270 MODERN SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



tious 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, may 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. 



"Since the loco disease is due to habit it is obviously impos- 

 sible to apply any such treatment as would be given to a disease 

 which has a definite course or to a case of acute poisoning from 

 death camas or other plants. In the case of poisoning from death 

 camas, water hemlock, or larkspur, the result of treatment depends 

 upon the amount of poison which has been eaten and the prompt- 

 ness with which the remedy is applied. In locoed animals, on the 

 other hand, the stockman has quite difficult conditions to contend 

 with. He may be able, as in the two cases just cited, temporarily 

 to counteract the effect of eating the loco weed. Such cure is, 

 however, only apparent. The habit is formed and the animals 

 will at once begin to eat the plant again if turned out upon the 

 range. A permanent cure therefore, in the ordinary sense of the 

 word, seems to be practically impossible, the loco habit being com- 

 parable, as already indicated, to various injurious habits of men, 

 such as habitual drunkenness and the. morphine habit. For chronic 

 ca&es it seems hardly reasonable to expect that any remedy will be 

 devised. Then treatment must apparently proceed on the same 

 principles as the treatment of vicious habits of long standing in 

 man/' 



ALKALI POISONING. 



Alkali poisoning is somewhat akin to loco poisoning. This 

 trouble, as its title denotes, is caused by eating undue quantities 

 of alkali. It is generally thought that if sheep are salted regularly 

 that they do not take up the alkali habit. It has been contended 

 by some that eating alkali predisposes sheep to the loco habit, 

 therefore, the importance of regularly salting the flock. Some- 

 times sheep are seriously affected by drinking water highly im- 

 pregnated with alkali. Especially is this so when they have been 

 without water for any considerable time. It is claimed that as 

 yet no serious experimental study has been made by scientists 

 of this trouble. 



The common symptoms of alkali poisoning are fermentation 

 of food in the alimentary canal, severe bloat and congestion. But 

 a short time elapses after sheep have partaken of alkali before they 

 become stiff in the legs, very stupid and lose the use of their limbs 



