Poisonous Plant

[maewest4u]

Hello Miniature Horse owners,
I wanted to share with a very serious matter with you: FIDDLENECK
Last year at this time, unbeknownst to me, my two 20 month old minis were eating fiddleneck in our one acre pasture. Here in California it is a common weed. Most horses do not eat it as it apparently doesn’t taste good. The first symptoms of poisoning that I noticed were frequent yawning and biting at the fence. Then there was depression and dog sitting. Emergency Ranch call. The blood results were startling. Liver values were sky high. My horses were hospitalized and fortunately survived! Please be aware of the beautiful wildflower that can put your horses in their grave.

 

[Willow Flats]

Thank you for sharing this! Glad your ponies survived! They are adorable. I'm in California but haven't seen it growing here so far. What part of the state are you in?

 

[maewest4u]

Thank you for sharing this! Glad your ponies survived! They are adorable. I'm in California but haven't seen it growing here so far. What part of the state are you in?
Angels Camp. East of Stockton in the Foothills.

 

[Flying on boo]

Thank you for the tip, I will make sure to check our pens

 

[Willow Flats]

I am just an hour west of you!

 

[Taz]

I'm so happy your little ones are OK!! Thank you for sharing this. I don't know if we have it here but I've seen something like it, I'll be looking into it.

 

[maewest4u]

I'm so happy your little ones are OK!! Thank you for sharing this.

Hello Miniature Horse owners,
I wanted to share with a very serious matter with you: FIDDLENECK
Last year at this time, unbeknownst to me, my two 20 month old minis were eating fiddleneck in our one acre pasture. Here in California it is a common weed. Most horses do not eat it as it apparently doesn’t taste good. The first symptoms of poisoning that I noticed were frequent yawning and biting at the fence. Then there was depression and dog sitting. Emergency Ranch call. The blood results were startling. Liver values were sky high. My horses were hospitalized and fortunately survived! Please be aware of the beautiful wildflower that can put your horses in their grave.

Hello Miniature Horse owners,
I wanted to share with a very serious matter with you: FIDDLENECK
Last year at this time, unbeknownst to me, my two 20 month old minis were eating fiddleneck in our one acre pasture. Here in California it is a common weed. Most horses do not eat it as it apparently doesn’t taste good. The first symptoms of poisoning that I noticed were frequent yawning and biting at the fence. Then there was depression and dog sitting. Emergency Ranch call. The blood results were startling. Liver values were sky high. My horses were hospitalized and fortunately survived! Please be aware of the beautiful wildflower that can put your horses in their grave.

I don't know if we have it here but I've seen something like it, I'll be looking into it.

I'm so happy your little ones are OK!! Thank you for sharing this. I don't know if we have it here but I've seen something like it, I'll be looking into it.

It was a very frightening experience. I was afraid my little horses were going to die. Oh how I cried! Fiddleneck poisoning is fatal most of the time. I caught the symptoms early and with them being so young we were able to save them.

 

[maewest4u]

I am just an hour west of you!

Seriously! After the pandemic, we will have to meet!

 

[charlottein]

Oh gosh, your poor babies! They are lovely. When plants start coming out I plan to catalog everything with the iNaturalist app. I started last year and removed one bush that was growing through the fence but want to keep a written catalog of everything growing on my property.

 

[maewest4u]

What I find so interesting is that the poisonous fiddleneck is prevalent in the neighboring ranches. The full sized horses do not eat it! But my miniature horses sure did.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

20 months is not exactly a baby, but babies do eat lots of things that older horses don't bother. I had a yearling that ate a couple of orange plastic markers I had tied to the electric fence. He acted rather down for a couple of days, then actually passed the orange plastic. Needless to say, I removed all the markers. I was really lucky.
I am cataloguing all the wild flowers on our property. We do have milkweed, which I leave because of the monarch butterfly. And I do have some larkspur naturalizing, but I haven't seen the horses eat it.
Thank you for your informative post. So glad your little horses survived. How did you find out the plant was the culprit?

 

[maewest4u]

20 months is not exactly a baby, but babies do eat lots of things that older horses don't bother. I had a yearling that ate a couple of orange plastic markers I had tied to the electric fence. He acted rather down for a couple of days, then actually passed the orange plastic. Needless to say, I removed all the markers. I was really lucky.
I am cataloguing all the wild flowers on our property. We do have milkweed, which I leave because of the monarch butterfly. And I do have some larkspur naturalizing, but I haven't seen the horses eat it.
Thank you for your informative post. So glad your little horses survived. How did you find out the plant was the culprit?

 

[Willow Flats]

Did they eat it when it was flowering?

 

[maewest4u]

To discover the cause of the poisoning, at first we eliminated all three sources of feed Purina Miniature Horse Grain, grass hay and pasture. We only fed them grass hay from a different source during the investigation.
We learned that our grass hay suppy is inspected regularly by the feed store owner. No recalls from Purina.... so that meant our 1 acre pasture was the culprit. Within just a few minutes we discovered the fiddleneck tops eaten off as pictured.

 

[maewest4u]

Did they eat it when it was flowering?

No. It hadn’t flowered yet.

 

[Pitter Patter]

Maewest4U, I am so sorry you and your little ones had to endure this! I had a similar experience with acorns and my minis. My oldest mini was 25 years old and we lost her. Vet insisted there is no problem with acorns and that I "worry too much." (Is that even possible?!) Ended up calling him again when she went down and was breathing her last. He came and said she was more emaciated than before and why wasn't I feeding her! She actually got fed her grain separately as I noticed weight loss/dehydration. She was eating twice as much as the others and had heavy diarrhea. (They all got diarrhea). All of their bellies bloated (and so did their udders too, which seems odd). She usually refused to drink but had access to water 24/7. Thankfully, the others (3) were all right. Hoping an expected baby wasn't affected. Ended up cutting down the oak tree in their paddock as soon as we figured it out from process of elimination, like you. Like your little ones, mine would search out the acorns! Was told horses don't usually eat acorns as they are bitter, but mine were vacuuming them up faster than I could pick them up! I am going to look for your plant here too. I don't think we have it, but there may be different varieties. Thanks for the head's up!!