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Sycamore poisoning and Preventative advice to horse owners?


Will Ayers
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So this year it became widely known that Sycamores are poisonous to horses. They kill them in a slow and painful way. :thumbdown:

 

Horses, be they pets that people trot about on or thorough bred beauties that we like to have flutter with, are expensive business.

 

I'm currently working with a major horse vets in Newmarket to outline the best course of action in the prevention of this fatal condition.

 

Current literature online state the obvious... Fell the tree or move the horse, make sure the horse has something other than Sycamore Keys to eat etc. not much about what time of year to do what though.

 

But in an ideal world Horses shouldn't be the reason to fell trees, besides anything else the shade that these trees cast can be massively beneficial to a horse in the hotter months.

 

Other than physically checking the ground, is there a time of year we can guarantee that the number of fallen keys will be negligable? can we simply crown raise tree to beyond horsey height and then quarantine the fields when the keys are falling? I'm looking for advice that the vets can use to give to owners and for use in their own grounds as well.

 

Have any of you lovely people had to help write an arboreal risk assessment for this or a similar situation...:confused1:

 

I think I have most of it written but I was wondering if you lot might have any gems of info!:001_smile:

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Move the horses I'd say. Often its only a whim keeping horses/ponies, until they get interested in boys. Trees are a longer effect in the environment. Sycamores are genuinely native to other countries where horses have existed for centuries.

 

You wouldn't or shouldn't keep horses in a field that was often wet, it leads to lameness. Nor should you allow ragwort to grow in fields they are in. I see plenty of both. Because they keep horses, prop them up with supplements, tonics healthcare etc instead of managing the land to keep them in top condition. Working horses in the olden days would get farm crops to supplement their diet and entertain them. Horses get bored, chew trees, toxic treated fencing wood. If they were busy pulling implements most days they would get the stimuli a domestic horse requires.

Bit like many dog/cat owners with their pets too pampered and precious, making them weaker.

Sheep and other livestock are rapidly killed by rhododendron or bracken yet they graze areas that are rife in this vegetation fine, through adapted management. Let a new sheep loose on such a field. dead in a day.

 

Doesn't answer your question maybe, but like lots of modern problems, I think thats were we are going wrong.

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So this year it became widely known that Sycamores are poisonous to horses. They kill them in a slow and painful way. :thumbdown:

 

Horses, be they pets that people trot about on or thorough bred beauties that we like to have flutter with, are expensive business.

 

I'm currently working with a major horse vets in Newmarket to outline the best course of action in the prevention of this fatal condition.

 

Current literature online state the obvious... Fell the tree or move the horse, make sure the horse has something other than Sycamore Keys to eat etc. not much about what time of year to do what though.

 

But in an ideal world Horses shouldn't be the reason to fell trees, besides anything else the shade that these trees cast can be massively beneficial to a horse in the hotter months.

 

Other than physically checking the ground, is there a time of year we can guarantee that the number of fallen keys will be negligable? can we simply crown raise tree to beyond horsey height and then quarantine the fields when the keys are falling? I'm looking for advice that the vets can use to give to owners and for use in their own grounds as well.

 

Have any of you lovely people had to help write an arboreal risk assessment for this or a similar situation...:confused1:

 

I think I have most of it written but I was wondering if you lot might have any gems of info!:001_smile:

 

Been 2 separate threads already . I was involved in felling some biguns just recently . Two big forwarding trailer loads . The owner had one horse die and one ill for sometime . Not much you do can other than keep them separate . The more grass they have the less chance they have of ingesting the keys but too much grass is also bad for them . Horses and boats ! Money pits !

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I've seen the other threads stubby. I wanted to compile a risk management worksheet and just wanted to know any gems of info regarding specific times of year and additional risk factors involved. Vets still aren't sure of what volumes need to be consumed to cause damage. Some are saying that is is potentially only a handful to do the damage. Others are saying loads. It's widely accepted that it's fine to graze horses under these trees in the early summer. Here's a lot of acreage that will be made redundant if no horses are allowed to graze under the trees for the whole year. As much as I like money I'm aiming this work to negate the need to fell the trees. It turns out. For example there is good scope for grazing this land with sheep prior to turning horses out in the spring. The sheep can clean the ground.

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