CDV - canine distemper virus

[dreamvet]

so. . . .i rescued a pit/mastiff 6 month old pup last week.
history: he was abandoned and spent 2 weeks at a humane society with NO vaccines. They did NOT vaccinate him at the shelter.
a rescue group picked him up and vaccinated him on Jan 30.
He came into the emergency clinic where i work on Feb 19th presenting with severe pneumonia and anorexia.
With treatment, he has fully recovered from the pneumonia but his distemper titer results came back positive.
I have taken charge of this dog and am the current owner. (the things i get myself into )

a few questions:
1) i am planning on sending out another titer test in 2 weeks and am hoping the first test was a false positive due to the vaccine. How long after the vaccine is given is it possible to get a FALSE positive?

2) at what point is it safe for him to interact with other dogs?

3) I was doing some research and saw that there is research being done linking CDV with human MS, Paget's, and others. implying that Distemper is zoonotic. Does anyone have any input on this?

I am pretty much trying to decide when is the right time for PTS if he is positive. I don't believe in PTS unless he begins to develop neurological symptoms, but if the disease MIGHT be zoonotic, I also would not want to risk it. I asked the vets at the clinic where i work and they said they heard of this research when they were in vet school, but not since, so they don't think it is. Another thing is that the dog is currently living in Isolation, if we get a parvo dog that has to live in there with him, that would be a BAD situation (for the other dog and for him since he only has one parvo vax). i do not want to vaccinate him right now if he is already immunocompromised due to CDV.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[meadow36]

According to VIN, the distemper can show false positives for up to two months.

As for interaction w/ other dogs - personally I would wait until the titer comes back negative and he isn't showing any signs of the disease.

As for the zoonotic issue, this has not been well documented. Maybe someone else can comment on that.

 

[dreamvet]

hmmmmm. so i should wait until the end of march to repeat the titer.
that's helpful to know.

 

[david594]

a few questions:
1) i am planning on sending out another titer test in 2 weeks and am hoping the first test was a false positive due to the vaccine. How long after the vaccine is given is it possible to get a FALSE positive?

Your initial positive was with an antibody titer?

Might be worth considering an antigen test for your follow-up if you are really hoping to confirm a false positive. Idexx's thoughts on their RealPCR test:

Does your test differentiate between vaccinations and infection? For most of the inactivated vaccines, real-time PCR does differentiate between vaccination and infection. Real-time PCR does not detect the presence of antibodies; therefore, a positive result indicates presence of the pathogen. For this reason, PCR has a higher association with disease than with antibody detection. Detection of viral DNA/RNA may occur within a few weeks after vaccination with a modified live vaccine (MLV) while the vaccine virus is replicating. We recommend a three-week interval after the last vaccination to prevent detection of any DNA originating from the vaccine.

 

[Bill59]

Specific recommendations regarding an individual patient are best made by the attending veterinarian.

There is no conclusive evidence that CDV is zoonotic. It has been looked at as possible trigger of the immune response that causes MS in people but this is still up in the air. There's more evidence that the Epstein-Barr virus is involved with MS but that's also not conclusive. If and when they discover the cause of MS, you'll hear about it -- it will be major news.

 

[dreamvet]

thank you for the response Bill59.

unfortunately, I work as a tech in an emergency hospital. and the dog, being a pet of an employee, basically has all 7 veterinarians looking at him. which means i have 7 different opinions. . .
I had a consult with one of the doctors at idexx about his results today and they suggested that I wait 6-8 week post vaccination and do the PCR testing.

 

[Electrophile]

so. . . .i rescued a pit/mastiff 6 month old pup last week.
history: he was abandoned and spent 2 weeks at a humane society with NO vaccines. They did NOT vaccinate him at the shelter.
a rescue group picked him up and vaccinated him on Jan 30.
He came into the emergency clinic where i work on Feb 19th presenting with severe pneumonia and anorexia.
With treatment, he has fully recovered from the pneumonia but his distemper titer results came back positive.
I have taken charge of this dog and am the current owner. (the things i get myself into )

Just to make sure...the pup got vaccinated and about 3 weeks later had a positive titer? I'd say the vaccine worked if the titers are at high enough levels. I am no immunology expert, but I'd suspect that the presence of antibodies in his serum indicates that his immune system reacted correctly with the agent from the vaccine, not necessarily the wild virus. I had titers done on my youngest because he had a vaccine reaction to the DHPP at 12 weeks old. I had his titers checked for parvo and distemper done at 6 months and he was at full titer for both, meaning I feel pretty confident in not vaccinating him for distemper/parvo again.

Another thing is that the dog is currently living in Isolation, if we get a parvo dog that has to live in there with him, that would be a BAD situation (for the other dog and for him since he only has one parvo vax). i do not want to vaccinate him right now if he is already immunocompromised due to CDV.

Did you do titers for parvo too? If his first vaccination was at 6 months, it's my understanding (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that he doesn't need the full puppy series as it is highly unlikely the maternal antibodies are still interfering with a correct immune system response, which is why you have to give a series when they are young pups to cover that window. If you're doing an additional titer, I'd do his parvo as well as the titers are better (though not completely perfect) indications of immunity than just giving the shots. Plus your modified live vaccines seem to have memory B cells that stick around longer than your killed vaccines, which is why some research is ongoing to see how long it really lasts (kind of like how we don't get vaccines for childhood diseases every year as adults). In addition, although it can affect slightly older pups and rarely adult immunocompromised dogs, parvo typically affects the younger rapidly growing pups less than six months of age. It is not unheard of though. Good luck with him!