Part 4

A somewhat similar condition to the loco in stock is sometimes attributed by the ranchmen of our Western States to eating various sages. In Texas the loco disease is known as "grass staggers."

Hayes has described as follows a condition known as grass staggers, which apparently has little resemblance to loco and is supposed to be due to eating overripe grass, especially rye.

The symptoms, generally, take two or three days to become developed. The animal gradually becomes more or less unconscious and paralyzed and staggers if forced to walk. Although he may have great difficulty in keeping on his legs, he is extremely averse from going down and leans for support against any convenient object. He breathes in a snoring manner. The mucous membranes are tinged with yellow. Convulsions, or spasms, like those of tetanus, may come on.

Recovery may be expected in cases which are not marked by extreme symptoms.

If animals are not regularly salted, they visit salt deposits and eat the alkalis. This some sheepmen believe to be the cause of the locoed condition, but this is disproved by the occurrence of locoed animals in ranges without salt. Others modify this view by claiming that the vitiation in taste from eating these alkalis leads to a desire for the loco weeds and thus to the locoed condition.

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FOOTNOTES:

Fletcher, J. Evidence Before the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization. Ottawa, 1905, p. 53.

Sayre, L. E. Loco Weed. Amer. Vet. Rev., vol. 11, p. 555. 1887.--Stalker, M. The "Loco" Plant and Its Effect on Animals. Bur. Animal Industry, 3d Ann. Report. (1886), p. 271. 1887.

Eastwood, A. The Loco Weeds. Zoe, vol. 3, p. 53. 1892.

Chesnut, V. K. Preliminary Catalogue of Plants Poisonous to Stock. Bur. Animal Industry, 15th Ann. Rept. (1898), p. 404.

Williams, T. A. Some Plants Injurious to Stock. S. Dak. Agric. Coll. and Exper. Sta. Bul. 33, p. 21. 1893.

Givens, A. J. Loco or Crazy Weed. Med. Century, vol. 1, p. 22. 1893.

Eastwood, A., l. c. 1892.

Sayre, L. E. Loco Weed. Amer. Vet. Rev., vol. 11, p. 555. 1887.

Amer. Pharm. Assoc. Proc. for 1879, vol. 27, p. 611. 1880.

Kelsey, F. D. Another Loco Plant. Bot. Gaz., vol. 14, p. 20. 1889.

Sayre, L. E. Loco Weed. Kans. State Board Agric., 5th Bienn. Rept., p. 209. 1887.

Anderson, F. W. Poisonous Plants and the Symptoms They Produce. Bot. Gaz., vol. 14, p. 180. 1889.--Pammel, L. H. Loco Weeds. Vis Medicatrix, vol. 1, p. 44. 1891.

Stalker, M. The "Loco" Plant and Its Effect on Animals. Bur. Animal Industry, 3d Ann. Rept. (1886), p. 275. 1887.--Anderson, F. W. Poisonous Plants and the Symptoms They Produce. Bot. Gaz., vol. 14, p. 180. 1889.

NOTE.--The symptoms described in Janvier's interesting story, "In Old Mexico" (Scribner's Magazine, vol. 1, p. 67, 1887), would coincide with those due to some member of the nightshade family (probably Datura stramonium). See also Pilgrim, C. W., Does the Loco Weed Produce Insanity? in Proc. Amer. Medico-Psycholog. Assoc., vol. 5, p. 167. 1898.

Sayre, L. E. Loco Weed. Kans. State Board Agric., 5th Bienn. Rept., p. 209. 1887.

Stalker, M. The "Loco" Plant and Its Effect on Animals. Bur. Animal Industry, 3d Ann. Rept. (1886), p. 272. 1887.

Mayo, N. S. Loco. The Industrialist, vol. 30, p. 473. 1904.

Science, vol. 9, p. 32. 1887.

Hayes, M. H. Veterinary Notes for Horse Owners, London, 1903, p. 425.--Compare Woronin, M. Ueber die Taumelgetreide in Süd-Ussurien. Bot. Zeit., vol. 49, p. 80. 1891.

Chesnut, V. K., and Wilcox, E. V. Stock-Poisoning Plants of Montana. U. S. Dept. Agric., Div. Bot., Bul. 26, p. 88. 1901.

NOTE.--The wide distribution of these plants is claimed to be partly due to the buffalo. See Blankinship, J. W., The Loco and Some Other Poisonous Plants in Montana, in Mont. Agric. Exper. Sta. Bul. 45, p. 79. 1903.