Allegheny Spurge

The Effects of “Bubby” on Cattle

“Hundreds of cattle and sheep have died here in the past five years from bubby. The seeds only are poisonous. When a brute gets a sufficient does , from five to ten well filled pods, it makes for the nearest water and often falls dead while drinking, or it may live three or four weeks and then die. The symptoms are like those of a man extremely drunk, except that any noise frightens it. Stamp the ground hard, close to a brute poisoned with bubby, and it will jump and jerk and tremble for several minutes. That is our method of telling when they have taken it. The eyes turn white and glassy, and while lying they throw back the head and look as if dead already. Bubby does not seem to hurt a brute so much if it cannot get water. Our best remedy is apple brandy, strong coffee and raw eggs poured down as soon as possible after finding. It is certain that bubby is the most poisonous of any shrub or weed in existence here, from the fact that when brutes have once eaten it, they will take it every time they can get it. It grows on every hillside, along all branches [creeks], in every fence corner and almost everywhere here.”

– JHH Boyd [Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club v.15 1888 – p.208]