Hazards Could be Hidden in Hay

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:47:28 GMT

clipped by: MorganLvr
clipper's remarks: Just a reminder to ALWAYS check anything you feed your horses.

Just 24 hours after Betsy Bueno of Santa Rosa, Calif., began feeding her horses a new batch of hay, one colicked and began to show neurologic signs. Within days, two of her 12 horses required euthanasia and seven were showing similar clinical signs.

"I thought they had gotten some poisonous hemlock outside," Bueno said. But her veterinarian asked to look at her hay.

In the jumble of green material comprising a bale, it can be difficult for a horse owner to spot a dangerous plant, especially in its dried form.

Sharon Gwaltney-Brant, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ABVT, ABT, vice president and medical director of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Animal Poison Control Center, recommends testing hay for toxic plants, even if hay is purchased from a familiar source.

"Don't send just one flake," she said. "Compile several small samples from several bales."

Tags: hay. poision, hemlock

Horse Abuse And Neglect

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:16:53 GMT

clipped by: MorganLvr
clipper's remarks: How much of the current surge in horse abuse/neglect is really due to the closing of the slaughter plants?

Clip Source: www.rrstar.com

Colleen O’Keefe, who runs the animal welfare division for the Illinois Department of Agriculture, isn’t certain an operating slaughterhouse would change the situation much.

The DeKalb-based facility did not close until September 2007. Yet 681 horse abuse and neglect cases were reported to O’Keefe’s department, 38 percent of the department’s caseload that year — up from 461 cases, or 25 percent, in 2006.

“It’s cliché, but it’s also possible that we just hit the perfect storm,” O’Keefe said. “The slaughterhouses closed, grain prices are at an all-time high, hay is very difficult to get; now with this winter weather ... (it’s) crushing. Even without the slaughterhouses closed, we would be in trouble because of everything else.”

Tags: economy, abuse, hay, horses, slaughter

Clipmarks | MorganLvr's 'hay' clips

Hazards Could be Hidden in Hay

Horse Abuse And Neglect