Re: red maple poisoning?

["Marlana" <lrp@tp.net>]

<Some background stuff deleted>

>One of our clients who is a vet tech said it could have been red maple
poisoning.
>Some of the symptoms are blood in the urine and colicky behavior before the
>kidneys simply shut down and they die.  Anyone heard of this?  Any
>experiences?  These people did keep the horse partially in a wooded area.

My neighbor who was totally new to horses (moved from the city, saw I had a
pony, so he bought himself a horse or two... that's a whole 'nother story).
Anyways, even tho we had our Vets out to our barns (we both have barns we
built behind our houses) the Vet and Vet techs never noticed the amount of
swamp maples on our properties.... Of course, I *do* live in a swamp, so
have just a few in my pastures.... say, 10 trees. And I'm not blaming the
Vet at all, cause I know they have so much to do, and adding looking at all
the foliage just is expecting too much! To make a long story short, my
friend's horses didn't have enough to munch on in their half-acre paddock,
so ate copious amounts of leaves. All of which were swamp maple. He almost
lost one of the horses, but because the horse was only 5 yrs old, he pulled
through after being at the Vet's clinic for a few weeks. He was really
emaciated, depressed and his urine was a dark brown when first found
(thought it was severe colic at first) ... then he got worse after a few
days, even after being flushed w/ lots of fluids and having blood
transfusions.
My horses also eat the leaves, but I have 5 acres of pasture to balance out
the amount that they consume. And we both rake out our paddocks every day or
so, w/ my friend putting muzzles on his horses.

>There were lots of trees though I am not sure what kind Know how I could
>differentiate red maple from other maples?

The red maple or swamp maple is easy to distinguish... it has red veins in
the leaves! From what I've heard and read, other maples are not poisonous,
just the type that is most prevalent in my area!

>Maggie Mieske
>Mieske's Silver Lining
>McBain, Michigan
>http://www.netonecom.net/~mmieske

Sorry this post was so long!

Marlana Pitas & LL Rheebok
South Attleboro, MA
http://users.tp.net/lrp




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