MODERN SHEEP: BREED3 AND MANAGEMENT. 269 



"LOCO" POISONING. 



It is claimed that livestock on the western ranches is "locoed" 

 to the extent of $40,000 yearly, and sheep make no small contri- 

 bution to this great total. "Loco" is not a 'disease, but is the 

 result of poisoning by a plant of that name, which affects the 

 animal much in the same way as a continued use of alcohol or 

 morphine affects the human race. There are those who credit 

 the trouble to an animal parasite, but scientists do not subscribe 

 very largely to this opinion. 



The "loco" weed is probably the Astragalus molissimus, a 

 stout, silky-haired plant with oblong leaves, whose pods, when 

 ripe, have incurved ends. It grows from eight inches to a foot 

 high, and very much resembles wild sage. When ripe, the seeds of 

 the loco weed rattle in the pod, and on this account it is known 

 under the name of "rattleweed." The first case of loco-poisoning 

 appeared in 1886, when a band of horses becamed "locoed." Loco- 

 poisoning has caused a great deal of trouble in Butte county, Mon- 

 tana. 



It is said that sheep and other livestock do not die im- 

 mediately after eating the weed, but in from six months to a year 

 after acquiring the habit. Stockmen claim that the weed is eaten 

 in early spring before the grass gets started and that when stock 

 have tasted it they refuse all other food and persist in hunting 

 out the poisonous plant. In the course of several months, the 

 animal becomes blind crazy,- and generally dies during the sum- 

 mer or in early fall. So far, no specific cure of loco-poisoning has 

 been discovered, although hundreds of thousands of dollars have 

 been spent by the different states with a view to finding one. 



In all cases of poisoning by injurious plants, the first thing 

 the experienced shepherd does is to sustain vital action by giving 

 strong hot coffee and then rid the system of the poison by some 

 active carthartic, and it would be worth while for those having 

 "locoed" sheep to experiment along similar lines. 



In a report on this troublesome plant in Montana, the gov- 

 ernment specialist offers the following on the treatment of "locoed" 

 animals : 



"ISTo specific remedy for the loco disease has ever been dis- 

 covered. The one definite statement concerning any poisonous 

 principle which may be contained in loco weeds is that made by 

 Dr. Carl Euedi, who claims to have isolated an acid, which he 

 called 'loco acid/ from Astragalus 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 obtained 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 nutri- 



