Excessive salivation is a toxic response. Maybe the liver takes care of the toxin and there are no repercussions. However, I wouldn’t be pleased if my horse were constantly displaying a toxic response to feed.
Clover slobbers is very, very common in my area. Lots of red and white clover, and apparently, conditions are ideal here for the fungus to thrive. It happens at very particular times of year, when the clover is blooming. Someone turned the faucet on approximately 3 weeks ago, and there is a slobber puddle in front of two of the horse’s stalls. It was a common feature at summer camps where I taught for children to run up to us in dismay and tell us that a horse had thrown up.
If it is in anyway creates long term damage or problems for the horses, I think I would be be aware.
I view it as a necessary annoyance for having good pasture and horses out on grass.
Yes, I suppose it is possible in extreme situations for it to contribute to dehydration.
I realize that. I said it’s only the Alsike clover that is toxic to the point of liver failure. Horses should never consume Alsike. I wasn’t referring to slobbers.
Photosensitization from clover or alfalfa is caused by >10 ppm rhizoctonia leguminicola. It can effect any horse, not just those metabolically challenged.
I didn’t link metabolic issues to photosensitization.
Laminitis risk from clover or alfalfa is due to >10 ppm rhizoctonia leguminicola concentration, It can effect any horse, not just those metabolically challenged.
I can’t find reference to the relationship between the fungus and laminitis - can you point me to it? Even when I look at the Merck manual, there’s no reference to laminitis with rhizoctonia leguminicola, and no reference to rhizoctonia leguminicola in the laminitis section.
The statement “Clovers can be an excellent source of nutrients but are occasionally associated with excessive salivation, oral ulcers, laminitis, colic, photosensitization and liver failure.” doesn’t mean all those things are all caused by the fungus. Alsike clover doesn’t have to be infected to cause liver failure, for example.
Sweet clover is also a problem. It’s mold produces dicoumarol, a chemical that when consumed in high enough concentration, blocks normal blood clotting abilities. Dicoumarol is the same chemical that’s used in commercial rat poisons.
Yes, but I didn’t comment on that
We have red clover in the hay we grow and I have never had them slobber because of that.
We do have a patch of white clover in our current pasture and at times it does affect my mare ( not my daughters) and while it is messy she suffers no ill effects.
I wonder if some time in the growth process of the clover itself, or weather conditions trigger something in the clover to cause slobbers? She has access all year to it. So far no slobbers yet this year and just a few times of brief episodes last year.
Yes, it’s weather conditions. Generally it’s cool and wet, but that doesn’t always hold true. We’ve been here for 13 1/2 years now and have had slobber issues about 3 of those years. If any year was going to make for slobbers again, it would be this year, as Spring was cooler and pretty wet. We haven’t been terribly hot yet for more than a couple days in a row, and that was mostly the last 2 weeks. Now we’re in a cool spell - AC is off! So far, not even a drool.
So clearly there are more factors that have to line up to cause the fungus to grow.
If hay is cut early enough, there may not have been time, even under the perfect conditions, for the fungus to develop, and the timing of cutting is location-dependent as well as weather-dependent. Around here, first cutting is from very late April (rare, but has happened) to mid-May or so, with most of what I see in early May. That’s early for the fungus to develop here. I’ve never had it occur in our pasture before June. There’s often only 2 cuttings, with the 2nd being some time in Sept if the Summer was wet enough, and sometimes into October if it was drier. In the years there has been slobbers here, it’s all done by Sept, so it would make sense it doesn’t make it into the Fall cutting either.
Other areas have cuttings in June and August as well, which, if those occurred here, would be more likely to contain fungus-affected clover, if clover was even in the mix.
When I still had four horses, they all got a bad case of slobbers one summer. It was to varying degrees. One horse slobbered so bed , he soaked his hay.
There weren’t any ill effects during or after that event.
With all the rain and humidity in my area I shouldnt be be talking about this---------
Probably no point. My soon-to-be pasture was seeded with only grass seed 2 years ago and has a lot of clover in it now. Not fenced yet so no horse has been on there to poop clover; must have been spread by wind.
Clover spreads pretty rapidly by way of its runners, with seeds being a more minor way of being distributed. Even if you “tear up” a field with clover in it, any segments of those runners that are left, and survive, will just re-establish its presence.
This customer isn’t above tearing out the whole hillside of greenery and planting clover free pasture mix. She has the means and is a force of nature when it comes to protecting her horse.
Love her.
If that is something that gets done, know that even if you get things done this Fall, and get good seed down and it takes, unless it’s a large property with few horses on it, it will need to stay pristine for a good year to establish roots good enough to stand up to grazing. And given where you are, that might really be Spring of '19, with keeping horses off it next Winter as well.
Yup. Well aware. Actually kind of hoping she does this because that damned hill is kicking my butt! Would be nice to have a year off from having to deal with that several times a day
I don’t see the point in letting a customer waste their money on someone else’s land because they are panicing about something that is a distant maybe. Especially since the clover will just come back.
If she wants to get rid of the clover, why not just spray an herbicide that kills it? Tearing up the field and starting from scratch seems overly extreme, especially when it will just come back. Spraying with something that hits it every year or as needed to keep it in check makes a whole lot more sense.
Clover a a very nutritious grass. We had a LOT of clover, and always several horses that preferred it drooling “buckets” for periods each year. Never any problems, with hundreds of horses. I LOVE clover. I will happily deal with the occasional mess, so the horses can have such a delicious and nutritious treat.
First off: her land. Not someone else’s
second: if customer is upset over the remote possibility of toxins affecting her horse, what makes y’all think she’ll be ok preading an herbicide? She wouldn’t be…
her horse. Her property. Her money. I just farm sitting while the regular staff is vacationing.
Thanks though.