As many of you know we lost one of our Welsh Ponies around August of 2010 to Toxic Weed Poisoning. This is a very slow and painful death that we all need to watch out for with our animals. It all started about May 2010 when we put all four horses into our back 3 acre pasture. We had previously used this pasture for our steers in the past without any problems, but what we didn't know was that horses are more susceptible to this poisoning than bovines. We let the horses graze the pasture until the first of July, when we took them off of it and rotated them back to their main pasture. All of the horses looked and acted normal, until two days later when I noticed "Talk" just standing at the water tank by himself. This was a little strange for him, because He and his brother "Fuji" were constantly playing and fussing with each other. The next day was their Ferrier appointment, and we went down  to the barn to catch them up. This is when we knew something was majorly wrong. All the horses met us at the gate like normal, except for Talk. He was all the way in the back of the field by himself, and Fuji was running around and making all sorts of racket. Talk would not let us catch him, he just ran away from us. After about 30 minutes we finally caught him and brought him to the barn, or I should say dragged him to the barn. His sides were sucked up like he was colicing. We immediately put him in the trailer and drove the 2 miles to our vet. This would be the start of a learning lesson that we will remember for the rest of our lives. 
    From here I'll give the "Reader's Digest" version. He was given mineral oil to try and past the blockage in his gut, along with fluids by I.V. Just when we thought he was getting better, then he would take a turn. Laura and I told each other that we would keep up fighting for him as long as he was still trying. The blood work came back and showed that his liver was having problems. We were able to fight this with a prescription paste. It worked very well, and started to reverse the problem with the liver. Next he started to founder, first on one, but eventually on three feet. Our Vet drained the feet and we provided him with boots that were placed over his hooves to place proper pressure on the coffin bone. Then came the Photosensitivity. He basically became allergic to sunlight, and this made him loose all of his hair. We had to duct tape a sheet around him when he would go out of the barn. Apparently this is a common reaction to white colored horses with this poisoning. After about the 6th week his attitude was good and he was starting to grow his hair back. Laura soaked his feet and repacked them every day to help draw out the infection in his hooves. Then on week 7 you could see his attitude change. He was tired, and his body finally had enough, he went off his feed. 
    We hand fed him, and gave him more fluids via I.V drip for a couple more days. This was when we had to make that hard decision to put him down. We loaded him in the trailer, so he wouldn't have to walk, and took him to the top of the knoll of our pasture, where the vet was waiting for us. This is the part of owning these wonderful creatures that everyone hates. Our Vet is very respectful about this procedure. It was administered in three steps. This first step was a dose of pain medication, then when we could see him relax he gave him a shot to put him to sleep, as if his was going to perform surgery on him, and he laid down on the ground. This is when the lethal dose was completed. I only write about this part because there are people that don't know the process of putting an animal down. This is a procedure that is done with a heavy heart by everyone, including the Vet.
    What we have learned from this tragedy is that everyone needs to be careful and knowledgeable about what is growing in their pastures, and just because it's "Green" doesn't mean that it is eatable. We now have a spray regime to try and kill off as may weeds as possible. So much for "Organic" pastures, for us it's just not worth it!
                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                          (Graceland's Talk About It)