You may or may not remember hundreds of foals dying in Ky from cyanide poisioning several years back. It caused many of the horse farms to go out and destroy the beautiful black cherry trees there. The cyanide produced by leaves in the black cherry trees, which the tent caterpillars ate and then excreted, scenario WAS a part of mother nature....some things in nature do produce toxic substances or are toxic by nature.
Yes- lots of toxic plants. But this was planted to feed his cattle. The indication I have is that there is concern and inventigations to see what caused this bonafide graze to cause this. The second link says cattle are more likely to suffer the poisoning than horses on such grasses. Just amazes me the many management things most of us do not know (myself included).
More links and referenced from COTH. http://chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6394217#post6394217 It is mentioned in one that the culprit may have been the drought - though the guy said this particular field was green and lush. Another says the grass should be let to grow long to reduce the poisoning potential of the new growth. ALso worrisome for me is a long while ago and not on my property one of mine coliced bad and one peculiar thing I noticed was cherry red gums. Yes he was most likely toxic (he was in ICU) but he was also on a tifton at the time. And other horses were colicing at that barn around the same time in much the same fashion he did. He has never had tifton since. And no further colics.
Man has always, since the beginning of time, attempted to alter his environment to suit his wants and needs. It's man's nature to want to try to "improve" on nature or exploit his environment for personal gain; nothing new under the sun. My personal beef right now is fracking. I'm just waiting on the fracking folks to start polluting the groundwaters here in Ohio and elsewhere. They've already done it in Wyoming but it's either being ignored or denied.
http://www.tifton.uga.edu/fat/tifton85.htm http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/2,4-DTech.pdf phenoxyacids phenoxy derivatives of fatty acids used as herbicides; are largely innocuous to animals. They may make poisonous plants temporarily more palatable and increase their content of cyanide or nitrate. The common members of the group are 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, MCPA, 2,4-DB, MCPB and fenoprop. When a plant is genetically modified. It may not be innocuous to animals when sprayed with phenoxy derivatives of fatty acids used as herbicides .
15 yrs of grazing and now after one of the worst droughts we have had in Texas the grass goes bad?? Go figure, corenties can live on almost anything?? I buy almost all of my horse hay just a 1/2 mile down the road and it is Tifton 85.. I will check things out for sure, but I have quite abit of hay left from the past two years, I don't overload my horses with hay and I ride almost everyday..
Horses were dying mysteriously on property's over here certain years. It was caused by Blue canary phalaris grass. Which at certain times becomes higher in alkaloid levels making it extremely toxic. Blue canary phalaris contains six main alkaloids I have grazed cattle & horses on other types of phalaris grasses with no ill effects. They only containing two main alkaloids. With genetically modified grasses. Grass species that where not toxic or low in toxicity may over time increase in toxicity on their own or by exposure to mutagens. http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agricultu...ds/weeds/non-declared-weeds/blue-canary-grass
Terrible. There are also words on feedbag ingredients that hide what's in them: grain products/grain by products usually means corn. Soy has caused an awful lot of problems in horses and every other living thing. Right now there's a push starting for soy farmers to grow pearl millet, cheaper, healthier, and not all the allergy problems caused by soy.
One of the signs the intestine & organs are shutting down are visible bluish red blood vessels appearing in the gum's of the horse.
