Are Sycamore leaves harmful

Melodyranch

Melodyranch

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Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows whether sycamore leaves are harmful to horses. Mine snack on the fallen ones, they don't gorge or anything but they certainly seem to like the taste. I can't find much on the web except some new trial in the states which says they are! Has anyone had any adverse effects on their horses?
 
The seeds are meant to be the cause of Atypical Myopia which is usually fatal. I would worry that if the horses were munching sycamore leaves they would also be ingesting sycamore seeds at the same time.
 
Melodyranch said:
Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows whether sycamore leaves are harmful to horses. Mine snack on the fallen ones, they don't gorge or anything but they certainly seem to like the taste. I can't find much on the web except some new trial in the states which says they are! Has anyone had any adverse effects on their horses?
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My mare used to go out of her way to eat sycamore leaves when they turned really dark green before they went golden in the autumn. She wasn't the slightest bit interested in them at any other time of the year so I can only assume they had some special taste in the autumn. She would also hoover up fallen leaves in the field and clearly relished those too. They certainly did her no harm as she was rising 30 when she was PTS with severe arthritis.
 
Atypical Myopathy
Sycamore seeds linked with Atypical Myopathy A recent study has linked toxins from seeds of the Sycamore tree with the fatal disease atypical myopathy. Atypical myopathy has recently caused deaths in horses with outbreaks being seen in the Spring and Autumn. The disease is typified by massive muscle damage which can lead to fatal kidney failure, often animals are just found dead. Animals can present looking very sick and coliky, and often brown urine is passed, similar to horses with muscle damage caused by ‘tying up’. Affected horses can occasionally be rescued with aggressive fluid therapy.

The study conducted by the University of Leige concluded that most horses with atypical myopathy were kept in sparse pastures with a lot of dead leaves and wood on the pasture. In all cases investigated a sycamore tree was identified on the pasture and it is thought that horses only ingest the seeds when other sources of food are sparse.

It is therefore recommended that if you have horses grazing near sycamore trees that you ensure that plenty of forage is always available so that they are not tempted to ingest the seeds
 
Thanks fatpiggy, thats reassuring. I know that the seeds were bad and they have no interest in the seeds at all, its just the leaves that they like. They have grass and hay to eat and choose to snack on the leaves.
 
I know someone who just lost a 6 month old foal to EAM following a storm which she believes blew the leaves and seeds into the field. We have both noticed that sycamore leaves in recent years often have a large black spot fungus appear on them in the autumn, and wonder if there is a link to EAM with the leaves as well as the seeds.
I have been vigilant this autumn removing any stray leaves from my paddocks following this story. It's pretty boring but I'm not taking any risks with the horses eating the leaves.
 
Two ponies I know died in October from AM.
The thing is, they had plenty of grass and looked overweight if anything. Large field, and one of them had been in the field for the previous 2 years and nothing happened.

I wouldn't risk it and we have already cut down the young tree that was going to grow over the fence eventually, since we heard.
 
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