Sycamore trees surround paddocks?!

[10wardd]

Just read an article in a horse mag about horses dying from eating sycamore seeds so took a look round the perimeter of my paddocks to find there are a number of sycamore trees :S They are laden with the seeds but haven't fallen
Our two are big 'tree eaters' and i see them regularly munching on tree branches and sorts.
However, the land has had horses on before we had it and ours have been on it two years now with no problems?

Anyone else been in this situation? Am i just being a big worry?

 

[Red-1]

I have Sycamore and Oak around our field, and I always pick up acorns, but it was only last year I heard about Sycamore.

TBH I use the arena for winter turn out anyway, so once the seeds start to drop I will switch him to winter turnout. I have had a few cases of puffy legs in Autumn, and I now wonder if it is connected, as it has been 3 different horses.

 

[hairycob]

I lost a horse to atypical myopathy in April & a week later my other horse got it & he spent a week at the vet including 5 days in intensive care. He is just back to walking for an hour & physio recommends we don't start trot until the end of September. Horses had been kept on the land since at least the 1970s with no previous problems but this spring there were a lot of seedlings. We thought they were ash as the tress along the field boundary were ash. Turned out they were sycamore from trees some distance away.

 

[Red-1]

I lost a horse to atypical myopathy in April & a week later my other horse got it & he spent a week at the vet including 5 days in intensive care. He is just back to walking for an hour & physio recommends we don't start trot until the end of September. Horses had been kept on the land since at least the 1970s with no previous problems but this spring there were a lot of seedlings. We thought they were ash as the tress along the field boundary were ash. Turned out they were sycamore from trees some distance away.

And I thank you Hairycob for sharing your story, as it was not until you told us of your horses that I had ever heard about it and then went Googling. It is because of you I am linking it all up and taking mine off the field as soon as the seeds start to drop.

 

[Silmarillion]

I've fenced mine off now they're dropping, but it means I've fenced off most of one of my fields! I don't dare take the risk

 

[10wardd]

I lost a horse to atypical myopathy in April & a week later my other horse got it & he spent a week at the vet including 5 days in intensive care. He is just back to walking for an hour & physio recommends we don't start trot until the end of September. Horses had been kept on the land since at least the 1970s with no previous problems but this spring there were a lot of seedlings. We thought they were ash as the tress along the field boundary were ash. Turned out they were sycamore from trees some distance away.

Thankyou for sharing this with us. Seeds have not started to drop yet but i will be pruning all sycamore trees right back and they will be in a different paddock for winter

 

[EstherYoung]

Our seeds have started to drop. We've been picking them up twice a day, chopping branches back, and making sure the horses have plenty of other fibre to eat. The whole area has sycamores and the seeds fly for quite a way, so I'm not sure what else we can do.

 

[Evie91]

I have the same problem - sycamores down one side of the paddock and two huge trees right in the middle of my smaller paddock. Have closed off the smaller paddock. Plan on using sit on mower to collect leaves, seeds when they have fallen and will probably let them back on in winter.
Have fenced off the majority of trees in the other paddock. It's such a shame as both horse and pony favour these trees for shelter.
They are currently in a sectioned off area - one small sycamore and one small oak. They have grass, are out overnight and have feed and hay during the day when in the stable.
Mine have only been home since May so it has been a steep learning curve!

 

[MagicMelon]

I thought it was just this year they've suddenly been a big problem because of the mild winter or something?

I had my 2 sycamores cut down last month and was on my hands and knees for a couple of hours picking up any seeds which had fallen in the process - couldn't take the risk.

 

[Evie91]

Magic melon if you don't mind me asking - how much did it cost to have them cut down? I have a huge tree and was quoted 2 and a half k!!

 

[hairycob]

Last winter was a particularly bad year, probably because of the mild winter & the storms spreading the seeds further than usual. At the last check up the vet told me she has seen more cases of atypical myopathy this spring than in all the previous 7 years she has been a vet in this area put together. They have also seen a massive increase in grass sickness this year. We aren't a high GS area & usually the practice has 1/2 confirmed cases a year - this year they saw 8 just in the spring.
The problem with EAM is that the toxin level varies hugely so you can be lucky or unlucky. Not only from tree to tree & from year to year but between seeds on the same tree at the same time. Also some horses seem to be more susceptible than others. The other horse at our yard spent 4 weeks in Jan/Feb in the field Jason got sick from when his fence blew down in a storm but was completely unaffected. Jason died after 10 days in that field. I can only assume it was because Jason would eat anything (even cat litter on 1 memorable occasion) but the other horse was a very picky eater.
I am totally neurotic about the flipping trees now & have chopped down the, luckily small, one in our garden as neighbour has paddocks behind us.

 

[charlie76]

I have two in my field but also tonnes of grass and mine only go out for half a day. I have still Fenced mine off and check for falling seeds. However this year the seeds seem to be dying on the tree and there aren't anywhere near as many. We have oaks as well, last year there were thousnads of acorns, this year not a single one.

 

[EquiEquestrian556]

We also have sycamores surrounding our paddock, and in it too. Our horses have been in this field for four years without any problems, but I head about it earlier this year and went to check the field and discovered that we too had sycamores. I've fenced most of them off, but if I fence all of them off there'll be no pasture. I'm just making sure that I check the ground and guessing that they won't be interested in them.

 

[PollyP99]

We also have sycamores surrounding our paddock, and in it too. Our horses have been in this field for four years without any problems, but I head about it earlier this year and went to check the field and discovered that we too had sycamores. I've fenced most of them off, but if I fence all of them off there'll be no pasture. I'm just making sure that I check the ground and guessing that they won't be interested in them.

I would warn against just checking they won't be. Interested . We had two cases in and near a paddock my mare had been in for a year in autumn last year. Horses had been in the paddock for 30 years and to our knowledge never had this before so I too am now paranoid, the offending paddock is now not grazed by equines, no way would I risk it, there is no long warning, the two cases were in a couple of days of each other, one died, it came on in hours from perfectly fine, to colic and choke symptoms . Intensive 24/7 vet treatment saved one, both were young a key factor in many cases.

 

[Evie91]

Interesting point about young horses - my retired mare is very picky about what she eats. My four year old pony will have a go on anything - took a branch of oak off the tree as she walked past tonight.
She will often try and snatch things as we walk past - I've pulled rhodendron and laurel out of her mouth, where as my old mare takes no notice.

Such a shame the research can't be more specific in identifying why/if some horses are more susceptible than others, if certain types of pasture are more of a risk etc

 

[EquiEquestrian556]

I would warn against just checking they won't be. Interested . We had two cases in and near a paddock my mare had been in for a year in autumn last year. Horses had been in the paddock for 30 years and to our knowledge never had this before so I too am now paranoid, the offending paddock is now not grazed by equines, no way would I risk it, there is no long warning, the two cases were in a couple of days of each other, one died, it came on in hours from perfectly fine, to colic and choke symptoms . Intensive 24/7 vet treatment saved one, both were young a key factor in many cases.

Very sorry about your loss. I'm now regularly going out and raking up any seeds I see, as well as the fencing around them. I wish there was more research into this very sad illness. Tomorrow I'm going to fence a few more off - I'd much rather be safe than sorry.

 

[windand rain]

Be careful of chopping down trees you could be in for hefty fines as many have preservation orders on them. Sadly the link is likely to turn the countryside into a very different place if we randomly destroy hundreds of years of tree growth, with disease in ash, elm and chestnut trees we could end up with a very different landscape Not saying people shouldn't take precautions but hysteria over the sycamores could well be just that. Myopathy seems to be related to the seeds and seedling in fields where grazing is otherwise limited and where alternative forage is not available. Often in damp areas near ditches rivers and boggy ground. It may not be the case entirely but proper protection could be nigh impossible if the defence of plenty forage and feed is not true

 

[EstherYoung]

The other thing about chopping them down is that they come back with a vengeance. One of my neighbours chopped one down and we now have loads of mini sycamores in its place.

The seeds fly quite some way on the wind, too, so fencing them off doesn't work very well. It's not like acorns that just drop.

We picked them up twice a day last autumn and this spring we didn't have a single seedling. Hopefully doing the same this year will have the same effect.

 

[hairycob]

Except the grazing in my field was not sparse 1.5 acres that had only had 1 horse in for 4 weeks since the previous October. The bottom of the field did get wet in winter but no worse than most clay ground. 2nd horse was moved to higher, dry ground & given haylage but still succombed a week later. The only common thing was sycamore seedlings but the 2nd field was thoroughly checked twice daily & any new seedlings removed. There was no sycamore tree adjacent to the field but there where several nearby.