Horses & Ivy?..........

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mandk

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Hi,

We have 6acres of new fields, it has not been grazed for over a year, so it has heaps of grass left in it, which is fantastic as we have never had grass at this time of year. The only thing is that it is surrounded by ivy. We have fenced off as much as we can as we know Ivy is poisonous to horses and ponies.

When checking on our horses today, they have broken a fence and have clearly eaten quite a bit of Ivy. We caught our New Forest pony chomping into it, the other two are a TBx and a TB... we do not know if they have eaten any??!!!??

Does anyone know the answers to any of the following......
1. How poisonous Ivy is to horses?
2. Is there different types of Ivy? & is all Ivy poisonous to equines?


I am surprised that if it is poisonous that they have eaten it, especially when they have so much grass. Plus they seem to like it.

Thanks in advance,

Kate
 
Now Im not completly sure about this but having had a similar problem a few years back where my pony got acess to ivy and ate it I did some research and found that most types of ivy arn't poisnus to equines and it was only... north american ground ivy (I think) that is. Not completly sure but Ill try and help anyway
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theres tons of ivy round the gateway to our field, and the horses always have a munch on the way through, and I guess when they are hanging around the gate. Doesnt seem to have done any of them any harm, all the research I could find suggested its only ground ivy that is poisonous
 
I cant find any reference to specific varieties being poisonous however some of them can cause allergic reactions when eaten or touched by horses.
 
Several of mine have a liking for Ivy and sometimes sneakily manage to snitch some sometimes. All have been fine to dat except one who gets diarhea.
 
When i lead my three out in the mornings they pass a hedge thats mostly ivy and they grab huge mouthfulls, they then try and get it out of each others mouths while on the way to the field.
They are really quite fond of it, i did wonder if it was bad for them, i kept telling them it was but they wouldnt listen
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