Acorn Poisoning - A Poll

[TGM]

This year we have a massive crop of acorns on the oak trees adjoining our fields, so I have been busy electric fencing them off or picking up acorns. Just wondered how common acorn poisoning is, as I suspect there are a lot of people who don't bother taking any precautions.

 

[sorona]

I have heard of various horses and ponies that have sufered impacton colic from eating acorns so I think that would be my more immediate worry. My field is surrounded with oak trees, there is at least 1 in each paddock area and I am forever sweeping them away but my horses absolutely love them. I have been feeding bran to help move the acorns through at the recommendation of quite a few people!

 

[Gingernags]

Never heard of an actual one I know or local being poisoned but have heard in general.

We have one in the paddock we've just moved out of, so we sectioned off arnound it to keep them off. Luckily we still have plenty of grass so thats all they seemed to be interested in!

Had it not been for bits picked up off here, I'd probably not have even thought of keeping them off the acorns!

So thanks HHO really!

 

[sorona]

One of my boys particularly loves the oak branches and leaves that are falling at the moment too, I'll probably suffer in years to come!

 

[TGM]

Two of my three horses love them too. Strangely the greediest one doesn't seem interested in them though. Normally it's not too bad clearing them away, but this year there seems to be a bumper acorn harvest

.

I must say, whilst I'm aware of the danger of acorns, I've never personally known of a horse who has suffered problems from them, whether colic or otherwise. But I'm still going to take precautions though!

 

[fgroom]

I know of one horse who got colic because of eating acorns-only a few weeks ago, someone else I knew had to have their pony put down due to colic caused by eating acorns.

 

[Lill]

A few years ago 2 of ours had bad colic one ended up with a twisted gut and had to be put down and the other had to have major surgery. We're not sure if this was caused by eating acorns although it was around this time of year so it could well have been. Blue loves acorns unfortunately but there is a lot of grass at the moment so he's eating that instead, the others are not particularly interested in them.

 

[burtie]

Blimey, I'm the only one.

I have always known my horse likes acorns so very careful to keep her off them. One year she had no trees in her paddock but a branch overhang one corner from another field, after the wind was in the wrong direction one night a lot of acorns must have fallen and she came in that night with colic (the only time in her life). I walked the field and noticed how many hoofprints were in the area were the branch over hung and someone said they'd seen her there all day. A single injection from the vet and she was fine in about 4 hours so not serious but shows ho easy it can happen.

 

[TGM]

Very interesting replies, thank you everybody. I was reading on another forum how there seems to be a lot of colic cases at the moment, and I wondered whether some of these may be caused by the huge number of acorns around at the moment (although obviously the lush grass might be another factor).