490 
RYE-GRASS THE SUPPOSED CAUSE OF 
PARALYSIS IN HORSES. 
By Griffith Evans, M.R.C.V.S., Bridgenorth. 
In the February number of the Veterinarian , there is a 
letter from Mr. Litt, of Shrewsbury, upon paralysis, also 
another by Mr. Storrer, and others in previous numbers of 
the journal, the writers of which consider rye-grass to have 
been the cause of the attack. 
I was called last week to attend four horses at the same 
farm-house, affected with this disease. 
Symptoms . — All their limbs were involved ; the pulse was 
somewhat excited, the appetite good. The animals appeared 
just as one might expect to see horses if intoxicated with 
alcohol, or, as one observer remarked, “ they were reeling 
drunk.” 
Treatment . — This consisted firstly in an entire changeof 
the food. During the first four or five days I allowed nothing 
but bran mashes, with a liberal quantity of oats, as their 
" condition” was low. 
The owner had bled them before sending for me, which, as 
might have been expected, made them worse. Secondly, 
I gave small doses of nux vomica daily, and they all recovered 
in a short time. 
I need not go into further details, as there are so many 
similar cases recorded. But I wish to remark that these 
horses were all being fed on rye-grass , into which they were 
turned every night; that there were no sheep nor other 
animals in the field, so that the horses ate the tops of the grass 
containing the seeds, which at this time were ripening. 
Is there not sufficient reason to suppose, as indeed your 
correspondents have before observed, that rye-grass, at a 
certain stage of its growth, has a tendency to produce 
paralysis in the horse ? And is it not desirable that further 
investigation should be made into this subject ? 
The waggoner stated that these horses began to cc stagger” 
three weeks before I was called in, and that this gradually in- 
creased. It w T as four weeks since they were first fed with 
rye-grass. 
Should any of your readers have observed similar cases 
traceable to this cause, I venture to suggest that they will do 
well to give publicity to them, so as to stimulate and assist 
investigation. 
