12 



SYMPTOMS: The first general symptoms are a certain excitement, 

 unthriftiness, diarrhoea, good appetite; later, staggering gait, partial 

 loss of motive power, craving for the weed, pulse accelerated, respiration 

 difficult, sometimes convulsions and death or a state of unconsciousness 

 and coma. Sometimes the attack is very acute, death occurring in a few 

 hours; usually, however, the disease lasts from a few days to several 

 weeks. 



REMEDY AND MEANS OF CONTROL: The first and most important 

 thing to be done is to change the food. Remove all hay and bedding 

 containing equisetum. Administer a purgative, as raw linseed oil or 

 aloes, to remove any undigested portion of the plant, and give stimulants, 

 camphor, or powdered nux vomica with grain feed three times a day. 

 Blisters along the spine are beneficial (Friedberger and Frohner). In 

 severe cases, slings should be used to support the animal before it loses 

 the power to stand. If this treatment is begun in time, the animals will 

 recover in practically all cases. 



This weed may be held in control by draining, enriching, and culti- 

 vating the ground. It thrives best in sandy or gravelly soil that is wet 

 in the spring and early summer, or where the underlying water is not far 

 from the surface of the soil. Good drainage and good cultivation will 

 eventually exterminate it as, although the rootstocks lie lower than the 

 depth of ordinary cultivation, they will starve if the green food-producing 

 shoots are kept cut. 





