Any sycamore problems yet?

[Patchworkpony]

Has anyone heard of any sycamore seed problems yet and are the seeds starting to fall?

 

[hairycob]

I am, thankfully, well away from sycamores this year. Haven't heard of any problems yet, I guess the next couple of weeks will see the start. Hopefully it will be a better autumn spring than the 13/14. Spoke to one Vet who said their (big) practice saw as many AM cases this spring as in the last 7 years put together.

 

[MagicMelon]

I chopped down the only 2 sycamores we had in the field, couldn't take the risk. Are you not able to do this? Or are there loads of them?

 

[ameeyal]

We have moved to a farm with a lot of huge sycamores bordering the field, luckely its also very windy up here so im hoping they will be blow away. Can not see any in the field yet.

 

[ThePony]

They are falling in increasing numbers at the moment, picking up handfulls upon handfulls each day.
Would cut them down in a flash if I could, but they border the yard we rent so we are stuck with carefully walking the fields each day and picking the damn things up one by one!

 

[Patchworkpony]

Are you not able to do this? Or are there loads of them?

On the other side of the road unfortunately.

 

[Evie91]

We have loads unfortunately - all along side of my larger paddock and four huge trees in the smaller paddock.
The horse and pony favour the smaller paddock. They are falling by the bucket load, loads of huge seeds. My husband is mowing the paddock once a week underneath the trees and collecting the cuttings - this is really helping.
I am also haying them in the paddock - I'm hoping that will cut the risk of them eating the seeds as they shouldn't be hungry.
If mowing once a week(he only has chance on a weekend) doesn't keep on top of it - the smaller paddock will be shut off.
The larger paddock has been divided off and most of the sycamores are in the winter section - we are waiting for all leaves to fall and then husband will mow leaves before horses are turned out. That leaves one sycamore in the bit they will be sectioned off in - I'm hoping the mowing and haying will mean they don't eat the seeds.

 

[Patchworkpony]

Gosh they are really such a nuisance and so time consuming to deal with!

 

[glinda]

I'm surrounded by the darn things- all my paddocks and house- they are everywhere!
I have never had a problem with them though but am keeping everything crossed it stays that way- there would be far far far too many for me to pick up- would take me literally 24 hours a day just doing that….. 20 acres plus to cover :-(

 

[Evie91]

Glinda (love the name,one of my favourite films) - so glad it's not just me. We are literally surrounded by sycamores - lots of the lanes around here are tree lined, almost like driving through a tunnel and they are sycamore.
On the footpaths, wood, golf course - loads of sycamore.
We also have oak too. My older horse seems to only like eating grass, the young pony has a nibble on everything - we are also mowing oak leaves too. Pony seems to leave individual leaves and acorns but if there are three leaves and a bit of branch, gobbles this in seconds - just sort of picks them out on her way past.

 

[Patchworkpony]

I do wonder if sycamores always caused problems but people didn't know what it was or whether this is a new problem brought about by climate change.

 

[hairycob]

My vet thinks AM has been under diagnosed in the past & suspects that it often the cause when horses are found dead/dying, but also last year was a particularly bad year. We had the autumn storms spreading the seeds further than usual then the mild winter and spring gave perfect germination conditions. There is a theory that hard frosts help breakdown the toxin & last winter we didn't have heavy frosts. On top of that there was a particularly heavy crop of seeds. Hopefully this year won't be so bad.

 

[Patchworkpony]

My vet thinks AM has been under diagnosed in the past & suspects that it often the cause when horses are found dead/dying, but also last year was a particularly bad year. We had the autumn storms spreading the seeds further than usual then the mild winter and spring gave perfect germination conditions. There is a theory that hard frosts help breakdown the toxin & last winter we didn't have heavy frosts. On top of that there was a particularly heavy crop of seeds. Hopefully this year won't be so bad.

Thanks for that info - I am so sorry for your loss last year and do hope thinks go much better for you now.

 

[hairycob]

HP is coming on well & physio is pleased with his progress. We are taking things slowly & only started trotting this week, I think he had forgotten how! He is having a quieter life with me now & my son bought a new horse called Clive 3 weeks ago who we hope will give him a lot of fun jumping.

 

[dominobrown]

I have never had any problems, however my fields are surrounded by them, and so are most fields in the area, they are really common around here so unless I go round chopping down every other tree and turning the place into Easter Island I am just going to have to live with it!

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

All our fields are surrounded by oak trees and we have one wretched sycamore tree in one of our fields. That's been shut off, we are very lucky that we have several fields so can do this. I'm haying these ponies and we're waiting til they've dropped and invested in a vaccum to rid the blighters from the ground before using the field again.

I do think that it's a toxin thing from soil too, horses have been near sycamore for years without all these problems. Perhaps its a combination of things like the dreadful wet winters we've had too releasing stuff that lain dormant but come to the surface with the water tables becoming so high?

 

[Evie91]

Hairycob - May i ask - how old were you horses (when they became ill) and what breed(I'm guessing at least one is a cob!)?
Do we know if there are any other risk factors involved? To my mind I think whilst the weather stays dry should be ok - I would think there would be more risk when leaves, seeds are wet - perhaps more mould and fungus then. This is purely an assumption, not based on fact!

 

[Joeyjojo]

I really wish there was some more info out there on what actually causes the problems. I've just moved my horses and have both oak and Sycamore - I can deal with the oak by roping off the trees, but those blasted sycamore seeds get everywhere

Anyone know if it needs to be large numbers of seeds? I'm raking them up daily, but not had many yet. Am also thinking of getting a mower having read the threads on here. How does it work - do you just mow the affected areas or will it collect without mowing? (Sorry mowing numpty!)

 

[Alliya]

Hairycob - May i ask - how old were you horses (when they became ill) and what breed(I'm guessing at least one is a cob!)?
Do we know if there are any other risk factors involved? To my mind I think whilst the weather stays dry should be ok - I would think there would be more risk when leaves, seeds are wet - perhaps more mould and fungus then. This is purely an assumption, not based on fact!

Hi Evie

My filly was 2 year old Arab
It happened 30th October am I got the phone call to say get up here quick something's wrong vet was called whilst I was on way meet up yard
My filly was rushed in to liphook by 9.30am she was was still standing at this point and we thought we had a chance to save her soon after she arrived she went down
By 3am on the 31st October I had to have her put to sleep no more could be done

The ground was wet she was ok the night before we did have sycamore trees which at the time we had no idea There were 6 horses admitted that week only one made it

This happened in 2011 this was before the sycamore trees where linked the other 2 ponies how use the same field where new forest where tested and where clear

This is a horrible way to go and I would not wish anyone to see their best friend to go so quickly

 

[Alliya]

There is a page on Facebook Equine atypical myopathy

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I was finding sycamore keys on the yard during the high winds in August. We have been her 20 yrs and *touch wood* haven't had a problem but our prevailing wind tends to blow the keys away from the horses' grazing. Our sheep shelter under the trees and probably eat most of the keys that land near them.

 

[Alliya]

Our yard owner had kept horses on the yard for nearly 50years it still happened

 

[Evie91]

Hairycob - so sorry to hear about your mare, how awful for all concerned.

 

[Evie91]

Mowing - just sit on mower with grass collect on the back. Collects up the majority but not all. The only thing is, it cuts the grass too, so underneath the trees is very short. In some places it's just turned to a dust bowl. I'm not too bothered as at least it means less chance of the horses trying to graze it. My horses favourite place to shelter, snooze is right under the sycamore.
I'm haying the paddock, so hopeful that they will eat they hay rather than seeds, but you never know, pony will eat anything!

 

[SO1]

We have them too and it is a worry I think they blow in from adjoining land which is not owned by YO.

I think 2013 was a mast year so there may have been a lot more seeds of many types around. Unfortunately it is so difficult to protect the horses from everything, we have acorns too, so sad that the trees that provide them with shelter from the elements can also be so dangerous to them.

 

[hairycob]

The horse that died was an 8yo cob, HP is 15 fresian x cob. The fields have had horses in for over 40 years with no previous problems. My horses broke all the rules getting it! There are no sycamores adjacent to the fields but there are several nearby. They had plenty of grass, had just fenced off a bit as they were putting on weight but there were so many seedlings popping (we thought they were ash as there are 2 big ash trees next to the field) up they probably couldn't take many mouthfuls without them in. After Jason died I moved HP to a different paddock & checked twice a day for new seedlings, he also had plenty of haylage but he became ill a week later. HP was lucky - I had seen him at 8.30, a bit depressed, but he had been all week since Jason died. Sharer was getting him ready to go show jumping, normally she rode in the afternoon. Got to venue & he perked up, seemed fine. It was only in the warm up when he had no "go" it was apparent he wasn't right. I was an hours drive away by then so she got him back home & a friend looked him over & called the vet. Because Jason had died & by this time his quarters were just starting to twitch they said to bring him straight in. He was already starting to stiffen up & my friend reckoned that in another 30 minutes they would have had trouble getting him on to the trailer. By 12.30 when I got to the Vets he was obviously very sick.

 

[charlie76]

We have a sycamore in my field .Mine is a red tree rather than a green one. Compared to last year the seeds are minimum but I will be checking daily. I have the tree fenced off all the time and have an enormous amount of grass but still worry. I don't put them out in that paddock for longer than five hours.
We lost three to it at my last yard and it was terrible.

 

[throughtheforest]

We have one sycamore and two oaks and as of yet i cannot see a single seedling or acorn on the ground. It looks as though neither of the oaks have any acorns on this year as the leaves are falling but that is all.

 

[Alliya]

Hi Evie

My filly was 2 year old Arab
It happened 30th October am I got the phone call to say get up here quick something's wrong vet was called whilst I was on way meet up yard
My filly was rushed in to liphook by 9.30am she was was still standing at this point and we thought we had a chance to save her soon after she arrived she went down
By 3am on the 31st October I had to have her put to sleep no more could be done

The ground was wet she was ok the night before we did have sycamore trees which at the time we had no idea There were 6 horses admitted that week only one made it

This happened in 2011 this was before the sycamore trees where linked the other 2 ponies how use the same field where new forest where tested and where clear

This is a horrible way to go and I would not wish anyone to see their best friend to go so quickly

I have had a quick look on the net there is a sight for AM if you type in the full name it will come up for anyone with a case can put in the details for research I did when I lost Roxy

 

[Evie91]

Sorry in my rush to post last night I got my posters confused. Thank you to both of you who have shared stories. So, sorry to hear about the loss of beloved horses.
Hairycob, I hope your surviving horse continues to make a good recovery.
It's such an awful disease - it's such a shame we don't know more.
I'm hoping horse chestnut trees are not the next to watch out for - after today witnessing my pony opening a conker, eating the nut then the shell!