acorn poisoning

[rachelandcassie]

is this deadly and what shall i look out for? the new yard where i'm at is lined with oak tress and i've just spent the day opening all the surrounding fields so our horses have somewhere to roam (they were in the home paddock which wasn't so good) and lots of good grass and then putting up all the electric fencing we have around the heavily acorned areas but they are still sniffing around the trees. i can't do much about it yet as the yard owner's not around so i could do with some advice to calm me down! thanks, rachel.x

 

[polaris]

http://www.provet.co.uk/lorgue/5a5a0e1.htm
http://www.horsedata.co.uk/acorn.htm
http://www.horseweb-uk.com/features/plantmain.htm#o

 

[rachelandcassie]

scary:/ thanks for the links

 

[pottamus]

I would keep a close eye on this if I were you...yes they are poisonous when both green and brown because they contain tannins. I have two trees in my field and they have never been a problem, but one year my horse had obviously tried a few and got a liking for them. I had wondered why he had spent all day in one area of his field when he had grass elsewhere to eat. When I got to him in the evening I realised he had spent the day eating acorns...I spent a very worried couple of days wondering if he would be okay afterwards. Luckily for me, he was...but I fence the entire area off now each year.
Just be aware that they can get a taste for them and will have different effects on different horses.

 

[rachelandcassie]

thank god he was alright, you hear some horror stories don't you? i've managed to fence off more and rake up what i could but the pasture is lined with them:/ i'm gonna have a word with the yard owner to see if there's anything more permanent that can be done,if it were my property i'd trim back as much of the leaf producing branches, it'd be so expensive and take down a lot of the natural shelter but at least it'd give us a few years without worry. but i'm having to fence off such a huge amount of pasture it's unbelievable! and we could do with some field shelters..
she's never even sniffed around acorns before but now she's got a taste for them it's a nightmare!
!everyone check your fields!

 

[leanne123]

i noticed mine out in new field earlier picking at them, so spent all afternoon picking them up.
hope hes not been picking at them all week though.

 

[Theresa_F]

Yes horses will eat them.

Cairo had colic from stuffing himself years ago.