Acorns!

[Field-of-Dreams]

We seem to have a bumper crop of them this year. Plus we had a bad storm and that knocked a ton off the trees. When my guys came in for breakfast yesterday, Fancy and Sammie didn't seem very hungry- Fancy is a chow hound and finishes her grain way before Sunny and Sammie- when I came back through she was still eating and Sunny was done! So I guess they pigged out on acorns all night. They did finish their grain by dinner time, but there was some hay left.

Needless to say, they spent all say yesterday and last night in their stalls, and I didn't turn them out today, either.

Now, there are at least twenty trees in their paddock, so there is really no way to pick up/rake up these stupid things. Not to mention the weeds will prevent that, too.

So, besides putting grazing muzzles on, do you think if I got a round bale they'd eat that instead of the acorns? I really don't have any other place to turn out, as all the paddocks and pastures have oaks in them. I'd feel bad if they had to stay in until the acorns are gone... that would be months!

 

[Riverdance]

No, a round bale does not work. I have two paddock areas with acorns. All the horses seem to like chowing down on them. I have a round bale out there for them, but they still eat the acorns. So are my dogs. Many in the two paddock areas have bad diarrhea. Nothing I can do but give them biosponge and I do not think that even works. I will be glad when this is over and I can clean up the horses. My Trees are hugh and I will not cut them down. they give shade to my horses during the hot months, plus they are pretty.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Our trees are stunning, too. And we HAVE to have shade in Texas during the summer.

Bummmer on the round bales. I don't have diarrhea but horses who aren't hungry at dinner...which is frightning by itself!

 

[Marty]

Please keep in mind everyone that these dang acrors are deadly and will kill a horse, if not from toxins, from colic or choke. I'm having my usual battle here too. We have them by the thousands. Normally I put up a temp fence of hotwire but since we have torn down our old hay shed and re-routed the barn yard, I no longer have any way to set posts and run the electricity. This makes it impossible for me to use my barnyard which is actually my dry lot as well. Therefore, my horses are locked out of this area on pasture most of the day and getting way too fat again for my likeing. Its a real concern as I also don't like them in the barn during the day unless the weather calls for it. We even took the tractor and tried shoving them in the bucket but that only lasted a day and they came back. I'm going to get these trees chopped down as soon as we can afford to do so. Its great shade, but I'm sick of this worry.

The round bales or any hay I put out cannot compete with these stupid nuts. They want these acorns more than anything.

 

[Riverdance]

Marty, Unfortunately I have no where else to put my horses. I had this same problem last year. Our Acorns are the really small ones. Basically it causes diarrhea. I can rake and rake, but the darn this just keep falling. It is just going to get worse. In a few weeks, they will be dropping non stop. If I can get my numbers lowered, then I would have room to put the horses somewhere else.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

I don't have anywhere for mine, either. So right now they are in.

I don't like them being in..... plus the mares have oaks in their field, and I don't have ANYWHERE to stash those girls, either. The only field we have that doesn't have oaks in it is the stallion field, sure can't put anyone extra in there!!

 

[Davie]

Please be extremely careful with acorns. I owned a mare several years ago that while at her former owner's place got into acorns along with all their other mares and 4 of them aborted their foals. The next year she had most of the oaks cut down but the mare seems to have found them again had a very bad dystocia. If you can; either put grazing muzzles on or cut the trees down--the acorns are very addictive to the horses and it can cause serious or even fatal consequences.

 

[hoofhearted]

The proteins in the acorns (what the horses are after) lower after 2 or 3 freezes, and they won't affect the horses so much. Feeding hay by choice will help to move things along, and keep the acorns 'buffered' a bit. At least that's what people say around here. We have plenty of acorns, and pecans on the ground, and do not see dead horses in the fields.

I worried that my little Houdini would get into the soybean field next to our upper pasture. He did get out..and there he was munching on a patch of clover outside the fence. He ignored the soybeans, thank goodness!

 

[Riverdance]

I live in Florida, so we do not have freezes. I would like to take the tractor out and scrape it all up with the pay loader, but most of them have not fallen yet.

 

[~Dan]

Riverdance, is there anyway that you can temporarily fence off the trees and the area with the acorns falling until they are at least not so bad? Things will probably be a bit cramped, depending on the size of pasture and the amount of horses, but cramped up for a bit is better than sick horses, right? Best of luck to both you and Field Of Dreams!

Dan.

 

[wildoak]

I just have a few big oaks, and haven't had a problem with them to date. The only one that really concerned me is in the mare/foal pasture, one big tree - I spent a few days walking underneath it with a bucket and picked up buckets of them.. Wonder if there is any way to put netting up under the branches to catch them... hmm.

Lots and lots of oak trees in central Texas, and lots of horses grazing under them.

Jan

 

[Jill]

We've had acorns fall in all of our paddocks since 1999. We haven't had issues yet. I don't like that the horses eat them, however, since they practically eat them as they fall, we can't keep it from happening. Our horses have been fine the past 14 seasons of fall... 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004. 2005. 2006. 2007. 2008. 2009. 2010. 2011. and the bumper part of 2012

 

[MajorClementine]

I found this article and it helped me understand what is so dangerous about acorns after reading this thread. I guess, if your horses have eaten them year after year, they would have less of an effect as your horses system is used to dealing with them. Just a thought. Lucky for me I don't have to worry about acorns here but it is nice to learn something new.

 

When the persimmons or acorns start falling, some horses will congregate under the trees to eat them. It appears the attraction to acorns is individual, but once started these individuals will spend much of their time waiting for the next acorn to fall! Since this obsession is to the exclusion of other activities, such as grazing, the horse eats a tremendous volume of acorns.

 

All of a sudden, the digestive tract is loaded with the high protein meal of nuts. The combination of high fat and high protein is a sudden change. The intestines’ natural response to such a strange feed is to purge it from the body. Fluids rush into the intestine to dilute out the new feed and form bulk which stimulates bowel activity. The protein of the nut meat inflames the lining, stimulating even more activity. The result of all this is a hyperactive bowel and a very watery, loose stool. So much water will be moved to the bowel the rest of the body will become dehydrated. The lining of the bowel can be so inflamed it swells, reducing any absorption of fluids the horse may take in. The combination of a hyperactive bowel, the swollen lining, the fluid loss, and resulting dehydration of the body can lead to a life threatening situation within hours. We may find the horse standing with its head down, breathing rapidly, and a watery stool wetting down the tail and hind quarters.

 

[2minis4us]

Makes me glad we don't have ant acorn trees. We have to deal with maple leaves though and they have that long tough stem.

 

[Riverdance]

Unfortunately I can not fence it off. All of them in that paddock area have had diarrhea. Most have dried up. They are eating their grain and hay without a problem and drinking plenty of water. Again, these are the really tiny acorns, no bigget than the tip of my finger.

 

[wildoak]

I guess it depends on the individual horse and how much they ingest, as to whether or not they have problems. We used to have an enormous peach tree overhanging our foaling lot - mares would stand and literally wait for peaches to fall, in spite of my efforts to keep them all picked up. Peaches too are on the list of things toxic to horses but to my knowledge, they never caused a problem for us.

I have seen horses colic from an overload of mesquite beans, probably the same cause and effect as acorns.

Jan