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Plants Poisonous to Livestock

Hi Folks, I have been collecting lists of plants that are poisonous over the years. I get lot of people asking,"What is harmful to my horse?". When I ask people that are just buying a horse for the first time or people that have owned horses for years if they know what plants are harmful to their animals, most don't know. This is a list that has been compiled for plants mostly in the northeast but if you email a list of poisonous plants in your area I will be glad to add them in.
Not all plants listed here are deadly, the reactions vary widely from mild to dead in minutes. There is no vet help offered on this site or information on how to treat for poison. CALL YOR VET.

Alsike Clover
Apricot Tree - see cherry tree
Azalea
Baneberries - intensive digestive upset
Black Locust - bark, sprouts, foliage - nausea, weakness and depression
Blackwalnut - be careful to get shavings which contain no blackwalnut
Box Wood - lethal
Braken Fern - often poisons horses - nervous symptoms characteristic of vitiam b1deficency - can be poisoned by braken in hay or bedding
Buckeyes
Buttercups
Cherry Trees -twigs and foliage -can be lethal- antidote is effective if given very quickly- very common tree
Chives - affects liver and kidneys
Christmas Rose -butter cup family
Coclebur-found on pond shores
Corn Cockles
Crimson clover
Daphne - small red or yellow berries cause severe mouth burns
Dutchman'breeches - grows in pastures and have caused loss of livestock
Elderberry - digestive upset
Ficus
Foxgloves - fresh or in hay - irregular heart beat and pluse
Foxtail
Ground Ivy - Lethal - causes slobbering ,sweating, pupil dilation
Horseradish - becomes excited, in pain - loses weight even though eating
Horse chestnuts - related to buckeyes which are poisonous - no evidene that chestnuts are
Horsetail
Hyacinth
Irises - fleshy root
Jack-in-the-pulpit - contains oxalate crystals
Japanese maple
Japanese Yew
Jimsonweed
Larkspur -found in flower gardens or wild - leaves and roots
Leafy Spurge
Lily's - (some not all)-bulb
Lily-of-the valley
Lupine -western varity has caused lots of livestock deaths
May apple - animals occasianllly poisoned - 16 active toxic principles
Monkshood
Mountain Laurel - VERY DEADLY
mushrooms
Narcissus
Nightshad
Oaks - acorns -in large amounts -gradual kiddney damage in livestock
Oleander --deadly
Onions - a few are fine but large amounts for several days will destroy red blood cells
Sheep laurel
Peach Tree - see cherry tree
Plum Tree - see cherry tree
pond Scums - algae
Potatoes - leaves and vines the normal heathly tuber itself is harmless
Privet
Ragwort
Red Maple
Rhododendron
Rubarb - leaf
Rubber Tree - contains a strong irritant called Euphorbia ( this information was supplied by Bitaboo@aol, she got the information from the poison comtrol center after she has several colics.)
Saint Johns Wort
Star-of-Bethlehem-onion like weed that has caused extensive loss to livestock
Sensitive Fern
Skunk Cabbage
Sudan Grass- under 18" dark green
Sweet Pea - seeds produce skeletal deformity
Thornapple
Tomatoes - vines may be poisonous
Vetch
Waterhelmlock - tubular roots sometimes have enough toxin that one root can kill - violent and painful convulsions
White Snakeroot -- horse?? but it does effect cows and people if they drink the milk of cows that have eaten white snakeroot
Yew - can be deadly - greenish-yellow on the under surface - no white stripe

Most horses that have enough forage will not eat what is poisonous. BUT if hand fed a horse may eat what it shouldn't, if there is very little forage left they may eat what they normally would not. Some of the plants listed above, can kill in one mouthfull others like the onion take alot to to damage.

This list is not complete and will be added on to as time allows. There are over 700 plants in the US and Canada that are poisonous, I don't even have a small fraction of them listed.

It can't be said enough. CALL YOUR VET if you suspect a problem with plant poisoning.

Check out Wee Mite's Web site for information on miniature horses.
WeeMite's Home page
If you would like to check out plants that are good for horses chlick here GOOD WEED (HERBS)

Check out the Cornell site for more information: Cornell

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