Like AussieBilly, I need a disease...

[Marsha Ward]

...or something.

My characters are in a small party traveling West in 1867. Lots of troubles have delayed them or they wouldn't be out in winter weather. They are within a week of their destination (Alburquerque--yes, with the original extra 'r'), and I need something to lay them low--an ailment or external force that will hold them up for several days but won't kill them. If I go with food poisoning, I need a source, probably in/from Santa Fe.

It's possible that only the men of the party could be affected. Maybe the gals are pickier eaters? If it's a contagion that they've picked up, I need a plausible reason why only the men get sick. If that, how long does your disease of choice take to show up and put the guys flat on their backs?

TIA for your ideas.

Marsha Ward
Writer in the Pines (http://marshaward.blogspot.com) blog
marshaward.com (http://marshaward.com)

[dpaterso]

Can't think of any illness off the top of my head...

Depending on their habits, a jug of bad moonshine could floor 'em for days. Head-busting hangovers, blindness, hallucinations, and an urgent need for new pants. Plus good reason for their nurses to lecture them constantly on the evils of temptation.

Or one or more of the party being attacked and injured by a wild animal, with the need to rest up and heal, could be adequate cause for delay.

Still thinkin'...

-Derek

[Marsha Ward]

Thanks for the ideas, Derek! I'll mull them around a bit.

I hadn't thought about wild animals attacking my party. I'd hate the risk of giving them rabies, though. But maybe a stampede of animals, wild or domestic, could unseat and injure at minimum the two characters who I need to be nursed by a third?

Or...?

[PattiTheWicked]

Food poisoning. Men will eat anything.

[Marsha Ward]

Food poisoning. Men will eat anything.

LOL! Very true. Thanks, Patti.

[JeanneTGC]

Bug bites, cougar attack, Indian attack, like Derek's idea of the bad liquor because it's more likely the women wouldn't have been allowed to have any, versus "here, I made the worst meal imaginable and I'm going to have all you menfolk eat it, but we girls are just gonna chew on some sand". :D Though I'm with Patti -- men and dogs WILL eat almost anything.

[Marsha Ward]

Hmmm, good ideas, JeanneTGC. Thank you.

[Cav Guy]

Taos Lightning would have been available at that time, and it was reputed to be able to strip rust off iron, paint from walls, and the lining from a man's stomach all at the same time. A good dose of the runs from that would certainly lay them up.

You could also combine that with a turn in the weather, which would delay things for a day or two.

[andrewhollinger]

You've probably got some pack animals right? A horse or donkey? You could have one of them attacked, or get sick. Or maybe the party just runs out of food and kills one. The pace would slow way down. Plus you could get some emotion out of that, often animals were so important to be part of the family.

[nessam]

Try this website
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~scintech/toilets/sewage_and_disease.html

[carlylyncoe]

Finding drinkable water along the trail, especially in the years that followed the original drive westward. Thousands and thousands of teams of oxen and mules had depleted the stores of water from viable streams, lakes, and springs. Those traveling throughout the late eighteen sixties would happen upon bodies of water known as 'Poison Spring' and 'Bad Water.' Many times the pioneers would walk through miles of badlands that contained no water whatsoever. The Great Basin was particularly difficult to pass for those who continued on westward; the dust would very often choke and blind the travelers as they made their way. Water could be found but was not drinkable; the teams often died from thirst or became so exhausted from the heat they had to be left to die.

[AussieBilly]

Marsha wanted to hold things up. In her story the party... "are within a week of their destination (Alburquerque--yes, with the original extra 'r'), and I need something to lay them low--an ailment or external force that will hold them up for several days but won't kill them."

*****
Hey, Marsha Ward ... does it have to be an illness? Could not one of the female members of the cast be having major birthing troubles? Infant mortality rates were not so very good back then. How about it being the wife/daughter of the party's leader, to give it more reason to stop for a day or so ... and then out of respect for the death of both mother and baby, another day or two -- funeral, reading of the bible, etc. Now you got a tear-jerker.
And you are correct with the extra 'r' in Duque de Alburquerque ... that was the original name given the community in 1706.

[johnnysannie]

Dysentery.