This application discloses methods, compositions, and articles of manufacture for using NDV-induced serum to treat non-human mammals, including dogs, displaying severe neurological symptoms of advanced canine distemper virus (CDV) infection. An off-the-shelf chicken vaccine is injected into two or-more healthy mammals, of the same species as the sick animal, to provoke an immune response. After allowing several hours for the immune response to develop, blood is drawn from the healthy mammals and centrifuged to obtain serum. This “NDV-induced serum” can be injected into a mammal of the same species displaying severe neurological symptoms of advanced CDV infection on a prescribed schedule to bolster the sick animal's immune responses, preferably leading to clearance of the virus without the need for a spinal tap, which is the standard treatment for advanced CDV infection in mammals.
