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 Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
  
Location: North Dakota | So I just had a pen of horses all come up with a swollen leg or two. I immediately remembered about reading about a weed that does this and went back online to search for pics. I then asked my husband if he could remember where this bale that we just put in that pen on Sunday came from. Today I drove by there and sure enough! I found that darn weed. I pulled a sample to bring home to compare to the pics to be sure and yep it is Hoary Alyssum!!! Dang it! At least it was only about 6 round bales and we know about where they are stacked at since it was the 2nd to last load that we brought home and half of those ones are net wrapped while the rest of our bales are not since our neighbord did a little section for us. Now I am going to drive all over looking for this darn weed! It is strange that is growing here since from what I have read it normally grows during a dry year and we had a very very wet year. We never had a problem with it before so why did it pop up this year?
Anyways just thought I would share my heart stopping experience. I was thinking the worse! OMG! I have some kind of bacteria or virus running through my herd! It is a relief to know I just need to keep them off that hay and within a couple days they should be fine.
Oh I did have a question! Can cattle, sheep or goats eat hoary alyssum without it being toxic to them? Just wondering if I should destroy the bales or find someone that can use them. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | According to the university of Minnesota, only horses show a reaction to it.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/horse/health/hoary-alyssum... |
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Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | My pics are too big and I don't want to take the time right now to make them smaller but here is a link with a few pics on it. It is a stemming weed with small white flowers. Look for the little "nodules" or pods below the flowering head....that is what made me go "Ah Ha! Yep!" http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/detail.asp?weed=12 |
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Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | 3ToBurn - 2014-10-08 2:49 PM I am almost certain that is the weed that is taking over my pasture. No wonder my mare is having swelling in her front legs. I'm going to have the extension agent come and take a look tomorrow to tell me if the is for sure what it is, but I'm almost positive. That is weird that we would both be having this problem now. I am watching my pasture like a hawk! So far it isn't in our pasture but if it is a couple miles down the road it may just be a matter of time. The farmer across the road allows foxtail to take over the low wet spots he can't plant so now I have some of that popping up in my pasture!!! We just planted this pasture about 4 years ago. I am very frustrated with the farmer's lack of concern to take care of the noxious weeds he is spreading across the county (not that he is the only one!!!).
Edited by Just Bring It 2014-10-08 2:57 PM
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Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | 3ToBurn - 2014-10-08 2:22 PM
Would you post a pic. I have another thread lower down about a mare of mine this is happening to. I need to go check the pasture and see what is there. But that sounds awfully familiar.
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 Do You Feel Lucky Punk?
Posts: 3156
Location: NM...the Land of Manana | Sounds like a good stripper name, lol! |
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  That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
 
| Lightfoot - 2014-10-08 4:05 PM
Sounds like a good stripper name, lol!
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Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | Lightfoot - 2014-10-08 4:05 PM
Sounds like a good stripper name, lol!
 I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks it sounds a bit dirty! |
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 Thick and Wavy
Posts: 6102
Location: Nebraska | It can cause laminitis so watch out! |
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Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | These guys were not on it long and very mild swelling which is pretty much already down to nearly nothing on most of them. I have one mare that swelled up worse than the others so I am keep my eye on her. |
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Gettin Jiggy Wit It
Posts: 2734
| We made some hay off of a field that hasnt been cut for a few years. It looked fine. It was mainly a timothy grass mix. Well we started feeding it on a sunday night.. I had a big weekend coming up. I had a Rodeo on wednesday night then our NBHA state finals the rest of the weekend. Well Wednesday night I ran my mare at the rodeo and she seemed odd warming up at the lope... I walked her on the road and back and she seemed fine. I chalked it up to the dew being on the grass and her kind of standing up in it since it was wet... She ran ok. But had a weird hesitation on 2nd and was just out of placing. Then Thursday I hauled to our NBHA state and I was going to run in the pre show that night. I noticed her stocking up a little bit but figured it was becuase she was stalled. When I went to warm up she was horribly off. At the trot she was head bobbing lame (same foot I noticed while watchig the video of our run at the rodeo that she had the weird step/hesitation on). There was vet there that blocked the front foot she seemed lame on and figured it was an abscess. I soaked and polticed the one front leg and was going to send her home the next day. Well on Friday when I got up she was NOT right... All 4 of her legs were stocked up past her hocks and knees like Ive never seen before. She could hardly walk. She was so tender footed o all 4 feet. I rushed her the University vet hospital. They X-rayed and found out she had a very sudden on set of Acute Laminitis in all 4 feet... I was scared out of my mind. The vets couldnt give me any bit of a positive prognosis because it was so fast on set and she was doing so terribly. At that point of x rays there was no rotation so we had to just sit and wait to see if the meds helped. WELLLL she had to be at the vet for 7 days. Little by little she got better. They re-x rayed her before I could take her home and there was NO rotation.. THANK GOD! It was so scary because we couldnt figure out what caused it... Well I called my regular vet and my farrier to let them know what happened on my way home from picking her up. They both told me I better check my hay when I get home because from the large amounts of stocking up and the laminitis they suspected Hoary Alyssum poisoning. I guess there was a raise in number of poisonings going on in my area... I got home and the first thing I did was check my hay.... The first handfull I pulled out had Hoary Alyssum in it. I was sick to my stomach... because it could have all been prevented but at the same time I was relieved I knew what made her sick. She has to have off now until spring (it ruined the rest of our racing season since this happend in August... But I am so glad I was able to be bringing my girl home because they were giving me some very doom and gloom prognosis at first). My vet and farrier were telling me that not every horse will react to it. Some may get a mild case while some like my mare can be very severe. We had 7 horses eating on the hay and out of the 7, my mare got laminitis and my colt stocked up. The otheres showed no signs. ALSO very, very rarely do horses eat it growing in your pasture. They will mainly only eat it in hay because they cant pick it out since it is dry. Cows, sheep and goats can eat it with no problem. We ended up selling all 50 round bales to a dairy farmer.
Edited by WetSaddleBlankets 2014-10-08 7:47 PM
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Regular
Posts: 63
Location: WI | My experience has pretty much the same. Didn't know it was in the bales I was feeding. Affected 6-7 horses. Fed in the morning small square bales. Everyone was good. Came home from work in the evening and all their legs were swelled up like stove pipes. They didn't want to move due to stiffness. Thankfully it was in the dead of winter and cold, so we stood in a snow bank for a while. Long story short. Called the vet, took the hay in and yup "the damn weed" was in it. Burned the hay. All horses were fine within the next day or two. They typically won't eat the weed in the pastures, they eat around it. They will eat it once cut and dried. Its alwasy somthing! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1580
Location: Down South | well... obviously I have haunted houses on the brain because I read the title of your post as "hoary asylum". and I thought.. ooh, sounds like a good haunted house.! 
sorry this happened to you with the hay, but GLAD you figured it out.! :) |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 503
| komet. - 2014-10-08 3:08 PM
3ToBurn - 2014-10-08 2:22 PM
Would you post a pic. I have another thread lower down about a mare of mine this is happening to. I need to go check the pasture and see what is there. But that sounds awfully familiar.
I've always identified it by the "bumps" on the stem.
Edited by LuckyNGG'sGirl 2014-10-08 9:22 PM
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Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | Yeah I put the bale in on Sunday afternoon and on Tuesday I noticed the swelling in nearly all the horses in that pen. I about had a mental breakdown because I have just had one of those years. My good gelding is off with a nasty nasty abscess from a puncture wound, my good mare is just coming back from a tendon strain, my other mare was diagnosed with bone spurs on her navicular bones last year.....so yeah I couldn't take anymore. I was having heart palpitations and just broke down crying in the barn for a min. Then I took a deep breath and thought it through and figured it had to be something in the hay or soil. I remembered about this weed so I was hoping that was it and it wasn't something bacterial. I put all those horses in the roundpen for the night and fed square bales. I think it is only in those few round bales. I haven't noticed that weed in any other area and the horses on square bales are fine and the other pen of horses is fine and their bale came from a different area. I about had a breakdown again thinking that all 200 round bales were ruined.
These horses are sending me to an early grave....lol. |
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Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | miss turbo - 2014-10-08 9:07 PM well... obviously I have haunted houses on the brain because I read the title of your post as "hoary asylum". and I thought.. ooh, sounds like a good haunted house.!
sorry this happened to you with the hay, but GLAD you figured it out.! : )
HAHAHA!!!
Whorey Asylum....now that would be quite the haunted house!! Possiby a Bunny Ranch Halloween spectacle.  |
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7268
| Just Bring It - 2014-10-08 5:36 PM Lightfoot - 2014-10-08 4:05 PM
Sounds like a good stripper name, lol! I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks it sounds a bit dirty!
I did too! |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | miss turbo - 2014-10-08 9:07 PM
well... obviously I have haunted houses on the brain because I read the title of your post as "hoary asylum". and I thought.. ooh, sounds like a good haunted house.! sorry this happened to you with the hay, but GLAD you figured it out.! : )
Obviously great minds think alike. I assumed the same.
Interesting fact, hoary is an Anglo Saxon word for white usually referring to white hair on older people. I'm sure it was as a reference to the white flower heads. But I thought of an asylum with lots of old people. Or maybe hairy ones?
That's my degree at work, lol.
Edited by oija 2014-10-09 11:50 AM
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | Any pictures of what this looks like when it's dried up and in a bale? |
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Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | Longneck - 2014-10-09 1:08 PM Any pictures of what this looks like when it's dried up and in a bale?
I could try to get some today. I tried searching for pics of that too so I knew what to look for in my bale but I couldn't find any online but when I dug around in my bale I was able to find a dried up flower head and then soon after I came across a stem with the dried up little pods on it. |
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