The Farmer's Veterinarian: A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Farm StockBurkett, Charles William
Science
The Farmer's Veterinarian: A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Farm Stock
Burkett, Charles William
Veterinary medicine
When the animal comes down with the disease, it should be made as
comfortable as possible. The quarters should be roomy, quiet, clean, and
well ventilated. It is advisable to support the horse with a sling
unless the animal is worried or made nervous by it. This prevents his
becoming tired and falling down. We should give the animal the best of
care in the way of regulating the diet, etc., but should avoid annoying
it by our attention. Medicinal treatment is of little benefit and should
be given a secondary place. In fact, dosing the animal with medicine,
especially if large doses are given, may do more harm than good in the
treatment of this disease.
=LOCO DISEASE.=--The word loco is a Spanish word, and means crazy. Loco
disease is a disease of the brain and nervous system, especially of
horses and cattle, but may also affect other animals. It results from
eating any one of a number of poisonous plants called loco which grow
upon the dry, sandy prairies of some parts of the Western United States.
In winter and early spring, when there is little or no grass, some
animals acquire an appetite for this plant, and soon refuse all other
kinds of food. When addicted to the weed an animal loses flesh rapidly,
the eyesight becomes affected--often it has no knowledge of
distance--and frequently when made to step over a board or rail will
jump over it as though it were several feet high. Later, in the course
of the disease, the brain becomes more affected and the animal acts more
or less crazy, at times quite violent, at others depressed and dull.
Should the animal live through the first attack it may linger for months
or even years, but it usually dies as a result of the attack. Frequently
some peculiar “foolish” habit follows the animals through life. Some
have a nervous fit when excited or warmed up, others will not lead and
some you cannot drive at all. There is no cure for the trouble. All that
can be done is to prevent the habit from being formed or by removing the
animal from temptation and furnishing wholesome, nutritious food.
=LUMPY JAW.=--See Actinomycosis.
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