WHITE LOCO WEED. 97 



habit when allowed to eat the loco weed after a period of enforced 

 abstinence. Such animals at first become excited, but as more and 

 more of the plant is eaten a depressant or stupefying effect is noticed, 

 such as is characteristic of cases of the chronic loco habit. The habit 

 assumes the form of an insatiable appetite, with the result that the 

 animal continually searches for the loco weed and feeds upon it to 

 the exclusion of other forage plants. Sheep maj be seen hurrying 

 with trembling gait from one loco plant to another, devouring each 

 with nervous haste. The habit is sometimes observed alread}^ fixed 

 in lambs 2 months old. One of the inevitable results of eating the 

 loco weed exclusiveh" is that the quantity of fodder obtained during 

 the day is insufficient, or, where the weed grows in great abundance, 

 the variety of diet is too small and the nutritive ration is unbalanced. 



REMEDIAL AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 



No specific remedj^ for the loco disease has ever been discovered. 

 The one definite statement concerning any poisonous principle which 

 may be contained in loco weeds is that made by Dr. Carl Ruedi, who 

 claims to have isolated an acid, which he called "loco acid," from Astra- 

 galus molissimus, the common loco weed in Colorado. This work has not 

 been corroborated, and it is not at all certain that the same substance 

 will be found to be the active principle contained in the loco weeds of 

 Montana. In the present state of knowledge on this subject the only 

 treatment to be recommended is that of confinement and feeding with 

 nutritious diet. It is sometimes possible for the sheep raiser to move 

 the band of locoed sheep to a range where none of the plants grow. 

 "When sheep are unable to obtain the loco weeds a large majority, even 

 of chronic cases, maj' be fattened and will produce good mutton. In 

 horses which have had the loco habit for a year or more, and which 

 are then kept in stables or pastures where the loco weed does not grow, 

 an apparent recovery takes place, but such animals are apt to show 

 the effects of the loco in various vicious habits, such as kicking or 

 running away without apparent cause. Sheep which have become 

 badly affected with the disease may be inclosed in feeding corrals and 

 fattened for market. A sheep raiser of the Yellowstone Valley dis- 

 covered in the fall of 1899 that among his sheep he had 1,200 cases of 

 loco disease. These 1,200 sheep were immediately separated from the 

 other sheep and put together in a corral. The same man bought 1,000 

 other locoed sheep from other sheep men in the neighborhood, and fed 

 the 2,200 locoed sheep for two months upon alfalfa and various roots. 

 At the expiration of this time all of the sheep, with the exception of 

 50, had apparently made a complete recover}^ from the loco disease and 

 were in a good condition for market. Of the 50 which were separated 

 from the band the majority were cripples and were removed from the 

 band for that reason. Only 3 or 4 sheep out of the 2,200 failed to 

 S. Doc. 1(30 7 



