This tree originated from England. It grows mainly in woodlands, parks and hedges, and it can live for many hundreds of years. Oak bark or 'tanners bark' used to be used for tanning leather and an extract from the tree can be used medicinally for diarrhoea treatment. Powered nut galls can be used as an astringent in the treatment of surface tisdsue where a limited circulatory evvect is required.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The oak contains tannins which is highly poisonous, but information on the potential of this tree to poison an animal often appears to be contradictory. Even though there are reports of horses eating acorns with seemingly little or no ill effect, there is no doubt that fatalities have occured after ingestion of acorns or other parts of the tree. Symptoms of poisoning include constipation and blood-stained faeces, refusal to drink, weakness and staggering, irregular slow heart beat, pale mucus membrane and watery eyes. In extreme cases the kidneys can be damaged.
OATS (Avena sativa )
This widely cultivated annual grass has escaped into waste places. The plants grow up together in small tufts. The fruiting structure is a terminal, loose panicle.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
Oats may cause up to three separate problems, depending upon the conditions:
a) Oats can accumulate excessive amounts of nitrates, especially when heavily fertilized. Many grasses and forages can accumulate toxic levels of nitrates depending upon fertilization practices. This is a serious problem, especially in cattle. The signs are then consistent with nitrate toxicosis: the blood turns a brownish color due to the action of nitrate on hemoglobin. The blood is not capable of carrying oxygen efficiently, and animals show signs of hypoxia: increased respiratory rate, anxiety, collapse, convulsions,and death. Nitrate toxicosis is less often reported in non-ruminants (horses, swine, etc), but can occur. The primary signs in these species is stomach and intestinal irritation, although an inability of the blood to carry oxygen may develop and require treatment.
b) Oats can also induce a photosensitivity reaction in animals, although the exact mechanism (direct contact and/or ingestion) is uncertain. The skin becomes increasingly susceptible to damage by ultraviolet radiation, and the typical presentation in affected animals is sunburn on the lightly pigmented parts of the body. Both fresh oats and oat straw can cause a skin reaction.
c) Moldy oats (called smutty oats), which result from the improper curing or storing of oat hay, can cause paralysis, convulsions or death if sufficient quantities are ingested.
OLEANDER (Nerium oleander)
An ornamental indoor shrub found in Canadian homes and offices.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The whole plant is highly toxic containing Oleandrin, a cardiac glycoside, is found throughout the plant, including the nectar of the flowers. Smoke from burning twigs is said to be toxic. The dry leaves also still remain toxic. Symptoms of poisoning include rapid breathing, irritation of the mouth, pupil dilation and death. Experimental poisoning of horses with fresh oleander leaves resulted in toxic symptoms, including elevated breathing and pulse, greenish feces, some abdominal pain, cold extremities, and a swollen and irritated mouth and tongue. A dose of green leaves equal to 0.005% of a horse''s body weight is sufficient to kill a horse.
ONION (Allium cepa)
The onion is a herbaceous biennial composed largely of thickened leaf bases and a very short condensed stem at the base. The outermost leaf bases of the bulb are dry and pigmented and form a covering for the fleshy inner ones which are the food reserves. There is a great variation between cultivars in size, colour, pungency and quality of mature bulbs. The colour may be orange-yellow, reddish or purplish depending on the variety.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The bulbs and the leaves are the poisonous part of the onion containing N-propyl disulphide, oxalate and S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (SMCO). N-propyl disulphide, an alkaloid, has been implicated as the toxic chemical. More recent studies have shown that S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (SMCO) is involved in forming Heinz bodies and hemolytic anemia. This chemical is less toxic in nonruminant animals. Symptoms of poisoning include anemia, onion breath, rapid breathing, icterus, rapid weight loss and death.
PATERSON'S CURSE(Echium plantagineum)
An erect, hairy annual, occasionally biennial, up to 1.5 m high but commonly 30 to 60 cm, Paterson's curse (Echium plantagineum) is in the family Boraginaceae that includes some useful herbs and garden plants, and other toxic weeds such as yellow burr weed (Amsinckia spp.), viper's bugloss (E. vulgare) and common heliotrope (Heliotropium europaeum). With its purple flowers, (occassionally pink or white), Paterson's curse is one of the most conspicuous weeds of pastures, roadsides and disturbed land in Western Australia. It is supposedly named after the Paterson family of Cumberoona, NSW, who planted it in the 1880s. In other parts of Australia it is sometimes called salvation Jane, blueweed, Lady Campbell weed or the Riverina bluebell. Paterson's curse is a declared plant (noxious weed) and is a target for biological control. Paterson's curse now covers 33 million hectares of land in southern Australia (from Western Australia to northern NSW) and is estimated to cost Australian sheep and cattle producers $250 million annually through lost productivity in pastures, control costs, and wool contamination. It is highly competitive in pastures, replacing desirable plants without contributing to forage value.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
Paterson's curse contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are toxic to livestock, particularly horses, though sheep can graze it for a time. Still, prolonged grazing of Paterson's curse is harmful even to sheep as the alkaloids eventually cause liver damage, especially if stock consume large amounts of this weed in winter and spring and then graze on common heliotrope over summer.
PIGWEED (Amaranthus retroflexus )
Redroot pigweed is a large, coarse, annual with red stems and simple, egg-shaped, wavy-margined, alternate leaves that grows to five feet tall. The green, inconspicuous flowers are borne in short, compact clusters along with green spines. The seeds are small, shiny, and black. Fields, barnyards, and waste areas are the favorite habitats of this weed.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The leaves, stems and roots are toxic containing a nephrotoxin that causes kidney failure, and also contains soluble oxalates and is capable of accumulating nitrates. Therefore, toxicity can be due to any combination of these toxicoses. Animals need to consume pigweed in fairly significant quantities over several days before signs appear. Typically, onset of signs is 3 to 7 days from the onset of ingestion. Symptoms include starting with early signs of weakness, trembling and incoordination. This progresses to an inability to stand and paralysis, yet the animals may still be alert and able to eat. Near the end of the clinical course, the affected animals may go into a coma, and have edema under the skin of the abdomen and the legs, have a bloated abdomen, and die. The course of the disease is approximately 48 hours and is primarily consistent with kidney failure. Cases where animals consume smaller amounts of plants over long time periods have not been well studied, but this is also believed to cause toxicology problems.
PIMPERNEL (Anagallis arvensis)
A small annual or perennial plant which grows to a height of around 10 centimetres. It prefers cultivated ground and waste lands and is world-wide. The plant is used medically in homoeopathic treatment of liver and skin problems. Scarlet pimpernel and Sheperd's weather glass are other common names.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
This plant has long been regarded as poisonous although its poisonous principles are uncertain. There are conflicting reports of iuts poisons which may be due in part to the fact that, in common with many poisonous plants, the severity of its effexts can vary considerably between individual animals. It contains both glycosidal saponins and an acrid volatile oil. The symptoms include gastro-intestinal problems, staggering. difficulty breathing, incoordination, and in the final stages coma and a rapid drop in body temperature.
POPPY (Papaver somniferum)
A sturdy annual plant which reaches a height of around 1 and a half metres. It is found mainly on wastelands, but it is also cultivated. This poppy is regularly confused with the field poppy (Papaver rhoeas), which even though it isn't regarded as being poisonous, it does contain potentially toxic alkaloids. Papaver somniferum is the source of opium, which was once described as 'the sheet anchor of the veterinarian'. The unripe seeds of the opium poppy are used in the manufacture of morphine and codeine, and tincture of opium produces laudanum. White poppy is also another common name for this plant.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The whole plant, especially the seed pods is toxic containing a crude resin, opium. Symptoms include restlessness, excessive salivation, increased respiration, reduction in body temperature and narcosis.
POISON HEMLOCK (Conium maculatum )
A biennial herb that grows 3 to 8 feet tall and it has a smooth purple-spotted stem and triangular, finely divided leaves with bases that sheathe the stem. The fresh leaves and roots have a rank, disagreeable, parsnip-like odor. The small but attractive white flowers, arranged in umbrella-like clusters, open in early summer. The fruit is tiny, flattened, and ridged. Underground is a fleshy, unbranched white taproot. There are no hairs on the stems or leaves of poison-hemlock and no branching, feathery bracts beneath the flower clusters. These plants are commonly found along roadsides, edges of cultivated fields, railroad tracks, irrigation ditches, stream banks, and in waste areas.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The whole plant especially the young leaves and seeds contain volatile alkaloids coniine and gamma-conicine. A lethal dose for a horse is 4 to 5 pounds of leaves. Affected animals show symptoms within 2 hours if injesting this plant and they tend to become nervous, and will tremble and become uncoordinated. After the excitement phase, the animal becomes depressed. The heart and respiratory rates slow down, the legs, ears and other extremities become cold, colic and/or bloating may occur. Even at this stage, the animal may not die, but may remain like this for several hours to days, and then recover. In lethal cases, the animals tend to die within 5 to 10 hours after the onset of the clinical signs, typically from respiratory failure (in which case the mucus membranes will appear blue). A mousy odor has been reported to emanate from affected animals. The primary time of year for poison hemlock is spring, often when there is insufficient forage available. At this time, the plant may also be more palatable. The toxicity increases throughout the growing season, and the roots become toxic only later in the year. Once dried, the toxicity is considered to be reduced but not eliminated.
POTATO (Solanum tuberosum)
The white underground tubers of the potato are cultivated widely for human consumption and it has also been used for horse food.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The stems, leaves, flowers and fruit (haulms) are highly poisonous containing glycoside, solanine and other highly toxic substances. Symptoms of poisoning include gastro-intestinal problems, weak pulse, circulatoy failure, incoordination, restlessness and convulsions. Coma and death can also occur. There have been reports of death in horses from potatos, and the related tomato plant may be similarly toxic.
PRIVET (Ligustum spp.)
Common privet (Ligustrum vulgare As pictures above) is a deciduous shrub which loves calcareous soil. It can reach up to a height of 5 metres. There are various different types of privet, some of which are evergreen, some cultivated as garden shrubs or as ornamental hedging plants.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The poisonous principle of privet isn't fully understood, but it is believed to be associated with the glycoside - ligustrine. The berrys are normally thought to be toxic, but all parts of the plant above ground have caused poisoning. Symptoms of poisoning include staggering, intestinal disruption, paraylsis, rapid pulse, congested mucous membrane and dilated pupils. There have been fatal reports in horses with death occuring between 4 to 48 hours after ingesting the plant.
RAGWORT (Senecio jacobaea)
A biennial plant that reaches a height of around 30 to 100 centimetres, and is found mainly on wastelands, beside roads and in paddocks. It has a bright yellow flower on erect stems and jagged lobed leaves, hense its name. Ragwort was designated as an injurious weed in the Weeds Act. Under the Act the landowner can be required to prevent the plant from spreading, and failure to do so within a specified time renders him liable to prosecution.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
These are linked to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids, the most toxic of which are cyclic diesters. Symptoms of poisoning may not appear until after the animal has been ingesting the plant for many weeks or months, although they can aslo appear immediately. They include digestive disturbance, abdominal pains and diarrhoea, restlessness, incoordination and paraylsis. There is no correlation between the severity of the symptoms and the length of time the plant has been consumed by the animal. The name 'sleepy staggers' has been given to this condition in horses and many fatalities have been reported (including one of my best friends, Duke, my look-a-like buddy pictured below with me Condor, I'm on the left. Someone even asked our mummys once if we were twins, as we are identical in build. He was moved into an agistment farm when they moved up bush which unfortunately killed him). The plant doesn't lose its poisonous principle after dying and storage, contaminated hay has caused many problems. The plant should be sought out, uprooted and burnt. The root system is very shallow.
RANGIORA (Brachyglottis repanda)
Its large leaves, dark green on top and white underneath, are known as "Bushman's Toilet Paper". Leaves were traditionally used as an antiseptic dressing. It is common in New Zealand.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
All parts of Rangiora is poisonous, especially the flowers and sap. Its poisonous principles are unknown (well I can't find them anywhere and I have searched the net), it causes 'staggers' in horses.
RATTLE BOX(Acer rubrum)
A small plant that grows to about 50 centimetres tall, with spreading hairs; leaf stipules: decurrent on the stem; leaves: simple, entire, sessile, lanceolate flower on the stem to linear toward the top, 3-8 cm, to l.5 cm wide; inflorescence: 2-4 flowered racemes; flowers: yellow standard, 8 mm; stamens: 10, filaments fused; fruits: oblong, sessile pods, 2-3 cm. very inflated, when dry the seeds rattling in the pods; seeds: flat, kidney-shaped, brown beans, 2.5 mm long. Occurs on dry open soil, waste places, and dry forest clearings.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The herbage and seeds are considered toxic containing the pyrrolizidine alkaloid monocrotaline. The additional alkaloids, fulvine and cristpatine, have been isolated and identified as macrocyclic esters of retorsine. Symptoms of poisoning include stupor, labored breathing, weakness, emaciation, paralysis, and death. Postmortem shows gross lesions - hemorrhag, petechiae, or large ecchymoses; organ congestion; abomasum, omasum, and gallbladder are edematous; cirrhosis of liver in prolonged cases; histological lesions: pulmonary changes, including emphysema, alternate with atelectasis and hemorrhage.
RED MAPLE (Acer rubrum)
Red maple is a tree of medium size, occurring naturally or planted as an ornamental. Young bark is a smooth gray color, older bark is dark and broken. Leaves are 3 to 5 lobed, with shallow notches between lobes. Underside of leaves are white. Leaves are green during the growing season and turn red in the fall. Buds, twigs, flowers, and petioles are red. The sap is not milky.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
Horses are the only animal this tree is poisonous to. The toxin has not been identified, but is believed to be an oxidant due to its effects on red blood cells. Only horses are known to be affected. The ingestion of wilted or fallen leaves causes massive destruction of red blood cells, and the blood can no longer carry sufficient oxygen. Ingestion of 1.5 pounds of leaves is toxic, and ingestion of 3 pounds is lethal. Wilted or dry leaves remain toxic for about a month. Fresh and undamaged leaves have not been implicated, but ingestion is still not advised. Clinical signs develop within one or two days and they include anorexia, brownish blood, vacuolation of the brain (Small spaces in brain cells containing air or fluids.), rapid breathing, cyanosis (A dusky bluish or purplish discoloration of skin or mucous membranes resulting from deficient oxygenation of the blood, either locally or systemically.), dehydration, elevated heart rate, depression, lung congestion, edema of kidney, brownish mucous membrane, jaundice, brownish urine, weakness, coma and death. Approximately 50% to 75% of affected horses die or are euthanized.
RHODODENDRUM(Rhododendrum ponticum)
An evergreen shrub that reaches a height of around 3 metres. If is extremely common and it cultivated in gardens and parks. The flowers are large and purple in color, although many colors are seen in cultivated varieties.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The leaves, pollen, flowers and nectar contain several toxic diterpenoids. Poisoning from this shrub has been recognised since ancient times. Symptoms of poisoning include abdominal pains, diarrhoea, salivation, staggering, constipation, trembling, a weak pulse, slow irregular breathing and the horse can collapse.
ROSARY PEA (Abrus precatorius)
A twisting perennial vine that grows naturally in tropical climates. The leaves are alternate and compound, with 8 to 15 leaflets while the flowers are small, and can be any shade of white to red to purple. The seed pod is about 1 and 1/2 inches long, containing several seeds that are bright red with a black spot.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
The beans are the primary risk containing a protein called abrin and a glycoside called abric acid. The toxic signs resulting from rosary pea ingestion are very similar to those of castorbean, except rosary pea contains a more powerful toxin. One bean can kill a human. Symptoms of poisoning include severe gastrointestinal signs: diarrhea (which may be bloody) and abdominal pain. This progresses to weakness, shock and death within a short period of time. If the seed is swallowed without damage to the seed coat, poisoning is unlikely, and the seed will tend to pass without incident. In cases where the seed coat is chewed or opened (as in drilling to make jewelry), toxic signs and death are likely.
RUBBER VINE(Cryptostegia grandiflora R. Br.)
Twining vine or shrub, fast growing to 12 feet tall with large, showy, white to lilac flowers with a broad funnel-shaped tube and five spreading lobes. The tubular portion is sometimes tinged with red. Flowers are about five cm across.(shown above in second photo the rubbervine covering trees). The worst vine in Queensland has got to be the Rubber Vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora) from Madagascar. Introduced to Queensland in 1875 for its pretty flowers, it was also widely planted during World War 2 when there were concerns about our rubber supply from southeast Asia. Rubber vine now covers 3,500,000 ha of Queensland (which is an area the size of Victoria) and is spreading into the Northern Territory at the rate of 1-3% per year. It forms huge towers along waterways, destroying majestic eucalypts and paperbarks and turning beautiful billabongs into impenetrable tangles of eroded wasteland. The estimated loss of production is currently eight million dollars although the cost of solving the problem would almost certainly be more than a billion dollars.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
Contact with all parts of the plant can cause dermatitis. Runnervine poisoning causes typical signs of congestive heartmfailure - exercise intolerance, tachycardia, and tachypnea. In the horse, signs of right-sided heart failure are common and include ascites, venous congestion, and jugular pulsations. A murmur of mitral or tricuspid regurgitation is usually audible as well as an irregular rhythm. Atrial fibrillation is common, and ventricular or atrial premature complexes may also be seen. Echocardiography reveals chamber dilation and poor contractility with essentially normal valves. A complete blood count often demonstrates a neutrophilic leukocytosis and hyperfibrinogenemia. Elevations in cardiac isoenzymes (creatine kinase and LDH)are often present.
RUSH ( Juncus spp.font>
Rushes are an erect plant with long, stiff, narrow leaves. There are several different species of rush and they grow mainly in wet marshy areas, including poorly drained paddocks.
Poisonous principles and symptoms
There is little information on the rush's poisonous principles, which is believed to be cyanide in the form of cyanogenic glycosides. Also the amount of toxins in the rush seems to fluctuate at different times of the year. Reports of poisoning are inconsistant and there is little known about the effects of eating this plant in some countries, while in others animals that have been poisoned by rush have died suddenly as a result of oxygen starvation of the central nervous system, which is consistant with cyanide poisoning.
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