog owners distemper is a nasty, terrible disease that is difficult to defeat and does not play fair. In writing this book, I have learned how true that is. Our enemy kills dogs without creating a massive outcry. Defeating that enemy requires an increase in public awareness and scientific curiosity.

            Clarifying where we are:

·      The NDV spinal tap MIGHT have a benefit in some cases, depending on the type of neurologic problems present. However, the main investigator on this procedure is doubtful.

·      The NDV serum or NDV as IV treatment before the onset of neurologic problems MIGHT save the lives of these dogs, but it would take a very large study to establish that and eliminate all the factors. A university researcher has reportedly taken a closer look at the NDV serum but has said nothing publicly and it is unknown whether anything will come of that.

·      Despite the development of a distemper vaccine in 1950, dogs continue to get sick and die of distemper. So more work remains to be done.

·      Some agency needs to be tracking how many cases there are and what the survival rates are in the populations at large. In some places, like Los Angeles County, canine distemper is now locally required to be reported. But there is still no one keeping track of the overall picture. If the public knew how big a problem a canine distemper is around the world, there may be more of a push for research.

·      Even if NDV does no good, then many dogs are recovering and having a decent quality of life after a distemper attack. [Nilla, Coal, Max, Icy, Kaliber, and many, many others.]  Ordinarily, those dogs would have all been euthanized. If time is all that was needed to save them, we are giving up on dogs way too early.

·      Save Dogs From Distemper ran into the limitations of a social media campaign. The power of social networking can only go so far. But as I say, you don’t know if something will work until you try.

·      More education is needed on the diagnosis of canine distemper cases. Despite the recent shifts to giving dogs a chance to live, some clinical vets still shrug and say they can’t know for sure they have a distemper case until the neurologic stage begins – or that they can’t do anything for the dog except to euthanize.

Action plans

            For anyone willing to pick this up and run with it, I see two possible paths. The smallest, simplest plan for an interested veterinarian, shelter or rescue group has already been explained by my friend Jim Radke:

·      You’d need a budget of at least $10,000.

·      A veterinarian would need to make the NDV serum and document the treatment of dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of the disease. Each case would be confirmed by a lab test, although treatment would not wait for the results of those tests. That’s about half your budget.

·      That veterinarian would need to hire a medical writer ahead of time to ensure that the measurements are properly made and scientific procedures followed. That’s the other half of your budget.

·      The medical writer would compile the information into charts and presentations that the veterinarian would take to a conference.

·      The veterinarian would have to be willing to stand in front of a crowd of skeptics and explain what they did and what results they found. But they would have good records, lab reports and stats to back them up.

·      Most in this crowd will not believe this, but perhaps a handful might be willing to talk about what happens next. Then, who knows?

            But what if all the resources needed were available? What could be done to prove the value of these treatments beyond any doubt? To meet all the requirements of a well-designed study? To address all the questions from the skeptics? As I worked through the various drafts of this book, I received an unexpected invitation to apply for a program that funds lifesaving ideas for animals in need. Although my application was not selected, it allowed me to think about what the ideal study might be like.

            While working out those ideas, I came upon the ancient story of Odysseus and Argos. After being away for 20 years – fighting in Troy and then lost in his eponymous ordeal – Odysseus returns home in disguise to defeat the suitors who were seeking to marry his wife. On his way up to his house, he encounters the dog he left behind, Argos. After two decades, Argos had become old, tired, sick and flea-infested. The dog recognizes his master and is barely able to wag his tail in recognition before dying.

            Looking back, I realized my journey has been more than 20 years, and dogs with distemper still wait for an effective treatment for this disease. But as Galen did in his final days, dogs will endure much pain and suffering on behalf of their humans. It is time to repay their loyalty.

            Even though my proposal was not chosen, it helped me clarify what was needed, but I welcome amendments by whoever picks this up. Here is what I wrote, with some minor revisions:

The Argos Trial

Because dogs have waited long enough

Prediction: If Dr. Alson Sears’ 12-hour NDV serum treatment for dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of canine distemper could be put to the test by approved scientific methods they would dramatically out-perform the survival rates of traditional veterinary medicine. The result would be faster recoveries, fewer cases reaching the neurologic stage, a decrease in long-term symptoms and more distemper dogs surviving.

Double-blind study

Two batches of dog serum would be made, each enough to treat 20 adult dogs. One would be made following Dr. Sears’ protocols for 12-hour NDV induced serum. The other would simply be dog serum with no special treatment given. The vials or bottles of serum would be labeled and coded so that no one would know which was which until after the trial was over. A sick dog would be treated from only one batch or the other. No mixing of batches.

Healthy dogs would not be given the disease. Instead, we would find distemper cases as they occur in veterinary clinics, animal shelters and among rescue groups. Ideally, investigators would find a large number of sick dogs in one location. However, this will probably require the need to travel to the site of outbreaks, ensure data is collected properly and treatments performed consistently.

The risks and possible outcomes will be explained to owners or caregivers of dogs involved in this study, and they would need to sign forms granting informed consent.

In addition to at least one veterinarian, the project would need a  medical writer or a professional trained in collecting scientific data. They would either write a journal article or prepare a presentation for a conference. Other staff may be needed.

When a sick dog is identified, these would be the steps taken:

• Complete record of symptoms, overall health and description of the dog including age, breed, color, size, weight, temperature, etc.

• The owner or caregiver should be reminded of the importance of documenting the outcome throughout the treatment.

• Samples taken to test for distemper, mostly likely conjunctiva smear sent to a lab for PCR testing.

• If possible, additional samples may be taken to actually measure the number of virus particles at the onset.

• All standard protocols of supportive therapy of a distemper dog would be followed in each dog. This would include antibiotics and nebulizers for pneumonia, efforts to stimulate the appetite to keep the dog eating and addressing other symptoms as they arise.

• The dog should be within the first 6 days of the onset of symptoms and NOT be in the neurologic stage of the disease.

• The dog would be treated with serum according the to the protocol:

1 ml per dog plus 1 ml per 10 lbs, 12 hours apart for 3 treatments.   So, 20 lb dog would be 3 ml sub Q  12 hours apart 3 times. [or to say it another way, within 24 hours: At 0 hour, 12 hours and 24 hours.]

• Observation and documentation of symptoms of the dog in the following days/weeks.

• Follow-up distemper testing and checking virus particle levels as appropriate.

• Measures could be taken to permanently preserve samples of the virus and blood serum.

• Photos and videos taken at regular intervals from intake to at least the end of the first month of illness.

• Documentation of outcome, either the death of the dog or complete record of symptoms, size, weight, temperature, etc.

Any dogs who reach neurologic stage would NOT be automatically euthanized. We believe that even in this stage many dogs can eventually recover with proper nursing care. If a dog keeps eating, there is hope. If a dog no longer can eat, or if seizures become unstoppable or the dog is paralyzed to the point of complete immobility, euthanasia could be considered with the consent of, or at the direction of the owner/caregiver.

Someone should perform a mass spectrometry comparison of the NDV serum and the control serum to see whether a unique compound could be identified.

One other thought and/or question: Since humans can donate plasma without losing blood cells, could NDV-induced serum be collected from dogs in the same way? It might allow for more serum to be collected with even less of a risk of shock to the donor dog.

A few words of advice

            BE SKEPTICAL           

            Doubt until you see verification. Don’t oversell the possibilities. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t let enthusiasm overcome the skepticism, let the facts do that.  Respect the scientists. Their brains are hardwired for this. They don’t want emotion to muddle up their results, which is why they keep people who are not trained scientists at arms length. But I have to believe that if you stay with the facts, you have a better chance of being listened to.

            BE HOPEFUL

            But you should also practice what I call “cautious optimism.” There is a worthwhile goal here. This may prove to save the lives of dogs and spare their human families untold grief. If anything, we might be able to show the mortality rates in distemper cases can be significantly reduced. According to Cornell University, the death rate is now at 50 percent for adult dogs and 80 percent for puppies. The chance to save a lot more of those dogs makes this worthwhile.

            BE PATIENT AND UNDERSTANDING

            Know that the people who contact you are often in crisis. They need your support and compassion. Don’t throw blame at people. Sometimes vaccinations fail. It doesn’t matter as much how the disease happened. What is important is what they need to know and what they need to do at that time. Promote vaccination whenever possible, but without the guilt trip.

            BE RESPECTFUL

            Respect the veterinarians, the clinics and their staff. If they do not choose to use these treatments, they have good reason to. They have to make the best judgment for the long-term health of their patients, clients and staff. One bad decision could end the business and leave everyone without the care and services they provide, so many will not be willing to make a leap of faith on your behalf. They have a business to run and they must calculate the costs, benefits and risks in a way that works for them.

            BE HONEST

            Be honest to the humans desperate to save their canine friends. Make sure they understand the risks. Not every dog can be saved, but more are saved when their owners and vets are willing to give them a chance. Don’t take advantage of anyone desperate to save a pet. Don’t pretend to be something you are not. Don’t use terms like “miracle cure” or make guarantees. Explain the realities as well as you can. But remember that unless you are a veterinarian, you are not an expert. Reading this book does not make you an expert. Writing this book does not make me an expert. These are serious medical procedures meant for veterinarians who have assessed the risks and benefits and are willing to proceed. This is not a way for people to treat their dogs at home without going to a veterinarian. 

            BE ACCEPTING

            Don’t chase people. If a dog owner or vet or scientist does not want to hear about the treatments for canine distemper, accept that. Leave them be. Instead, let the willing and interested find you on their terms.

            STAY SANE           

            Save your sanity. Don’t let the cause take over everything. Don’t miss out the big moments of your life. Seek balance and other interests. Give yourself distance and a way of disconnecting when you need to. Don’t hold onto the frustration, the losses and disappointments. Let them go. Be grateful for what you have and try not to despair over what you do not.

            Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

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A history of canine distemper and the search for effective treatments

[Based on research and excerpts from “Save Dogs From Distemper: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears”]

By Ed Bond

The battle to save dogs from canine distemper has been complicated by historic problems in identification and diagnosis, recognizing the cause, developing an effective vaccine, finding effective treatments and understanding how and when a dog with distemper can survive. By unraveling these problems, we may see the value in studying emerging treatments with a goal of significantly increasing survival rates.

History of the virus

            Edward Jenner, the English physician who documented the first cowpox vaccination against small pox, made remarkable progress on the first problem of identification and diagnosis in 1809 when he wrote the first scientific paper on canine distemper and established it as a disease separate from rabies. When the hounds of the Earl of Berkeley fell ill, he studied them carefully because of an incident in his youth.

            He wrote:

“It may be difficult, perhaps, precisely to ascertain the period of its first appearance in Britain. In this and the neighbouring counties, I have not been able to trace it back much beyond the middle of the last century; but it has since spread universally. I knew a gentleman who, about forty-five years ago, destroyed the greater part of his hounds, from supposing them mad, when the distemper first broke out among them; so little was it then known by those the most conversant with dogs.” (Jenner 1809)

            While scientists and veterinarians had confused various outbreaks of dog disease throughout history as the possible origin of distemper, it turns out Jenner had not been too far off in his description. Modern researchers have determined the disease did begin in the 18th century, but in South America, not in Europe.

            A paper published in the International Journal of Paleopathology in March 2019 used modern methods to determine canine distemper evolved as a mutation of the measles virus in South America during the period of European colonization.[1] The Spanish explorers brought diseases like measles and small pox to the New World, and these viruses became unwitting allies in the conquest of the Americas.

            The modern researchers point to an outbreak of canine distemper around Quito in 1746. Native populations of dogs almost disappeared during the period of European colonization in an epidemic similar to that ones that devastated the native human population.

            The new virus made its way to Europe. In 1760, 900 dog deaths were reported in Madrid on a single day. By the mid-1760s, the disease had reached Great Britain where a young Edward Jenner, then a teenager and apprentice surgeon, would witness one of the first outbreaks.

            The horror of rabies – also known as hydrophobia – had been known since ancient times. The name hydrophobia comes from the overpowering fear of water victims of rabies suffer from. This is one of the devastating symptoms of the disease, which also caused convulsions, hallucinations and fits before death.

            In the 18th Century, wiping out a pack of dogs to stop the spread of rabies made sense, not only to save other dogs but also to save humans from a horrible fate. But an assumption of rabies was not enough to satisfy Jenner.

            From his observations of the hounds of the Earl of Berkeley, he described the disease as beginning with an inflammation of the lungs, vomiting and diarrhea. A dark mucous covered the teeth. The eyes were inflamed and also covered with mucous. In his paper, “Distemper in Dogs,” he goes on to write:

“The brain is often affected as early as the second day after the attack. The animal becomes stupid, and his general habits are changed. In this state, if not prevented by loss of strength, he sometimes wanders from home. He is frequently endeavoring to expel, by forcible expirations, the mucus from the trachea and fauces, with a peculiar rattling noise. His jaws are generally smeared with it, and it sometimes flows out in a frothy state, from his frequent champing. During the progress of the disease, especially in its advanced stages, he is disposed to bite and gnaw any thing within his reach. He has sometimes epileptic fits, or quick succession of general, though slight convulsive spasms of the muscles. If the dog survives, this affection of the muscles continues through life. He is often attacked with fits of a different description. He first staggers, then tumbles, rolls, cries as if whipped, and tears up the ground with his teeth and forefeet.” (Jenner 1809)

            To any other English gentleman of this time, these symptoms might be enough to justify a conclusion of rabies. But Jenner continued to study these animals. He noted:

·      The dogs were not afraid of water. He said of one: “his thirst seems insatiable, and nothing seems to cheer him like the sight of water.”

·      This disease was not communicable to humans.

            As to the survivability, distemper “cuts off, at least, one in three that is attacked by it,” he wrote.

            Its very name had been born out of ignorance and superstition and apparently predates the emergence of the actual disease by a few centuries.

            The English word distemper came from the Old French word destemprer (late 14th century) meaning “to disturb” and the earlier Medieval Latin word distemperare “vex, make ill.”  In the Middle Ages, any illness was thought to be caused by a disturbance of the four bodily humors – Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Phlegm and Blood. So, distemper – disturbance of the humors – began as a catchall term for any illness in a human or animal. As other diseases were identified and named, distemper ended up with its name by default.

            Figuring out the cause of canine distemper would take another century. Again, it would take a lot of guesswork and overcoming the wrong assumptions. 

            The first scientists searching for the cause of canine distemper encountered plenty of bacteria. Beginning in 1875, researchers reported finding various microscopic candidates they thought were responsible for canine distemper. Between 1875 and 1910, nearly two-dozen theories had been proposed. Most of these were bacteria.[2]

            Among the din of claims was a report by a 35-year-old French scientist named Henri Carré, director of the Research Laboratory of Maisons-Alfort outside of Paris. Through experimentation, he concluded in 1905:

·      Distemper was a filterable virus.

·      It could be found in the watery nasal discharge (and some other fluids) of the sick dog.

·      Two or three drops were enough to induce the disease and often death.

·      There was no organism that could be cultivated.

·      Survivors would be immune to further attacks.

            However, the idea of a virus was still new. Bacteria were relatively easy to recognize because they could also be grown in cultures outside of a host body. 19th Century scientists would pass infectious material through a porcelain filter, and if the resulting material were no longer infectious, they’d know the bacteria had been stopped by the filter and were therefore bigger than its holes.

            But then researchers discovered sap from a diseased tobacco plant could pass through any bacterial filter and still be infectious to healthy tobacco plants. In 1898, this unseen agent became the first recognized plant virus. [3]

            Viruses were a difficult concept for 19th Century scientists because they could not be seen under a microscope and they could not be grown in culture. Compared with a bacterium, a virus is miniscule. Bacteria are complete cells. Viruses are merely small packets of genetic material that invade living cells to replicate themselves. They would not be seen directly until the first electron microscopes in the 1930s.

             So Carré could not actually show the world his distemper virus. And for years after he made his claim, most veterinarians assumed distemper was some form of bacteria. In 1910, American researcher Newell S. Ferry and British researcher J.P. M’Gowan reported that the agent responsible was Bacillus bronchisepticus, which was at the time one of the smallest known organisms. (Ferry 1911; M’Gowan 1911) Work by other researchers supported this conclusion. For someone in the 21st Century, the reason for the confusion is obvious. The distemper virus knocks down the immune system and this allows bacterial diseases to attack. These early researchers were finding the bacteria taking advantage of the distemper attack, not the attack itself. In fact, Bacillus bronchisepticus is a known cause of pneumonia, which shows up in distemper dogs.

            Throughout this period, researchers made several attempts to either prevent the spread of the disease or to find a cure. These included:

·      Cow-pox vaccination, which failed.

·      Inoculating the healthy dog with the nasal discharge of a sick dog – or having the dogs make nose-to-nose contact – as a form of variolation. This usually killed the dog they were trying to protect.

·      Copeman’s Vaccine, which in 1900 was derived from a broth culture of bacteria from a distemper dog. Dr. Monckton Copeman’s product was sometimes called an “anti-distemper serum.”[4]

            In 1922, the veterinary and scientific communities were still grasping at straws over the problem of canine distemper when British veterinarian Hamilton Kirk wrote a book summarizing what was then known about the disease. At the time, the cause was still very much in debate. He wrote:

“In the discovery of a prophylactic or curative vaccine or serum lies the only hope of salvation for the canine race against the dread scourge of distemper, and the bacteriologist who can accomplish this will deservedly become famous in the annals of veterinary science.” [5]

            Despite his expressed hope for either a preventative or a cure, Kirk had strong words for “quack remedies.”:

“In view of the diversity of this disease, it must be obvious to all how impossible it is to expect to derive benefit from any one prescription. Each case must be treated on its merits, and since no specific therapeutic agent exists, one must necessarily treat the symptoms as they arise.” [6]

            Kirk then goes on in detail to describe the supportive nursing care for distemper dogs, including the need for hygienic conditions, keeping the animal warm, using steam kettles, proper diet and medications to treat symptoms as they occur.

“Saving the lives of our dogs”

            In 1923, The Field, a weekly country journal for sportsmen, landowners and farmers in Britain published an appeal for a distemper fund to support a massive research project to save dogs from canine distemper. This appeal was made out of a love of dogs as much as for a need to advance medical science. Members of the landed aristocracy and others donated £55,000 – £8.8 million in today’s economy – which was spent on distemper research between 1923 and 1932. [7]

            The research happened through a collaboration between veterinary professionals, the Medical Research Council and Burroughs-Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company. At the center of the effort were two pathologists named Patrick Laidlaw and G.W. Dunkin. Their first job was to settle the argument about the cause of canine distemper. Dogs were bred specifically to be free of diseases on a farm at Mill Hill in North London to ensure no other pathogen was affecting the results.

            Through experiments in which healthy puppies were exposed to dogs infected with distemper, they were able to rule out Bacillus bronchisepticus as the cause of canine distemper. By early 1926, they concluded ‘the infecting agent of dog-distemper belongs to the class of filter-passing viruses.’

            So after more than 20 years, Carré’s theory had been validated, and later academic papers would refer to distemper as the “Virus of Carré” until viruses were reclassified in the latter part of the 20th Century.[8]

            But Laidlaw and Dunkin now had to develop an effective vaccine, and they decided dogs were not suitable as long-term laboratory animals. They did not endure the isolation well.

            Ferrets, another canid susceptible to distemper, proved to be more useful because they thrived in small spaces and bred quickly. In their research, they found the spleen of the ferret collected the most virus and was the most useful to create a vaccine for other ferrets.

            The ferret vaccine did not translate well over to dogs. So, they created a dog version by grinding up the spleen, liver and glands of infected distemper dogs. This created a viral extract that would then be treated with formalin. The inactive virus would then become the vaccine that would trigger the immune system of healthy dogs to recognize the distemper virus and stop them from getting the disease.

            They found the best way to vaccinate would be to first use the inactive version of the virus, followed two weeks later with the full-strength version. Early trials in estates, homes and kennels were encouraging. Distemper cases were cut to 1 out of 100 vaccinated dogs. But problems arose in ensuring the consistency of how the double dose of vaccine was used, and the first commercial version of the vaccine was pulled from the market after only 16 months.

            But this was enough for The Field to declare victory. On Feb. 4, 1933, The Field published a twelve-page special supplement celebrating the conquest of canine distemper: ‘Saving the lives of our dogs.’ However, the first reliable commercial version of the vaccine would not be developed until 1950.

            The scientific search to save dogs from distemper apparently ended with the development of the canine distemper vaccine. Dogs could be saved from the disease if vaccinated in time. But if already sickened, vets had to rely on supportive methods, treat each symptom as it arose and hope for the best. Dogs that reached the neurologic stage of the disease were euthanized. A cure for distemper became seen as unnecessary, impossible and likely quackery.

            But unlike the small pox vaccine, the development of a canine distemper vaccine would not end the virus. When the World Health Organization launched its final assault on small pox in 1967, they had a key strategic advantage: Small pox only infected humans. Teams of vaccinators could travel the world and vaccinate every human in areas at risk. They could track the disease, and in 1977 when the last scab fell off the last victim of the disease – a Somali hospital worker – they knew they were close to finishing off their foe. WHO declared complete victory over small pox in 1980.

            Distemper does not sicken humans, but it can infect a wide range of canid animals (dog, fox, coyote, wolf) as well as large wild cats, river otters, bears and even Rhesus monkeys. The distemper virus exists wherever there are carnivores. Domestic dogs – the most numerous of carnivores on the planet at more than 500 million – are the main reservoir for canine distemper. This means they are the animal population where the virus is naturally found, from where it grows and spreads to other susceptible species.  Raccoons are considered to be a secondary reservoir for the disease.

            So, even with perfect vigilance and nearly complete vaccination of domestic dogs, the virus would most likely still be waiting to attack from the surrounding wildlife. Treatment options are still needed.

A potential treatment

interferon3.png

            In 1972, Dr. Alson Sears, a veterinarian in the desert community of Lancaster, California, read the research on using Newcastle’s Disease Vaccine (NDV) as an inducer to boost levels of interferon in cats. The major dog disease he faced in his storefront clinic was distemper. Dr. Sears had followed the officially sanctioned treatments for distemper – fluids, antibiotics, and watching them die.

            “Most of the dogs that came in with distemper died,” he said. “We’re talking many, many, many boxes of dead dogs. Those that did survive went on to see horrible secondary neurologic problems from which many lingered and eventually died. Once sick, there did not seem to be much that could be done to help them.”

            When he read about the NDV research in cats, “It clicked in my head that this might work against distemper. I thought, ‘Damn, if it works in cats, here’s a viral technique we haven’t tried.’”

            Dr. Sears borrowed a healthy dog from the local shelter, and he bought a box of NDV vaccine at an agricultural store.

            After injecting about 2 to 3mls of NDV into the vein of the donor dog, Dr. Sears waited until the next day to collect serum. The dog was anesthetized and placed on a splint designed to hold it on its back on a surgical table. An IV was set up to keep fluids going into the dog’s body. The dog’s neck was shaved and a catheter inserted into the jugular vein to withdraw blood into vials. A centrifuge was used to separate the blood serum from the blood cells.

            “But there was a hitch, which at the time we didn’t recognize,” he said. “Time.”

            He had done all of this without realizing the journal article on interferon he was trying to follow had called for the serum to be withdrawn 6 to 8 hours after the injection. Dr. Al Sears had waited 11½ to 12 hours. 

            “I pulled it off at the time I thought was appropriate,” Al says. “What did I know? We’d never done this before.”

            Looking back, he calls the change in timing serendipity. Perhaps, it was a happy accident of science. “Some mistakes are beneficial and some mistakes are not,” Dr. Sears said. “In this case, the mistake was hugely beneficial.”

            They returned the blood-serum donor dog to the shelter, unharmed, and stored the vials of serum in the clinic’s refrigerator. He sent a sample to Cornell University and asked them to check whether it contained interferon. Four days later, a client brought in a canine distemper case, a 6- to 8-month-old shepherd-lab mix that had never been vaccinated.

            “He came in with a real nice acute case,” he said. “One of the classics, you know. You get a high fever. He had a little diarrhea and vomiting and a runny nose, gooped up eyes, and a cracked nose. He was just a classic.”

            Without time to get the response from Cornell, Dr. Sears didn’t know whether the serum in his refrigerator had interferon. But he had a patient likely to die without treatment, and he needed to know whether this material worked.

            Late that afternoon, he injected the serum into his patient subcutaneously. The patient was returned to its cage for the night. “I figured, ‘We’ll see,’ ” he said.

            In the morning, the dog bounced around happily. “The dog was jumping up and down in the cage, and its nose was cleared up, and its eyes were cleared up,” he said. “His fever was gone. I put him down on the floor and he ran around. We put some food out and he jumped into the food like he hadn’t eaten for three or five days, which he probably hadn’t. I’m looking at the dog and thinking, ‘Geez, this dog’s not sick.’ ”

            Within a week, he treated another case and saw the same recovery. After five cases, Dr. Sears was confident these were distemper cases being cured. “I kept saying, ‘That’s not possible.’ But I’m looking at it, I’m looking at it, I’m looking at it. These dogs are cured. And so we said, ‘Jesus, we’ve got something really great here.’ ”

            In the meantime, Cornell’s report on the serum sample finally came back.

            “They wrote back and said ‘It has a very small antiviral activity. We do not suggest using it,’ ” he said. He wrote back to Cornell to report that the serum cleared a dog of distemper within 24 hours. Cornell didn’t respond.

            Later, he’d realize one possible explanation for Cornell’s result. The test for interferon is performed in glass tubes – in vitro. He said he suspected that this material works only in vivo – inside a living body, not in a glass tube. Dr. Sears believes the material created by the NDV injection sparks further reactions inside a living dog’s body that work together to neutralize the distemper virus.

            A graduate of U.C. Davis veterinary school in 1963, Dr. Sears’ focus was on treating his animal patients and running his business. He had not been instilled with the knowledge of how to seek acceptance, apply for funding for a study and get a new treatment published in a veterinary journal. As a private practice vet working 12-hour days 6 days a week, he was also cut off from the guidance and advice available in academic circles.

            So, he drove to a veterinary convention in Las Vegas hoping to share his discovery. However, he came unannounced, without properly documenting his cases or preparing a presentation. During a lecture on canine distemper, Dr. Sears raised his hand, stood up and said, “We have a way to treat distemper.”

            He then explained his procedure, the NDV injection, the serum withdrawal, the subcutaneous injection, the dramatic recovery. The expert virologist giving the lecture took this in and paced back and forth on the stage for about a minute and a half.  

            “Son, that’s impossible. Sit down.”

            He fell back into his seat, shattered and dejected. Had someone taken him aside and explained what his presentation lacked and what steps he needed to take next, his story may have turned out differently. Instead, he returned to his clinic and continued to treat dogs but without trying to seek acceptance.

            Dr. Sears did find another ally in a related treatment.

The NDV spinal tap

            In 1973, Dr. Sears read an article in The California Veterinarian (Adams and Snow 1973) co-authored by John Adams, UCLA’s retired professor of pediatric virology. Adams had been the founding chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. A specialist on immunology, multiple sclerosis, and sudden infant death syndrome, Adams had retired in 1972 at the age of 67 but was energetically continuing his research.

            The article asked for veterinarians to bring him dogs with Old Dog Encephalitis (ODE) the neurologic stage of canine distemper. Adams had a theory that dogs with ODE were equivalent to people with multiple sclerosis. He believed distemper and measles were equivalent diseases. (Adams et al. 1958) In the 1930s, he’d written one of the first papers on the similarity of distemper and measles. So, Adams saw dogs in the neurologic stage of distemper as an animal model to study measles and MS.

            Dr. Sears went to visit Dr. Adams at his UCLA office. “We are in a hotbed of distemper, and I have plenty of cases,” Al said. “Would you be interested?”

            “Absolutely, we want as many as we can get,” Adams replied.

            While other vets were bringing one or two dogs to Adams, Al brought dozens to UCLA. Adams finally asked,  “Why are you getting so many of these cases?” Dr. Sears told him about the widespread cases of distemper in the Antelope Valley but also about the success he had in treating it.

            Adams listened. In their long conversations, Adams realized they didn’t just have a chance to understand MS and distemper. If Dr. Al Sears had found a treatment for distemper, then perhaps Dr. Adams might find a treatment for people with MS. But Dr. Sears told him that the NDV serum did not help dogs already in the neurologic stage of the disease.

            “So I said it might be worth a try on one of these dogs to put this stuff into the spinal canal to see what we can do,” Dr. Sears said. Adams agreed to perform the first NDV spinal tap, an injection of the Newcastle Disease Vaccine directly into the spinal canal.

            On Nov. 14, 1974, Dr. Al Sears brought a 7-year-old Pointer named “Joe” from Rosamond Ca. to Dr. Adams to perform the first NDV spinal tap at the Rigler Research Center in the basement at UCLA.

            Dr. Adams wrote in his notes: “When admitted, the dog was unable to walk, pupils were wildly dilated, and the animal appeared to be in acute distress.”

            They prepped the dog for surgery and put it under anesthesia. Dr. Sears inserted the needle in the back of foramen magnum, an opening at the base of the skull, which allows access to the spinal canal. From that needle, he withdrew 10 milliliters of cerebrospinal fluid from the spinal canal. Then, 2 milliliters of Newcastle’s Disease Vaccine in solution was injected into the spinal canal.

            The injection sent the dog into immediate shock with spasms.

            “Well, we all stood there looking at this dog in shock,” Al says. “Since I was clinical veterinarian, I yelled for an IV catheter. I put an IV catheter in him and got this dog on fluids, and of course it recovered in a matter of minutes.”

            He left Joe in Dr. Adams care from then on.

            In January 1975, Dr. Adams compiled his notes on Joe into a rough draft of a case report.

            “In 24 hours, the patient was responding to voice and vocal stimulation,” Dr. Adams wrote. “In 48 hours, the forelegs moved in an attempt to rise, rear legs appeared to be useless and paralyzed.”

            In his notes, Dr. Adams reported drawing a new sample of spinal fluid a week after the tap. He sent that off to Cornell for testing. Then, he continued:

“The dog continued to eat and drink well and gradually showed increased muscular activity, forelegs permitted moving to food and water, and the dog made an effort to use his hind limbs, rising partially and collapsing into a lying position. This type of activity has continued, and it is the impression of the examiners that ‘Joe’ is improving very gradually, but still weak and partially paralyzed, particularly in the pelvic limbs. Tail wagging has been noticed by some observers.”

            Dr. Adams wrote that as of Dec. 12, nearly a month after the spinal tap, “the patient is continuing to eat and drink lustily and makes a real effort to rise on all fours and to walk, but fails to accomplish this act completely.”

            On Dec. 15, he noted, “the dog rose on all fours and ‘walked’ out of his cage for a brief period, but then returned to a prone position. Tail wagging in response to voice.” However, the pupils of his eyes were widely dilated, an indication that he was still having trouble seeing. Then Dr. Adams wrote:

“During the final 2 weeks of December, the dog continued to make slow progress in standing on all four legs and rather vigorous tail wagging when spoken to. He responds to commands and tries very hard to rise on all four legs and manages to walk out of cage area and into the room, which has a tile floor and is slippery, offering very little resistance or help to the animal in his efforts to walk. Vision also appears to be improved, but pupils remain widely dilated except when a bright light is shown into the eye, the pupils responded sluggishly to light.”

            On Jan. 2, 1975, Dr. Adams euthanized Joe so that the final spinal, blood and tissue samples could be drawn for the study. The brain, along with a piece of the spinal cord, was removed for Dr. Adams’ research. “Grossly, no distinct lesions could be seen,” he wrote.

            Dr. Adams never published the report on Joe’s treatment and recovery. But he continued to explore the possibilities of NDV against distemper, including unpublished experiments using ferrets. “And unfortunately he did something that sort of brought everything to a halt,” Dr. Sears said. “He died.”

            Dr. Adams died on June 30, 1980, at age 75. His papers were archived in a box at the UCLA library. Years later, Dr. Sears acquired copies of his notes and papers.

            After he died, Dr. Sears contacted the National Institutes of Health and told them about Dr. Adams research. He was told, “Look you’re a veterinarian. We will put you in touch with Cornell, and you can talk to somebody at Cornell.”

            When Dr. Sears talked to Cornell Vet School, he said he was told, “Well, send us $500,000, and we’ll initiate a study. We’ll put it in your name.” But as a clinical vet just trying to keep his business afloat, Dr. Sears could not put up such a sum. He said when he called his alma mater, U.C. Davis Veterinary School, and they gave the same answer.

            “So, it kind of died,” Dr. Sears said. “And no one else seemed to be interested.”

New supporters of the NDV treatments

            Without any allies in the academic world, Dr. Sears focused on running his clinic. For a while during the 1980s, he sold the serum to other veterinary clinics using an Internet billboard service. But as federal regulations on veterinary biologics became more restrictive in the late 1980s, Dr. Sears ended the Internet sales and only used the serum to treat dogs brought to his clinic in Lancaster. After he retired in 2006, he estimated he had treated more than 600 dogs with the distemper and 90 percent of those lived. However, he did not maintain separate records on the treatment of these dogs and he left all his records behind when he retired.

            One dog he treated in February 1997 was a Chow-lab mix named Galen, who belonged to Ed and Amy Bond of Los Angeles. Galen was rescued from the streets, and was thought to be about 1 to 2 years old. Within a few days of being rescued, Galen exhibited the respiratory symptoms including coughing, snotty nose, hard pad and a dried up and cracked nasal planum. The Bond’s local vet in Los Angeles diagnosed Galen with distemper but also told them about Dr. Sears’ treatment.

            Galen was listless, vomiting and had a fever on the day he was brought to the Sears Veterinary Clinic. He was treated with fluids and antibiotics.

            Dr. Sears kept the serum in vials, sealed in plastic bags in a clinic refrigerator. To begin treatment on Galen, he used a syringe to draw 5mls of serum and injected it just under the skin in his rump. Galen got another injection 12 hours later, and a third injection 12 hours after that. The repeated injections are a result of Dr. Sears tinkering with his protocol over the years as he found out what method saved the most dogs. The answer was three shots over 24 hours, each given 12 hours after the previous one. Galen’s fever was under control only 18 hours after the first injection. When he returned to Los Angeles two days later, he was strong and alert. The only visible evidence of the distemper attack was the dry eyes and dry pads of feet, which were treated with ointments over the next few weeks.

            At the time, Ed Bond was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He attempted to write a feature story about Galen’s recovery but was not able to complete the project before leaving the Times to accept a teaching job. He later posted a draft of the story to the website www.edbond.com in May 2000.

            Because of the website, more distemper dogs were brought to Dr. Sears’ clinic for treatment. Thank you notes and owner accounts of recoveries about these treated dogs were posted to the website.[9]

            Without Ed Bond’s knowledge, the head of an animal blood bank in Korea read the website in 2003, tested out the NDV serum for himself, found it effective and began offering it as a regular product to his clients in 2004.

            In 2011, Dr. Kim Hee Young, senior researcher of the Korean Animal Blood Bank, wrote to Ed Bond:

“… We have used Sears plasma (serum) in Distemper cases and found it works wonderful. Actually, some of vets had already used Sears plasma and they recommended to produce this drug. At the first time, we did not believe that Sears would treat infected or moderately affected dogs with distemper.
On our first trial (2003), Sears plasma was sent vets to test in Distemper cases. After sending, we contacted the vets again.
They were good responses about Sears and are still ordering it.
In moderately affected case, we have recommended to use anti-serum with enough Distemper-antibody together. Their successful rate were more than 60 % (until 2004…. after then, we did not collect data).”

He later followed up with this data:

“In 2003, 102 dogs (from 12 vets) were diagnosed by ELISA[10] as Distemper infection. Of them, the 54 dogs (52 %) were recovered completely on the check-up 6 weeks after Sears treatment. In Korea, the success rate of conventional treatment in case confirmed as Distemper (ELISA) was usually lower than 8 %.”

            Beyond the publication of the website and the occasional testimonials from owners, Ed Bond did not initially seek to publish or promote Dr. Sears’ canine distemper treatment. That changed after Dr. Sears retired from his veterinary clinic in 2006 and moved to Utah.

            In December 2008, a dog owner in Romania named Mada Lixandru contacted Bond – now living in Upstate New York – to report that her veterinarian had used Dr. Sears’ protocol to make NDV serum and saved at least five dogs with it. Although Bond was not a scientist, this news was significant to him because it meant Dr. Sears’ results could be repeatable.

            This ultimately led to Bond’s campaign to promote and document Sears’ canine distemper treatments. Using websites and social media, Bond and a newly formed 501c3 charity called Kind Hearts In Action, asked vets, dog owners, rescues and other advocates to consider using Sears’ NDV treatments in distemper cases and report on the outcomes of the cases. Hundreds of cases, including before and after photos and videos, were reported to Kind Hearts In Action between December 2008 and February 2016. This information can only be considered anecdotal because as the information came in from dozens of private practice veterinarians and dog caregivers around the world. Diagnosis and record keeping were not standardized. But the reports were collected in an attempt to demonstrate the potential value of conducting full scientific studies of using NDV against distemper.

            Here is a chart on outcomes of treatments, which includes using the NDV serum in pre-neurologic cases, the NDV spinal tap in neurologic cases and another alternate treatment in which the NDV vaccine itself was intravenously injected into the sick dog. This data does not include the report from Korea.

            The challenges of proving a treatment to be effective against distemper are daunting. Attempts by private veterinary clinics to properly document their use of these treatments have fallen short because of a lack of time, resources and a need for scientific training that goes beyond standard veterinary experience. The heavy financial costs also are a factor.

“One of the main reasons why fewer drugs exist in veterinary medicine is that FDA’s new drug approval process is very costly and time consuming for pharmaceutical companies, with little return on investment for animal drug products when compared to the return on investment associated with human drug products, creating a relative disincentive for companies to put resources toward creating new veterinary drugs.”[11]

            But in one significant example, the NDV spinal tap was performed at Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in May 2012. The patient was Nilla, a border collie in the neurologic stage of distemper owned by a pastor and farmer in South Dakota named Clark Audiss. 

            Audiss’ local vet had scheduled Nilla’s euthanization on Monday, May 7, but instead Audiss took the dog to Kansas State, where Dr. Ken Harkin had approved the procedure, which was performed that Tuesday.  Audiss reported that Nilla’s vision began to return during the trip home on Thursday. Over the next few months, Audiss and his family documented Nilla’s recovery on video. By August, Nilla was able to walk, run and herd sheep again. [12]

            Audiss brought Nilla back to Kansas State for an evaluation on September 10.  Based on that outcome, Dr. Harkin pursued funding for a study of the NDV spinal tap. With support from Maddie’s Fund, Dr. Harkin used the protocol on a handful of dogs between 2014 and 2016, but ultimately concluded the NDV spinal tap was not beneficial.

            “No, I do not believe the NDV spinal tap is beneficial and I do believe that the dogs that recovered would have recovered on their own,” Dr. Harkin wrote to Ed Bond.

The key issue was that dogs with myoclonus, the sudden, involuntary jerking of muscles or a group of muscles in many distemper dogs. Nilla did not have myoclonus, but had blindness and paralysis before treatment. Dr. Harkin found that distemper dogs with myoclonus were not helped by the treatment.

            “I had a few clients that wanted to come for the study that I convinced to not have the treatment done,” he wrote. “Two of those dogs went on to recover completely with nothing other than good supportive care at home.  I know that clients report ‘improvement’ in the symptoms after the treatment, but when they returned here for their recheck I did not appreciate significant improvement in any of them.  Maybe there was fractional improvement, but nothing I wouldn’t have expected with time.  I do suspect that the NDV vaccine when given intrathecally does cause a transient inflammatory response in the central nervous system (spinal cord, specifically).  I think that was manifested in several dogs with significant discomfort/pain that prompted the use of codeine or other analgesic therapy.  It is my belief that this inflammation blunts the repetitive firing of the nerves responsible for the chorea (distemper myoclonus).  I think that’s why clients see an improvement but I don’t.”

            Ed Bond asked, “If Nilla was simply going to have a spontaneous recovery on her own, do you think it possible we are giving up on these dogs too early?”

            “I had three dogs that did not have myoclonus: Nilla, Coal, and one other dog.  Nilla was the most severely affected,” Harkin replied.  “Both dogs recovered completely.  Is it possible that the NDV works in a small subset of dogs?  I suppose that’s possible, but I doubt it.  I think both dogs would have recovered without any therapy.  They showed evidence of demyelination and it’s likely that remyelination was happening but that’s a process that just takes time.   Early on every dog I saw had a very inflammatory CSF (cerebrospinal fluid), but then post-NDV it would be normal, so I thought the NDV was inducing remission.  But, then I had a bunch of dogs that presented with  CDV-encephalitis that had completely boring CSF samples, just like the dogs that were post-treatment.  It’s just that none of those dogs had been treated.  I think the disease can and does go in remission.  Interesting, Nilla developed myoclonus long after she left here and recovered.  She didn’t have it originally.  That myoclonus also eventually subsided.  I think we are giving up on some of these dogs way too soon.  I have also worked with a shelter in Denver that has saved a number of these dogs with nothing other than good nursing care.”

Future possibilities for treatment and research

            In the 20th Century, the approach to a distemper case had been mainly to treat with supportive methods, wait to see if neurologic symptoms began and then euthanize. When an outbreak occurred at a shelter, the response had often been to depopulate – kill every dog in the shelter.  Any dog in the neurologic stage of the disease was typically viewed as a lost cause.

            Even though the NDV treatments have not been accepted and widely used, there has been a noted shift in the treatment of distemper dogs in the 21st century. Improved methods promoted by Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida in distinguishing vaccine titers from hot outbreaks of the disease, isolating and treating sick dogs have given canine advocates hope.  At Austin Pets Alive in Texas, many dogs are given the chance to live even when they reach the neurologic stage of the disease.

            The data still needs to be standardized but examples from Austin Pets Alive and on the Kind Hearts In Action website show examples of dogs slowly recovering from severe neurologic problems over a matter of months. This may be as a result of the NDV spinal tap, but it may also simply be a matter of neurologic retraining where healthy neurons take over functions from ones damaged by a distemper attack. In these cases, the dogs return to a decent quality of life with chronic but manageable neurologic problems. In any event, the families of these dogs are grateful to still have these pets in their lives. It may be that many of these dogs could be saved if only their vets and owners could give them the time to recover.

            In the stats above, dogs in the neurologic stage of distemper treated with the NDV spinal tap showed a survival rate of about 45 percent. Dogs presumably in the pre-neurologic or respiratory stage of distemper who were treated with the NDV serum showed a survival rate of 86 percent, according to the vets.

            But this remains anecdotal and to be useful, any scientific study would have to show the treatment dramatically outperforms the known survival rates on distemper from university studies.

            In a study at Cornell University in 1984, (Summers et al. 1984) 3- to 4-month old Beagle puppies, bred to be pathogen free, were infected with one of three strains of canine distemper.

            • 6 were given Snyder Hill strain

            • 11 were given Cornell A75-17 strain

            • 12 were given Ohio strain R252

            About half of these pups developed neurologic problems and died, but all were eventually euthanized for the study after two months. The Snyder Hill strain, which struck faster, caused a “moribund state” within 14 days and half died from the virus.  But some of the Snyder Hill dogs that survived beyond the third week recovered. In the A75-17 group, some dogs reached the moribund stage between the 29th and 38th days. “In both A75-17 and R252 infections, neurologic defects were detectable in about one-half of the dogs.”

            In a later collection of papers on paramyxoviruses which cited the Cornell study, “It is claimed that chronic encephalomyelitis with inflammatory demyelinative changes develops in about one-third of dogs experimentally infected with CD virus.” (Randall and Russell 1991) This lines up with Jenner’s original description.

            But the disease may be even more deadly outside controlled laboratory studies.

“Distemper is a highly contagious disease that poses a threat mainly to concentrated populations of previously unexposed or unvaccinated, susceptible species. In these populations, distemper is almost always fatal. The disease is complex in that it presents varying clinical symptoms and may run varying clinical courses. Outcomes of CDV infection range from complete recovery to persistent disease to death depending on the age and immune status of the animal infected. Robustness of the humoral immune response correlates with the disease outcome.” (Kapil and Yeary 2011)

            An outbreak at a shelter differs quite a bit from a controlled study at a university. The puppies at an infected shelter are being attacked from many directions as their fellow shelter residents shed the virus in multiple ways. In a study, the infection can be given in a controlled way, such as via a single nasal injection and the researchers can take steps to avoid cross-infection from other dogs in the study. Shelter puppies are also likely being attacked by opportunistic infections, such as pneumonia.

            In 2020, Cornell’s Wildlife Health Lab website reported that canine distemper “is often fatal with a mortality rate of 50% in adult dogs and 80% in puppies.” [13]

            The other problem in proving the value of a canine distemper treatment is that the disease is not reportable so statistics on how many cases occur and how many of those dogs survive are not available. With this major question unanswered, it becomes difficult to build a case for pursuing a study. However, Kind Hearts in Action has received more than 5,000 emails about canine distemper from all over the world in the past 10 years, so cases are still happening and humans are still trying to save their dogs.

            The main question of a study of NDV serum or any potential treatment for canine distemper should be whether this can prevent distemper dogs from reaching the neurologic stage of the disease, shorten the course of the disease and ultimately save more lives than the traditional supportive methods. Any study would have to show the treatment dramatically outperforms the known survival rates on distemper from university studies.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams JM, Snow HD. 1973. Viral Demyelinating Encephalitis And Old Dog Encephalitis: Possible Relationship To Distemper Measles, And Dermyelinating Disease Of Man. Calif. Vet. 27: 8-10

Adams JM, Imagawa DT, Chadwick DL, Gates EH, Siem RA. 1958. Relationship of Measles and Distemper. AMA Am J Dis Child.;95(6): 601-608

Ferry N. 1911. Etiology of canine distemper. Journal of Infectious Diseases 4, pp. 399–420.

Jenner E. Observations on the Distemper in Dogs. 1809. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. 1: 265-270.

Kapil S, Yeary T, 2011. Canine Distemper Spillover in Domestic Dogs from Urban Wildlife. Veterinary Clinics: Small Animal Practice, Volume 4 , Issue 6, pp. 1069-1086.

Kirk H. 1922. Canine Distemper: It’s Complications, Sequelae and Treatment. London. Bailliére, Tindall and Cox.

M’Gowan JP. 1911. Some observations on a laboratory epidemic, principally among dogs and cats, in which the animals affected presented symptoms of the disease called “distemper.” Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology 15, pp. 372 ff.

Oldstone M. 2010. Viruses, Plagues & History: Past, Present and Future. Oxford University Press.

Randall R, Russell W. 1991. Paramyxovirus Persistence Consequences for Host and Virus. In Kingsbury D, editor. The Paramyxoviruses. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 299-322.

Summers B, Greisen H, Appel M, January 1984.  Canine distemper encephalomyelitis: Variation with virus strain. Journal of Comparative Pathology, Volume 94, Issue 1, pp. 65-75

Uhl, E. W., Kelderhouse, C., Buikstra, J., Blick, J. P., Bolon, B., and Hogan, R. J. (2019). New world origin of canine distemper: interdisciplinary insights. Int. J.Paleopathol. 24, 266–278. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpp.2018.12.007


[1] Uhl, E. W., Kelderhouse, C., Buikstra, J., Blick, J. P., Bolon, B., and Hogan, R. J. (2019). New world origin of canine distemper: interdisciplinary insights. Int. J.Paleopathol. 24, 266–278. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpp.2018.12.007

[2] Kirk, H. 1922, Canine Distemper: It’s Complications, Sequelae and Treatment.  London. Bailliére, Tindall and Cox, pp. 29-34.

[3] Oldstone M. 2010. Viruses, Plagues & History: Past, Present and Future. Oxford University Press. p. 16.

[4] Kirk, p. 66.

[5] Kirk, p. 61.

[6] Kirk, p. 156

[7] Bresalier M, Worboys M. ‘Saving the lives of our dogs’: the development of canine distemper vaccine in interwar Britain. Br J Hist Sci. 2014 Jun; 47(173 Pt 2):305-34. [Online]. Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4014013/pdf/S0007087413000344a.pdf

[9] https://edbond.com/distemper_first.html

[10] Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

[11] May, K. 2018, Extralabel Drug Use and AMDUCA: FAQ, American Veterinary Medical Association,  [Online]. Available: https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/FAQs/Pages/ELDU-and-AMDUCA-FAQs.aspx

[12] “The Story of Nilla” https://www.kindheartsinaction.com/archives/4130

[13] https://cwhl.vet cited in May 2020.

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#distemperdogs Saved Dogs

Coal’s story

Excerpts from the book “Save Dogs From Distemper: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears”

Page 368 (2014) …

” … On Dec. 21, I received an email from Debby Simms of Huntington, West Virginia, about a dachshund/Basset hound mix named Coal she was fostering from a local shelter. ‘He tested positive for distemper on Dec 15,’ she wrote in an email copied to her friend Barbara Bias. ‘He is still eating and eliminating. He was first diagnosed with kennel cough and then began losing weight.  The return visit and testing gave the result of distemper. I have been researching on Internet and found you. If you know of a vet near West Virginia please let me know.’ 

They took Coal to Ohio State a couple days later, but that only confirmed the dog had neurologic distemper. The school refused to consider the unpublished NDV spinal tap treatment, so I encouraged them to contact Dr. Harkin and get into his study. 

‘Coal has had the treatment!’ Debby wrote on Jan. 2. ‘We were so impressed with Dr. Harkin and the med student … We will let you know as he improves. We can not thank you enough!!’ … “

Page 372 …

” … According to a post she submitted to the website for the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, WV, Barbara Bias took Coal back to Kansas State for a follow-up evaluation on April 17, 2015, and had been told he was disease-free. ‘Coal’s new life began Jan. 2, 2015, and now a year later he is celebrating his New Year as a very active and happy 2-year-old doggie,’ Barbara wrote in the post … “

Page 405, The Epilogue …

“… Barbara Bias wrote with a cheerful update on Coal.

‘Coal is a very happy and active dog,’ she wrote.  ‘He loves to race around the living room couch playing with his toys.  I love him very much. Thank you for everything you did for him.  Thank you for helping my friend Debby Simms find the right place to take Coal.  Dr. Harkin at Kansas State was very happy with Coal’s improvement.’ “

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Greetings from a vet in Mexico

Last week, I heard from Dr. Rubén Lopez Hidalgo, a veterinarian in Puebla, Mexico who has been using NDV serum for years. He has found that it has helped in pre-neurologic cases of distemper, but he also reports that it had helped in neurologic cases. His recommendation is to give a dog in the neurologic stage 6 doses of serum — one every 12 hours — instead of the 3 given in non-neurologic cases.

Here are some of the links and information he sent me:

http://www.actinmun.com/englishinfo.html

Videos de casos curados

Distemper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHaK1vXaWlQ&t=66s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjsHXy0eSs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8YwxrlNIL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xfwLY8iRgE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BTZ5HplLI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGcTvEKXfNk&t=11s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGUZbTdapJU
https://youtu.be/q9XyRJPDCgE

Parvovirus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZpRD92UDWc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yae3cmFSpMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXIdXHt2qws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVVJiuo8PLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPVGVAqKZms

From Dr. Hidaldgo:

THE NERVOUS DISTEMPER IS ALWAYS OF SEVERE LIFE PROGNOSIS:

The Distemper can be cured using the Actinmun and Actinmun NDV Serum simultaneously while it is within the first days of the disease and the patient receives an adequate symptomatic treatment. When the virus reaches the central nervous system, the disease goes to the stage of NERVOUS DISTEMPER which is always of SEVERE VITAL PROGNOSIS, that is, it becomes a very serious situation because the virus has achieved its final objective, the Central nervous system, this happens after the virus crosses several systems and organs causing injuries and clinical signs that sometimes, some veterinarians, confuse with infections or mild infestations.

Yes, the virus reaches the Central Nervous System (CNS), and there it is established by infecting the neurons causing demyelination, which means the loss of the myelin that surrounds and protects the nerve fibers (manifested as nervous Tics).

Neurons will be occupied by the virus to replicate itself (as if it were cloned using DNA and RNA from the nerve cell) and its presence in the neurons will stimulate the arrival of defense cells called CYTOTOXIC T LYMPHOCYTES whose function is to eliminate infected cells. microorganisms such as viruses or those cells that suffer alterations in their nature and that cease to be compatible with the cells considered HEALTHY (in this way the distemper becomes an autoimmune disease and therefore, the immunostimulants, Interferon and vitamin C are contraindicated in this stage).

Due to the above, a massive destruction is initiated that leads to serious damage of the CNS and that are considered in the literature as irreversible and progressive with serious vital prognosis, that is to say that in the majority of cases it leads to death or to a severe degree of disability (difficulty to incorporate, incoordination, paralysis, howling, etc.) unless the virus is eliminated.

The only way to cure these sick dogs is to eliminate these CNS viruses and end up with the stimulus for these killer cells at the same time.

The ACTINMUN NDV serum can eliminate these viruses at the cellular level in the dog’s organism, but once the virus is established in the CNS the possibilities decrease dramatically due to the same brain protection mechanisms (which now also protect the virus).

In some dogs ACTINMUN NDV does arrive and eliminates the CNS virus and in other cases the disease runs its course as if nothing had been applied.

Finally, although the chances of recovery in Nervous Distemper are few, they are real, and recovery is also possible (see our videos of patients recovered on YouTube in the name of Rubén López Hidalgo).

In this advanced stage of distemper (more than 9 days sick) the ACTINMUN NDV Serum is applied every 12 hours for 6 times subcutaneously in the inner part of the thigh and / or in the Cisterna Magna when we do not see results with the subcutaneous application or well in very advanced cases (see the manual).

RECOMMENDATIONS IN CASE OF DISTEMPER.
If the dog shows nervous signs, hard plantar bearings, and has been sick for more than 9 days, we should use the ACTINMUN NDV serum every 12 hours for 6 times. If the dog has been sick for less time and has other symptoms that are not of nervous origin, we can use Actinmun ndv (specific Antimorbillivirus serum against distemper) and also the Hyperimmune Serum ACTINMUN against parvovirus and distemper (antibodies).

RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE CISTERNA MAGNA.
The application in the Cisterna Magna can be done by a competent doctor or in the Hospital de Mascotas Hidalgo of Atlixco, Puebla, Mexico (make an appointment at (+52) 2444459888).

This is a high-risk procedure and is the last chance to rescue the dog from this terrible disease and some dog could die in the anesthesia or days later due to brain damage that exists caused by the virus and its effects and complications (once made the procedure, the patient must be accompanied by antibiotic application and symptomatic treatment for about 8 days and remain in a dark and quiet place).

Check the pages:

www.actinmun.com and

www.hidalgohospitaldemascotas.com

ACTINMUN AGAINST PARVOVIRUS AND DISTEMPER.

SHIPPING AREA: (+52) 2444460015, Technical Area (+52)2441105694,
(+52) 2441149836.

TECHNICAL AREA: CEL (+52) 2441105694

He also asked about Dr. Sears and said:

“Please say Hi to him. I am grateful for knowing him and you. I have learned a lot from him and from you. Please say thank very much for all his teachings.”

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Stories of survival video

Here’s a video of some of the dogs included within the pages of “Save Dogs From Distemper: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears.”

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Book finally published

For anyone who has every worked in journalism, publishing a book has to be near the top of their bucket list. Last month, I crossed that task off my list nine years after I started.

This began with a simple goal: to tell the story of Dr. Alson Sears and his treatments for canine distemper. At first, I planned on writing a column for the L.A. Times. Then my plan expanded to be a possible feature story. The problem, then as now, was that Dr. Sears had not published or properly documented his treatments. So, it was already an uphill battle to get this into the newspaper. When I left the Times to go into teaching in 1997, that opportunity to tell the world disappeared.

The story was resurrected again when I found my notes and the draft of the original story, which I posted to my website — edbond.com — in 2000. But I did not see it as my job to promote or campaign for Dr. Sears’ treatments. I knew enough about the world of science to know I would be ill-equipped to fight that battle and I had little interest.

In 2006, Dr. Sears retired and my dog who he had saved in 1997 died of liver trouble. It seemed very likely his treatments would be completely forgotten.

However, posting that first story to my website opened a Pandora’s box that could not be closed. The story became a cause, and it slowly dawned on me that I could no longer stay uninvolved. I needed to fight for this cause because I was in a unique position to do so.

The turning point came in 2008 when a woman in Romania tracked me down and begged me to let her vet use the protocols from Dr. Sears that I had posted to edbond.com. When she contacted me a few months later to say his NDV-induced serum had already saved at least five dogs, the light bulb went on for me.

I knew that in science results have to be repeatable. A vet on the other side of the world had taken Dr. Sears’ protocols, used them and had a similar outcome. All that was needed was for other vets around the world to make the serum and save dogs from distemper.

But I was not a vet or a scientist and had no standing in the veterinary community. No power on Earth could compel a veterinarian or a university professor to listen to what I had to say.

So, the request went out into the world, asking the owners of dogs with distemper to take these protocols to their vets, request that they be used and then send me before/after videos and photos, documents and their personal accounts of how the treatment went. Although not scientific — considered to be anecdotal — these stories now fill this website.

From 2008 until February 2016, I kept a running tally on this website of outcomes of cased I received.

We made other attempts to send this story into the world. In 2009, I flew to Houston to record Dr. Sears as he went through his discoveries and treatments blow for blow. Working with the Rescue Ranch Animal Sanctuary in Texas, we released a DVD of this lecture, which eventually went up on YouTube.

At the end of 2010/early 2011, Dr. Sears and I began talking about the book he had been writing. He asked me to edit it and sent me what he had. It needed a lot more than an edit. I realized he was better suited to telling his story rather than writing it.

So I proposed he tell me everything about his life, career and his treatments in a series of phone interviews. My intent was just to produce a work with only his words, telling his story. But by then it was impossible to separate his story from my own. We eventually became co-authors.

But as Dr. Sears reached his late 70s, he and his wife Ruth told me that he could no longer be co-author. I told him I did not want to push him off his own book.

“Ed, that’s very gracious,” Al said. But they explained I did need to take over completely. “This is your book,” Ruth said.

The book took nine years to write. This is because I was also actively promoting his treatments all over the world and I did not know how the story was going to end. My efforts included my own attempts to document the effectiveness of the treatment by working with a vet clinic in Virginia and working with a professor at Kansas State who studied Dr. Sears’ NDV spinal tap.

I shelved my own attempt to document the treatment because it seemed my efforts were redundant. University professors were finally taking a serious look at Dr. Sears.

However, despite some early promising cases, Dr. Ken Harkin concluded that the NDV spinal tap — for dogs in the neurologic stage of the distemper — was not beneficial. He did say that people often do give up on these dogs too easily. Many dogs can survive if given enough nursing case to get through the first few months after a distemper attack.

Another professor who apparently had been studying Dr. Sears’ NDV serum for dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of the disease just simply went silent, stopped answering emails and never published his results.

More about these efforts to document the treatments

It was not until 2016 that it became clear that the treatments would not be advancing any further and I finally could finish the book. After the first draft was completed in 2017, I began circulating the manuscript to everyone involved in the story. It took three years before I heard back from everyone and I was satisfied that I had pursued every angle I could.

As I finished, I did receive a bit of extra hope. I heard from veterinary students in Europe — one of which was the woman who had inspired me to start this campaign in 2008 — that they were actively pursuing research into these treatments and planned to get their work published.

I was also grateful that in July 2020 and at the age of 84, Dr. Sears read the final proof before the manuscript was published to Amazon. “Congratulations on a job well done,” Dr. Sears wrote in his last batch of notes before publication.

“You have no idea what the book means to Al,” Ruth wrote in a note to me. “To have his ideas in print meant so much to him.”

So, here are some of the conclusions in the book, now that this part of the adventure has ended:

“I offer a prediction. If his NDV-serum treatment for dogs in the pre-neurologic stage of canine distemper could be put to the test by approved scientific methods, they would dramatically outperform the survival rates of traditional veterinary medicine. The result would be faster recoveries, fewer cases reaching the neurologic stage, a decrease in long-term symptoms and more distemper dogs surviving.

“Unfortunately, neither Dr. Sears nor myself have the means to test this hypothesis. He is a retired veterinary clinician who did not get the guidance he needed to present this properly during his career, and I am just an average guy with a computer. You may also learn something about the challenges the veterinary community must overcome to defeat this disease. The first challenge is to realize that distemper has not been defeated….

“… It is now time for ‘Save Dogs From Distemper III,’ a concerted effort to test the contending treatments that are now emerging to determine which offers the best benefits and chance of survival for distemper dogs. The message has to get out that distemper does not have to be a death sentence. That’s a fact many are now realizing, but Dr. Alson Sears knew decades ahead of anyone else …

“…Clarifying where we are:
• The NDV spinal tap MIGHT have a benefit in some cases, depending on the type of neurologic problems present. However, the main investigator on this procedure is doubtful.
• The NDV serum or NDV as IV treatment before the onset of neurologic problems MIGHT save the lives of these dogs, but it would take a very large study to establish that and eliminate all the factors. A university researcher has reportedly taken a closer look at the NDV serum but has said nothing publicly and it is unknown whether anything will come of that.
• Despite the development of a distemper vaccine in 1950, dogs continue to get sick and die of distemper. So more work remains to be done
…”

Then, I explain in detail how the cause of saving dogs from distemper could be advanced through a new generation of activists who could pick up where I left off. My hope is by giving an honest account of the successes, the failures, the pitfalls and obstacles in the book, others will be better prepared to take this effort across the finish line. So, to help that effort, I have decided that half of the proceeds from the sales of the book will be set aside to support research into the use of NDV to treat dogs with canine distemper.

So, please go check out the book on Amazon. It is available in print as an eBook.

– Ed Bond