Common Dog Diseases and Their Symptoms
📝 Summary
A dog's normal temperature is 38.3-39C; fever above 39C points to illness. Sudden high fever can mean distemper, parvovirus, infectious hepatitis, cold, heatstroke, poisoning, pneumonia, or sepsis. Lingering low fever can mean chronic distemper, hepatitis, ear infection, bronchitis, nephritis, or pneumonia.
1 Reading a dog’s temperature
A normal dog temperature runs 38.3-39C; food, exercise, or a hot room can raise it briefly, and it is naturally lower in the morning. Above 39C indicates fever. The two common patterns are a sudden spike to around 40C and a sustained low fever of 39-40C over several days.
2 Causes of sudden high fever
Distemper may look almost normal at first, just a bit dull with less appetite. Parvovirus brings sudden depression, poor appetite, vomiting, belly pain, and bloody stool. Infectious hepatitis shows as lethargy, low appetite, fever up to 41C, and swollen tonsils. A cold brings a clear runny nose and pale tongue coating when temperatures drop. Heatstroke strikes in direct sun or hot, humid exercise. Acute poisoning (food, drug, or endotoxin) causes vomiting and diarrhea. Pneumonia, from inhaled medicine or infection, adds cough, breathing trouble, and lung sounds. Sepsis brings extreme dullness, a long course, chills, and clear toxicity.
3 Causes of lingering low fever
Chronic distemper after the acute phase brings vomiting, diarrhea, and pus-like nasal discharge. Chronic infectious hepatitis adds jaundice, bleeding, and facial swelling. Severe outer-ear infection can trigger a low-grade fever. Chronic tracheitis or bronchitis, sometimes with lungworm, recurs easily. Chronic nephritis shows kidney-area pain and changes in urine color and form. Chronic pneumonia adds cough and lung fibrosis on X-ray. Hypertrophic osteodystrophy comes with lameness.
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