Ragwort poisoning - sorry also in Stable yard

[Foxy girl]

Hi not been on the forum for ages (had baby and back to work etc) but wondering if anyone can help?

My mare has been diagnosed with some sort of poisoning - she has been lethargic for a few days, dehydrated and last night came out in hives all over her, nasal discharge, sore eyes etc. Had her bloods back today, showing liver damage and they've been sent to Newmarket to assess how bad the damage is. Vet not sure if it's ragwort but it's a possibility (YO v. bad at clearing it, have been clearing it ourselves but obviously missed some...) but I'm wondering if the Japanese Knotweed that she can just about reach over fence by stream may be the cause...

Can anyone shed any light and also would Milk Thistle be a good thing to use to help her liver recover?

Absolutely devastated this has happened - feel so responsible for not clearing field myself and for trusting YO. Poor horse is so poorly but still fighting and we had to use stomach tube today to get fluids down her - absolutely horrible.

Have moved her to new paddock and spent 2 hrs checking for ragwort so at least i know she's safe for tonight...

Any help gratefully received!
Thanks

 

[Vicster1]

I used a Global Herbs supplement when my lad had been out in a field of the dread ragwort (yes I did try clearing it, but there were 4 horses in a huge field and yours truly was the only one worried about it....) think it was called Restore (?). However, I was using it 'just in case' as opposed to knowing he'd eaten it. It comes in liquid and powder form.

Hope your mare recovers soon!

 

[Llwyncwn]

Im so sorry to hear this. Afraid I cant offer any advice if it is Ragwort. Your YO has an obligation to remove ragwort, but at least you have moved her to a new paddock.

If you get no response from here, please do go and see your health food shop who will advise, or contact a natural remedy agent.

Worried for you. Please let us know how you get on.

 

[LeneHorse]

Pony at yard I'm at had ragwort poisoning 2 years ago and is still with us. Owner has to manage him carefully though - he is on a special diet (no protein), she can't worm him and he is not allowed bute. Make sure your vet gives you advice about this. It was a bit of a wake up call for YO as he has now started to manage the dratted stuff - sprayed the fields the past 2 years. A few of us have always pulled the fields but like people are saying its only a minority who bother to do this. Heard some great excuses for not doing it though! Eg 'my horse is too intelligent to eat ragwort'. Hope your mare is ok.

 

[debradley]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you; don't know much about the recovery process; just hope she's been diagnosed in time wihtout too much damage. Ragwort is the bane of my life. Where I'm liveried we have it and I've been pulling it and finding it for the last three weeks in my paddocks. Unfortunately, the other paddocks are empty and so the blasted stuff is just left; owner doesn't do much with his land anyway (all thistles nettles brambles and everything else). I'm spending the whole bank holiday weekend, strimming my 4 acre field by hand as I can't let YO in to top it incase I haven't found all the ragwort!! At least I can spot it as I'm strimming. I HATE IT.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you mare and hope she makes a full recovery.

 

[kent]

Ragwort Eradication.
When I took over my fields they were seas of yellow, like fields of oilseed rape, but it was ragwort, at up to 100 plants per sqare metre. At this level pulling was out of the question, so I sprayed, with 2,4-D, once a year for the past two years. Last year about 100 plants on 2ha; this year not a single plant in sight.

Forget pulling, organise spraying sessions. The weedkiller costs next to nothing. The only problems are: -
1. Organising for horses to be off the land for a few weeks while the plants die and decompose. I sprayed in October when the horses came off the land for winter.
2. Spraying equipment. I bought a new tractor mounted 70litre sprayer for about £600. One filling sprays a third of a hectare in 20 minutes. (About an hour including filling, measuring out the dosage, and a cup of tea.) For up to a ha, a 20l backpack sprayer could be used, although this would be fairly heavy when full, and the hand pump is a pain.

A couple of words of caution - Excessive overspraying (e.g. stopping my tractor before switching off the pump.) kills grass, although the usual slight overlap of one pass and the previous one does not kill the grass. This spring I mixed MCPA with the 2,4-D to kill reeds. This has serioiusly retarded grass growth this year. I would not mix two weedkillers, each at their individual recommended dosage, again.

A tip - buy some white plastic waste pipe from B&Q or similar shop to use as markers. I cut each 2m length into two, and placed these before spraying

Incidentally these weedkillers take out buttercups and nettles and a lot of other weeds, completely. I am not sure about thistles, docks, and brambles, as I haven't sprayed any.

So please don't waste your time pulling ragwort. Some root often gets left in the ground, especially if you force kids, who want to be riding ponies, into doing it! Just spray it with 2,4-D.

 

[Foxy girl]

Thanks so much for all your replies (and those in Stable Yard). On Sat am I spent 2.5 hours pulling ragwort from the YO's field that my mare was in (too late I know, but I had to do something). I filled 4 buckets BUT found 2 piles of limp stuff the YO had left when she had a half-hearted attempt at pulling the stuff a couple of weeks ago. Think now that this is what my mare has eaten - vet has given me bute, antibiotics and Lacrulose to give her until Tues when she's going in for a biopsy to assess the extent of the liver damage.

I think today she's looking stronger, she's a big horse - 16.2hh full up ID and seems to be fighting like mad but as you say, we don't know how much damage has been done. Interesting to read about the no wormer/bute etc - thanks for that, I will bear in mind if (when) she pulls through.

Have got to keep thinking positively, she is the kindest most wonderful horse and I cannot possibly imagine life without her.

I will keep you posted...

Thanks again

 

[Foxy girl]

Just to let you kn ow - in case anyone still following this thread... My mare has improved so much over the past 24 hours - I don't know if it's false hope, but she is eating loads, all her lumps have gone, she's bright and interested in everything and after turning her out for a few hours today I came to put her in and she tanked off with me - 5 times. Eventually got her in and have just texted the vet to ask her to come and see my horse tomorrow before she calls us in for the biopsy. I don;t want to put her through anything unecessary but likelwise of course I'll take her if vet thinks best.

Still on the ragwort trail... YO back from hols tomorrow to face the music - just hope she is shocked into bucking up her ideas...

 

[MurphysMinder]

Really pleased she is improving, will keep my fingers crossed. Good luck with tackling YO. I am surrounded by fields where nobody bothers with ragwort . It has taken 3 years but have just about cleared my paddocks. Only a handful of plants this year. I mainly did it by hand cos I haven't got enough grazing to keep the neddies off whilst the ragwort dies.

 

[debradley]

So pleased to hear your mares improving, but do take the vets advice especially if you're insured. Best to be on the safe side, but you must be so releaved. Do keep us posted on her progress.

I noticed on this thread the part about using 2,4D to eradicate ragwort. Could anyone answer; I've always been worried about poisoning the plant leaving it to die and then leaving it in the field. Once the ragwort's been treated and died does it then stop being poisonious even when dry and dead after using the poison, or do you still need to remove the dead plant?

 

[LeneHorse]

We were told we should take out the dead and dying ragwort following the spraying - it is still poisonous but no longer bitter so they are actually more likely to eat it apparently. We have however taken a risk and put the horses back out while we are clearing the remains of the ragwort. There is loads of grass though so hopefully they will just gorge on the grass. No-one could cope with them being in 24/7 any longer! Whatever our YO sprayed with has blitzed the docks, buttercups and the poor little daiseys so guess its pretty powerful stuff.

 

[kent]

Ragwort seeds germinate in Spring, and become just small rosettes, close to the ground, that year. In the following year the plants sprout and flower by about June. Therefore if you "pull" ragwort, you tend to remove the sprouted plants, leaving this year's crop of rosettes. If you cut the grass, the yellow give-away flowers will be cut from the root of the plant, so you will probably miss the root, and it will sprout again. If you don't cut the grass, you won't see the rosettes. Even if you see them, pulling rosettes is well nigh impossible. So if you pull the ragwort, and immediately allow horses onto the land, they could probably still eat the rosettes, and the immature plants you have missed.

I have watched my horses eating, for hours on end, in fields containing ragwort. They know all about ragwort, and avoid eating both the stems and the rosettes. (Horses know which grasses they like, and search for those. Mine prefer the old meadow grasses, and avoid rye grass, so I have now seeded the areas in front of the stables and around gates with rye grass, to encourage them to eat, and trample, elsewhere. They don't eat docks or buttercups either!)

When I sprayed in Sept/Oct the ragwort plants had already flowered, seeded, and wilted, partially disintegrated and become part of the soil. I was therefore spraying the rosettes; next year's crop of sprouting plants. When I sprayed the rosettes in Spring, catching this year's crop of rosettes, I think they disappeared into the soil in two weeks, four at the most. On both occasions I was able to keep ggs off the land for at least a month, treating this as an opportunity for the field to recover. After all, it's not a good idea to keep horses on land for all twelve months of the year.

So I would definitely recommend spraying rather than pulling, and take the chance to rest the field for a month. Electric fencing springs to mind, if necessary.

Many a ragwort plant has found its way into hay or haylege, so I don't think ONE ragwort plant is going to kill a horse. Ragwort is a cumulative poison in the liver, not instant death.

LeneHorse - I would be interested in what your YO used to eradicate the docks.

Another agricultural note - MCPA kills reeds (Or rushes) effectively.

 

[Cuffey]

http://www.globalherbs.co.uk
Lots of info on Restore
Ragaid
Milk thistle etc