Sycamore Trees and Poisoning

[hairycob]

There wouldn't have been any sycamore panic in 2007n as the cause of AM wasn't identified until 2013

 

[hairycob]

When I lost 1 & had 1 survivor in April 2014 I heard of several local cases. My vet told me they had more in 1 month that spring than in the previous 7 years that she had been with the practice. Then very quiet again until this winter.

 

[Fieldlife]

If facebook is to be believed (clearly a BIG IF) then horses are being confined to stables for weeks and 100 year old trees are being felled
Not to mention the stress on owners and fights between YO / horse owners over responsibility and time being spent picking up seedlings and hoovering up seeds.

We're in a really horsey area - 3 big (50+ yards) livery yards within 10 mins of here + tonnes of smaller ones.

Talking to physio and farrier - nobody knows anyone with any first hand / or second hand experience of this as a problem - just facebook blind panic.

I'm sure there have been an handful of nasty instances - but there are a handful of deaths on the road each year and we still all largely hack on the road

There are lots of vets posting warnings on facebook and reporting deaths. A horse died in my immediate area a few years ago, and others were ill. People take all measures now - fencing off / moving with collectors / puling seedlings.

The BEVA have done a public announcement of the risk to horses if there are sycamore seeds in has this year as as so many seeds. This is a big organisation, wouldnt take these measures / annoucements without evidence.

The toxicity of seeds is unknown, can vary tree to tree, year to year, and seed to seed. Past safety is no guarantee of future safety. IMO allowing a small amount of ragwort in field with good grass / hay in field is far lower risk than having sycamore seedlings in same field.

I could be hit by a car on the road, I avoid blind bends, hack on quiet roads, and wear hi viz, but I cant control the traffic. But I have more control on whether I graze my horse on an area with sycamore seeds (though they do grow fast, and can never guarantee any field clear one day to next).

 

[paddy555]

I'm really torn on this one. I can see the risk but I know so many places around Cheshire that have sycamore all around their grazing, a friend has a complete shelter belt of it on her land. And I've never heard of a single case of AM at any of the places where those trees are. Maybe Chesire doesn't have much hypoglycin A infection yet, or maybe it's not actually an enormous risk.

It must be devastating if it's your horse, and my heart goes out to anyone who has lost one, but I'd really like to see some quantification of the risk because finding livery without sycamore somewhere near it isn't always that simple.

I'm torn as well. I know for definite that last Autumn the number of seeds escalated out of all proportion even on very young trees. I asked my horse vet last week how many cases they had had and was the panic real. He is the head horse vet of a large horse practice with around another 6 horse vets, large area, S Devon. He said only one mild case that they had considered as AM but may not have been. Horse recovered. He thought the panic was being hyped.

Then I read of cases which are tragic and I honestly don't know.
I did remove all our young trees last Autumn, they were on hedges and there were plenty of other trees so no gaps were left and one large tree. I also picked up all the seed pods that scattered in the felling and I have checked our fields and no seedlings. I must have been concerned to do that amount of work.

I really don't know but am so sorry to those who have lost horses.

 

[Fieldlife]

It’s an interesting one. We have three sycamores next to our fields. We normally are very lucky and only get the very odd sapling on the grazing. This spring however we had a carpet of them under the trees and in a the horses paddocks due to the weather last year.

Obviously concerned I put my boy in the furthest field with no saplings and scanned the paddock daily. Another livery put her two young colts on an area covered in saplings. The small paddock has now been scalped and ponies are well?! So I can only assume either the trees and saplings aren’t toxic, she has been very lucky, or the risk isn’t as high as we are lead to believe?

I think it is a lottery, toxicity varies each year, by tree, and by individual seeds from same tree. Then the horse's ability to withstand toxin also varies. Even testing a tree this year, doesnt guarantee safety as untested seeds from same tree might be more toxic. You might be clearing / avoiding for nothing, or eating 25gms of seeds (per vet post) might be fatal for your horse. No way to know. You can play the odds.

 

[GinaGeo]

A good friend lost one horse in Autumn and very nearly lost the other within days of each other.

The warm damp autumn meant a lot of the seeds had already started to grow.

She’d grazed the same land with the same horses for 10+ years without any issues until then.

 

[Birker2020]

My vet has said that they are seeing a lot of cases of both sycamore poisoning and colic at the moment, due in part to the weather conditions.

 

[PeterNatt]

There is a chemical called Icade which may be used to kill off the small Sycamore seedkings which may at least assist in controlling them.

 

[SO1]

It was the reason I moved yards 8 years ago.

My friend bought a very fancy youngster and it died from sycamore poisoning. There had never been a case before and the fields had been grazed for many years.

A few weeks before the death of my friends horse I was saying to another friend I was worried about the sycamore as I had heard of cases and she said I was being paranoid. There was plenty of grass.

I moved Homey the next day to a sycamore free yard. Everyone else stayed and they have not as I far as I am aware had any other cases. It is like Russian roulette could be fine or maybe not.

 

[meleeka]

A friend of mine does transport and in one week took 7 horses to hospital with AM. only 2 survived. That's in one week and from one area within one county.
It's a big risk to horses and people still being blasé about it is incredibly dangerous.
In previous years these deaths have probably been put down to grass sickness.

I wonder if it’s the same hospital my vet mentioned. She said they have 9 cases at one time which is unheard of.

Years ago we didn’t know about sycamore. I personally know of one horse found dead in the field of unknown cause and another that died of supposed grass sickness that were quite possibly sycamore.

As others have said, there’s so many ways horses like to kill themselves, so I just think it’s sensible to reduce the risk where possible. I don’t have any sycamore close by and the year I did have seeds due to a storm I strip grazed it, picking the seeds up every morning as I moved the fence.

 

[MissTyc]

I personally know one that died this year - classic story of same field for 30 years, many horses, taking all precautions, etc ... This was a 12 yo sports pony.
I try to treat it like colic or laminitis - somewhat preventable by taking all the right precautions, but also I think not every case is preventable.

 

[Miss_Millie]

I don't think we should under-estimate the radical effect climate change is having on the natural world. We know that a higher than average amount of seeds were produced last year across the country due to the drought, but what if the core biological structure of the trees is changing too? I think this is just the beginning, sadly.

 

[rabatsa]

About 10 years ago all the RDA groups in our region were warned about AM and sycamores as the Regional Chairman lost their family pony to it.