too much clover?

[patandchickens]

Sorry, I'm not trying to be argumentative here, just make sure that readers of this thread get the CORRECT information:

ANY of the common clovers (and alfalfa) can cause clover slobbers. (As per both my experience and also http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_slobbers.htm)

Ditto for photosensitization, although a horse has to eat a whole great big bunch o' most clovers or fresh alfalfa, whereas alsike clover is a bit worse for causing photosensitization because of the liver damage that it causes but you shouldn't be having alsike growing in your horse pastures or horse hayfields *anyhow*.

Honestly the plant-related photosensitization cases I've known have been most probably related to st johns wort or, in one case, buckwheat, rather than clovers, so from my experience I'd say that it's pretty rare from clover-rich pastures, although evidently it can *happen*.

JME,

Pat

 

[goodhors]

Interesting how the information is worded on each site! I read several before choosing the ones I posted, none of which NAMED ALL the clover types for carrying the fungus causing slobbers. Thank you for that information Guess I should have read more sites!!

I have a fair amount of clover in all our fields, part of the mixed seeding of pasture for year round grazing. Keeping it mowed short, lets the air moving dry it out, so clover is not holding the damp where fungus likes to grow. We have not had any problems with our clover, though I do hear of the slobbers often in farms around us. They don't mow often, or short, so clover is a lush plant in their fields. Gets damp with dew, stays damp because the wind can't dry it down at the bottom.

Locally, Michigan is not known for having St. Johns Wort growing wild. I have only seen and heard of it as an ornamental here, deliberately planted, though you are warned against it in the horse poison sites. Same with other decorative shrubs around the house, some are quite deadly like Yews or Acer Rubrum the Red Maple.

Horses I saw with the photo sensitivity got it from clover in the pastures. Not fed buckwheat or had any access to fields of buckwheat, nor any St. Johns Wort. Maybe St. Johns Wort is a more successful plant in other areas, reseeds into fields and ditches where it is less cold than here.

 

[ducks4you]

Good advice! DH and I are mowing our pastures, primarily to keep the bugs down, but it does also dry them out.

 

[Bossroo]

Also be very carefull of the very toxic ornamental shrub oleander. a handfull of leaves will kill a horse. 6-7 leaves will kill a sheep or goat. If a horse eats Star thistle, it will distroy an area of horse's brain the size of a pensil erraser which then paralizes the lower jaw, slobbers constantly, and the horse then eventually starves to death. There is no cure.

 

[ducks4you]

Also be very carefull of the very toxic ornamental shrub oleander.

It's always good to know what NOT to plant where your horses graze. Here's a site about toxic trees:
http://www.cherokeeanimalclinic.com/equine_toxicplants.htm