Infectious hepatitis is an acute septicemic infectious disease caused by canine-borne hepatitis virus. It mainly affects puppies under 1 year old and often causes acute necrotizing hepatitis. Clinically, it is often mixed with canine distemper infection, making the condition more complicated and serious.

This disease occurs almost all over the world and is a common dog disease. In June 1983, the People's Liberation Army Veterinary University isolated a strain of canine infectious hepatitis virus from the liver tissue of sick dogs, thus confirming the existence of this disease in my country.

In the early stage of illness, the virus mainly exists in the blood of sick dogs, and then a large amount of virus is excreted in various secretions and excretions, polluting the external environment. After recovery, the toxin can be excreted in the urine for 6-9 months. The virus is quite resistant and can survive for a long time under low temperature conditions. It can still be pathogenic in the soil for 10-14 days and can also survive for a long time in dog kennels. But heating can quickly kill the virus. Sick dogs and virus-carrying dogs are the source of infection of this disease. Healthy dogs are mainly infected through the digestive tract, but can also be infected through the placenta.

【Key points of diagnosis】

1. Popular features

It can occur in dogs regardless of breed, gender, or season, but it is more common in puppies under 1 year old and in winter.

　2.Clinical characteristics

The initial symptoms are very similar to canine distemper. The sick dog is depressed, has a loss of appetite, has a significant increase in thirst, and even has its two forelimbs immersed in water and drinks heavily. This is a characteristic symptom of this disease. The body temperature of sick dogs rises to more than 40 degrees and lasts for 4-6 days. Vomiting and diarrhea are more common if there is blood in the vomitus and stool. Most sick dogs have pain in the xiphoid cartilage. 7-10 days after the acute symptoms disappear, some dogs' corneas will become opaque and appear white or even bluish-white. This is called "hepatitis blue eye" and will disappear after a few days. There are bleeding spots on the gums. Although the disease is called hepatitis, jaundice rarely occurs. If there is no secondary infection, it usually returns to normal within a few days.

If the dog is sick and has the above-mentioned popular characteristics and clinical symptoms, a preliminary diagnosis can be made. Timely discovery requires prompt medical treatment. The final diagnosis depends on laboratory testing of disease materials, such as virus isolation, fluorescent antibody staining and other specific tests.