Acorns - realistically, how poisonous are they?

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As it says on the tin, really. We all know how things tend to get blown out proportion on the internet - how poisonous are they really?

I ask because there are a couple of trees in my boy's field at the moment, and a few of the horses seem to have gotten a bit of a taste for them. They're all happy and healthy enough, but it gets you wondering.
 
i think they can eat a few with no real problems but if they eat lots and have as preference to them over grass thats bad. if your grass is poor would be worth putting hay out so the neds dont have to eat the acorns. if not fence off whilst they drop
 
Well it can cause problems, such as liver damage - and you don't really want horses eating them. They can get a taste for them, and then just start hoovering them up, this in turn can cause the horse to become generally unwell.

Rake them up - or fence off the area that they are falling to.
 
Interested in others experience on this too as one of my field backs onto woods so the whole of the top of my field is covered in acorns at the moment. The boys aren't in there yet and I plan on fencing off and trying to remove them all but this will be a major job!
 
It would be interesting to know some figures on how much they have to eat for it to be a concern, i do fence the oak trees off but some still get onto the paddock and so do the leaves and i know that one of mine will eat both:rolleyes:
 
Just get a light garden rake and harrow them off if you can't fence it off.

Agree with the others, it's also worth pointing out it's worse if there's only one or two horses in the field because then they can get bigger shares of the acorns rather than just a few because of the others.
FWIW, I've been raking mine this year and the crop is very low with mostly shrivelled acorns too, presumably due to the hot dry weather we've had all year; I'd expect if you're in a wetter area then you might have loads more.
Next year, if there are a lot more I'm very tempted to fence off and install Nellie the pig who would positively devour them all!
 
Ibblebibble said:
It would be interesting to know some figures on how much they have to eat for it to be a concern, i do fence the oak trees off but some still get onto the paddock and so do the leaves and i know that one of mine will eat both:rolleyes:
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I'm not sure figures are particularly important though. If anecdotally the evidence is that horses are poisoned by eating large amounts, then you'd want to prevent them having any.

Bit like ragwort. We know it's poisonous and we prevent our horses from eating it.
 
We have fields full of bloody oak trees! I've moved my horses onto their autumn/winter grazing now (away from all trees).

I'm afraid I'd move them off that grazing OR fence the tree off. Not really a situation where you want to be kicking yourself for not doing it standing in front of a dead horse..
 
amymay said:
I'm not sure figures are particularly important though. If anecdotally the evidence is that horses are poisoned by eating large amounts, then you'd want to prevent them having any.

Bit like ragwort. We know it's poisonous and we prevent our horses from eating it.
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i do stop them eating them as much as i can except for the few that must bounce into the paddock, but it would be interesting to know if those few are going to cause problems or if in fact a horse would have to live solely on them for a week (for example) for it to have an effect.
certain substances we use, ie paracetomol, is safe in small doses but as we know an overdose would cause us liver damage.
 
burtie said:
They do it every year, it's called pannage. Makes hacking out that bit more interesting when you bump into a load of pigs around the corner. also makes for great fun when they come on the yard and wander around the stables!
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I bet it does! :eek:

I know about pannage (and the other Rights of Common). What I didn't know was that extra pigs had been brought in, effectively doubling their numbers, in response to the bumper acorn crop.
 
According to a vet I was speaking with, they do have to eat an awful lot, in preference to other food and pretty much on an empty stomach, for them to be detrimental. Whilst it's still better avoided, if possible, eating a few here and there is not going to kill them.

Interestingly, horses in Portugal graze beneath oak trees all the time and when I was talking with a very respected breeder over there, he'd never even heard of acorn poisoning. He reckons that he's never lost a horse pre-maturely due to it. NOT SAYING HE'S RIGHT, before someone screams at me, just another view.
 
showqa said:
According to a vet I was speaking with, they do have to eat an awful lot, in preference to other food and pretty much on an empty stomach, for them to be detrimental. Whilst it's still better avoided, if possible, eating a few here and there is not going to kill them.
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A bit like ragwort then! :eek:
 
Well my horses have been in the acorn filled paddocks for seven years. I don't put my liveries' horses in there though as although I am happy that my horses don't over indulge, I don't want any problems for my liveries (especially one who eats anything and everything to excess!). My horses have not had so much as a belly ache and I do occasionally see them picking at the acorns but they usually have lots of haylage in the field so aren't that interested. I think if I didn't feed haylage, they would definitely eat a lot more though, especially if the grass is poor like it is this year. There are not many acorns at all though this year.
 
All the fields on my yard have oaks in- there are prob verging on 40 odd oaks on the 26 acres the yard has. There is no getting away from the acorns- and you cant really fence them off as that would mean most of the field. Non of the horses have suffered including mine who was probably the most interested. I've read that some are more sensitive to the effects than others....its the buid up of tannins in the system that causes the damage so continued ingestion year on year may well show problems although a number of the horses on the yard are in their 20's/30's ans some have been on that yard all their life.
 
Acorns eaten in large amounts (or even small amounts with some horses) will also cause colic, so I’d be fencing any area where they are dropping.
 
I was surprised to see that most of the acorns that drop here (south of France) are hollow, possibly due to the heat. That might be why they don't bother with picking them up in Portugal?
 
I personally remove everything and anything that I think could be poisonous to mine, as another poster says you dont want to be stood over a dead horse kicking yourself about it! If you can avoid them being able to eat them through fencing, raking off etc than I would. We dont have any oak trees here bordering the fields thankfully :) but the fields are regularly combed for ragwort and the like and the laurel hedge, that the daft idiot who owned before us had put in, are fenced well out of nibbling horses reach. There isnt a definitive answer with several poisonous plants they can affect some horses more than others and trying to monitor how much your horse is consuming is difficult so I would always opt for the safest worry free option - Get rid! :)
 
We had a nice big acorn tree that borders our field. We've had horses in their for over 20 years and never had an issue. However, a few years ago two of the horses - my sister's and our oldie TB passed poos absolutely full of brown acorn shells!!! We were a tad concerned and went to check out the tree to find there were loads on the ground - more than we'd seen before. I knew that some horses could get a taste for them and essentially become somewhat addicted so we did fence the area off for the rest of that year. However, when we queried with the vet how bad they could be, he actually said once they were brown they weren't as dangerous, it was the freshly fallen, green ones that were worse. No idea how true this is. It was quite interesting seeing the difference in the poos of those who had stuffed their faces with the acorns and those who hadn't though! They've not done it since from what I can see but the tree did snap in half a coupe of years back so the main branches that overhung our field have mostly gone now.
 
Theres 2 oak trees in my Horses paddock, The Horses left them alone so we left the acorns there, however we kept a very close eye on them. It seems that my mare, YO's Horse and another Horse have decided to start eating them. I have been collecting them up (as much as I can anyway) and will be sectioning them off at the weekend.
 
Having seen a horse diagnosed with acorn poisoning, climbing the walls and banging his head against the wall and eventually PTS. I wouldn't take the risk.

I have also seen a horse suffering from ragwort poisoning. I hope to never see either again.
 
I remember reading last year that despite putting additional pigs on the New Forest 30 ponies died. I undertand there are about 4000 ponies kept on the forest. I fence mine off from the acorns no way I want to take a chance.
 
There are plenty of horses who live near ragwort who don't die either but that shouldn't mean the rest of us rest on our laurels about it, does it?

There will always be people who get away with it - do you want to be the one that doesn't, finding out the hard way? Might as well bury a knife in the field and play russian roulette with that too! :)
 
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