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PLANTS POISONOUS TO HORSES
Click on Link below for pictures.
Poisonous Plants Pictures- Alsike Clover
- Apricot Tree - see cherry tree
- Azalea
- Baneberries - intensive digestive upset
- Black Locust - bark, sprouts, foliage - nausea, weakness and depression
- Black walnut - be careful to get shavings which contain no black walnut
- Box Wood - lethal
- Braken Fern - often poisons horses - nervous symptoms characteristic of vitamin 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
- Cocklebur-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 pulse
- 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 evidence 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 variety has caused lots of livestock deaths
- May apple - animals occasionally poisoned - 16 active toxic principles
- Monkshood
- Mountain Laurel - VERY DEADLY
- mushrooms
- Narcissus
- Nightshade
- Oaks - acorns -in large amounts -gradual kidney 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 healthy tuber itself is harmless
- Privet
- Ragwort
- Red Maple
- Rhododendron
- Rubarb - leaf
- Rubber Tree - contains a strong irritant called Euphorbia can cause colic.
- 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 mouthful, others like the onion take a lot to dodamage.
This list is not complete. There are over 700 plants in the US and Canada that are poisonous. Call us at 619-659-1180 if you suspect a problem with plant poisoning.