# Poisonous plants question



## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

This obviously has been triggered by many other posts asking for plant identification or plant toxicity. It has got me wondering. Do goats just eat whatever they come across. Most animals won't eat things that are poison to them, is this not true of goats? I have all kinds of things in my woods, I can't imagine being able to keep a goat from all of the possible toxins. (right now Daffodil is in a pretty contained pasture area but thinking of the future)
I know sometimes an animal will eat a poisonous plant If it is starving.


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## Scottyhorse (Feb 11, 2013)

Ours have been good with not eating poisonous plants.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

This weekend I will try to get a video of one of my goats eating around the wild cucumber. They bite it off with other weeds but, it never makes it into their mouth. It's kind of funny really. Some things they will eat and make themselves sick. Here rhodies, horsetail, and Laural trees seem to be what to watch out for.


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## Scottyhorse (Feb 11, 2013)

At our old house, about 1.5 hours North from Portland, the goats would always eat around the bad stuff.


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## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

Thanks Goathiker, so do you think native plants they understand which is poison and which isn't and it is more likely ornamentals or human introduced things that confuses them? Or do some poisonous plants just taste good enough that they risk it like I do with milk?


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

For the most part I think that they do know. Horsetail contains Nicotine though, it's addictive. Laural and Rodies, I think there's an allergy thing there as well. Some goats seem to be able to eat a couple leaves and go 'oh that makes my stomach hurt'. Others take one bite and start blowing cud.


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## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

I wondered if they self medicate also. When Daffodil was beginning to mend, the first day I let her eat a few green leaves, she nearly knocked me down for this one specific weed. It looked very similar to an herb, very similar to sage in fact. She would have ate all of it if I had let her. It didn't bother her and she sought it out, I really wondered if it had some kind of wild herbal remedy properties to it.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Very interesting NubianFan, I wonder what it was?
Years ago we had some get out & decimate a either a rhodie or azalea bush cant recall.
Anyway this was in the early 80s & the vet merely told us to dump a whole bottle of pepto down each one.
They all survived.

A few months back we were dealing with what I thought was cocci so started all affected kids on Sulphadimethoxine.
Talking to another breeder she asked if we had buttercups.
Sure enough that was the culprit.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

It could be. I know the boys will seek out willow while we are hiking loaded. I've also noticed that each goat looks for a different type of browse while on the trail. Last time we were out Bean was eating Huckleberries and Salmonberry while Onyx was eating Sword Fern and Oregon grape.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh, I know about those darn buttercups too. They don't seem to bother the adults as much though. I'm in the middle of planting a blackberry thicket (yes, on purpose) to shade them all out.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Culinary pallets?


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## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

They definitely have their favorites. My old horse Fire that I had for almost twenty years and he was my best horse ever. He loved young tender briar shoots. That was his favorite thing and he was a horse, not a goat. Daffodil loves roses, but doesn't care much for black berry or raspberries briars which I figured she would love. She loves honey suckle but could care less about Virginia creeper. She will eat wild carrot or what I call wild carrot anyway, but she had rather not. I have hazel nut shrubs just young, the bucklings broke out once and nearly ate a whole shrub.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I wondered if they had swollen glands hurting. The berries and the Oregon Grape are all high Vitamin C and the Sword Fern is a natural sore throat remedy... ? Who knows what they instinctively do.


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## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

That's actually pretty cool. I wish I could hike in your woods. The pics you have posted beautiful it is green in Arkansas but nothing like that!


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Yeah, I love it here. I don't even mind the rain. I hate all the mud though...


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## trailgoats (Jul 26, 2013)

I live on the Oregon coast too and it is beautiful. The problem is, there are so many scary plants, i feel like we are on a death march every time we go hiking. I am so nervous when we hike, i walk twenty feet ahead of my goats just so i can scan the trail for rhodies and such. I was told by a local feed store owner that wild rhododendron wasnt nearly as toxic as the ornamental stuff. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that?


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## Kathy81 (Oct 16, 2012)

goathiker said:


> For the most part I think that they do know. Horsetail contains Nicotine though, it's addictive. Laural and Rodies, I think there's an allergy thing there as well. Some goats seem to be able to eat a couple leaves and go 'oh that makes my stomach hurt'. Others take one bite and start blowing cud.


 I guess I better get my goats a nicotine patch, lol . We have horsetail and they love it and have shown no signs of illness. I hope it's ok for them?


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I know that the one I had so much trouble with was a Pacific Rhododendron with large leaves and big red flowers.
This is kind of interesting. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v36n4/v36n4-leach.htm

Northwest Packgoats sells comfortable mussels. Then you wouldn't have to worry and could just graze them in safe areas during rest breaks.


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## Kathy81 (Oct 16, 2012)

Does anyone know if day lilies , are poisonous to goats?


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## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

I don't know for certain but would kind of doubt it. Just ordinary day lilies are edible to humans.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Day Lilies are not toxic, even humans can eat them. Most other types are toxic though.


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## Kathy81 (Oct 16, 2012)

Kathy81 said:


> I guess I better get my goats a nicotine patch, lol . We have horsetail and they love it and have shown no signs of illness. I hope it's ok for them?


Is it bad that they love horsetail? I seem to have. A lot growing due to the area being a creek/ marsh. I have not seen any ill affects from them eating it, it's nice that the pasture that we have finished doesn't have any growing anymore  but the next section that is going to extend over the creek and has a lot growing , should I worry . There is no way to pull all of it


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

What I've found is that a bit here and there is okay. If they eat a large amount they need Thiamine as soon as they get wobbly on the hind legs. Dried in hay it's very very very bad, very bad. 

There truly is no way to pull it or stop it from growing. I just take the weed eater to it and keep it mowed down. Once you've kept it cut off enough, it starts dying back.


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## cheyenne (Aug 21, 2011)

I wish I knew what most of the plants growing here were. I just can't identify most of them, especially from most pictures that you find. I need someone to show me the leaves. 

We have 45 acres, mostly wooded and would love to fence off a lot more of it just for the goats. But like others, I have NO CLUE whats growing out there! Would I need to make sure it was poisonous plant free or if they would just instinctively know and not eat it? We have a lot of oak trees, (many varieties), hickory nut trees, cedar, black walnut trees, different elms, ash, and many I can't identify. 

Is a boxwood tree the same as a box elder? I understand boxwood is toxic. I think I know what an elm tree looks like.. not sure what a boxwood tree looks like.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Box Wood Trees are those shrubs with the tiny leaves that people trim into animals and figures on their front lawn. They are not a native tree. None of the trees you listed pose much risk...


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## Kathy81 (Oct 16, 2012)

I just found out that the next area to be fenced has night shade , how do I get rid of it?


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## Kathy81 (Oct 16, 2012)

Are dalhias poisonous ?


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

goathiker said:


> Oh, I know about those darn buttercups too. They don't seem to bother the adults as much though. I'm in the middle of planting a blackberry thicket (yes, on purpose) to shade them all out.


They may actually eat that. Mostly, it seems, goats know what to eat and what not.
Here is a list with edible or poisonous plants:
https://fiascofarm.com/goats/poisonousplants.htm


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## NigerianDwarfOwner707 (May 17, 2018)

We had a couple buttercups.. the goats wanted nothing to do with them.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

All good advice.


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

The biggest threat we have here is "*gifblaar*", poison leaf, but I haven't detected it in the surrounding areas up to now, although it is present in the region.

I'm also interested in how good/bad supplements are for goats. Saw a warning on a Foslek bag today, mainly that one should make sure the animals have enough other food and that one should use the supplement in moderation.


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