21 



For the practical purposes of the livestock business the following 

 conclusions may be drawn from this table for yearling animals weighing 

 around 250 pounds: (1) small 

 amounts of one-fourth pound or 

 less are practically harmless; (2) 

 amounts of one-half pound are 

 dangerous but not fatal; (3) 

 amounts of three-fourths of a 

 pound will either kill the animal or 

 make it very sick; (4) all amounts 

 in excess of three-fourths of a 

 pound are highly dangerous. 



Animal 31, through a mistake, 

 was fed 3 pounds of the dried 

 plant mixed with alfalfa. The ani- 

 mal ate this very greedily. This 

 shows that an animal will readily 

 eat much more than a fatal dose of 

 the dry milkweed, especially if it is 

 mixed with a. palatable feed such 

 as alfalfa hay. When the plant is 

 dried, it does not lose its poisonous 

 character, but apparently does lose 

 its bad flavor and becomes much 

 more attractive to both sheep and 

 cattle. 



SYMPTOMS OF MILKWEED 

 POISONING 



The first symptom noted in sheep 

 is extreme dullness or entire loss 

 of appetite. In as sluggish an ani- 

 mal as a sheep this abnormal dull- 

 ness is often difficult to detect, and 

 some of the tests recorded as nega- 

 tive may have had this symptom. In 

 several cases there was a distinct 

 trembling over the entire body 

 accompanied by salivation. The 

 next symptom to appear was a wob- 

 bly unsteady gait, first noticeable 

 in the hind legs. In several cases 

 this became worse until the animal 

 staggered and was hardly able to 

 walk, sometimes falling over. 



In extreme cases this would be 

 followed by a stage where the ani- 

 mal was down and unable to get 

 up. Some of the animals while 

 down were in a comatose stage as 

 if asleep or in deep stupor. 



In the fatal cases there was a 



Figure 9 Calf Poisoned by Narrow- 

 Leaved Milkweed. 



series of spasms while the animal was down, much resembling the 

 symptoms of water hemlock (poison parsnip, Cicuta) poisoning. While 



