Killer Clover!
Spring 2016, I noticed scratches on the back feet of our Appaloosa (Laredo). Now of course some horses are more prone to scratches, so not necessarily alarming. In Laredo’s case however, he had never had a case of scratches. He was the lowest maintenance horse we had, so this was worth paying attention to! We treated it as we would any case of scratches and essentially moved on, as we were unable at that point to identify any other factors of risk.
Fast forward a few weeks and we are down in Langley, BC at Thunderbird Show Park for the May series. My friend and neighbour (Wendy) is looking after our horses back home. I get a frantic call from Wendy saying something is wrong with Laredo! Laredo can be a bit stand offish, but on this particular day he ran up to Wendy almost bowling her over in his quest for help. Something was very wrong! He was in evident distress, agitated and pacing. Wendy immediately called me and I promptly told her to call the vet. The vet that came that day was not well versed in horses. She was more of a small animal vet, but she was the only one on call that weekend. She checked Laredo over but found nothing glaring. We moved him out of the pasture into the paddocks for closer monitoring.
Once we arrived home from the horse show we evaluated Laredo again and had our equine vet out. By this time Laredo appeared to be less distressed, but he was quite sunburned. My vet enquired about Alsike Clover. I had never noticed it in our pasture so out we went to check. To the naked eye there didn’t appear to be a clover issue… then we looked deeper. Under all of the tall pasture grasses were little patches of Alsike Clover! Too small to be seen around the longer grass, but easily sought out by a clover loving Appaloosa!
The vet ran a liver panel and what we found was shocking. Usually the liver enzyme in a healthy horse sits between 1-25. Laredo’s liver enzyme was nearly 500. We immediately got him on a liver cleanse and monitored his liver for a year. We sprayed the pasture with a product that is supposed to keep Alsike Clover at bay for up to 5 years. We kept him under cover to avoid further sunburn as Alsike Clover poisoning can make a horse very photosensitive. We also noticed that the whites of Laredo’s eyes were a bit yellow, another sign of a liver issue. We have found the product we sprayed only lasted in our pasture about 3 years.
In 2019 Laredo let us know that Alsike Clover had made another appearance in our pasture. I now monitor my pasture with great diligence, checking regularly for Alsike Clover. We have 5 horses and have found that some love clover and will search it out any chance they get, while others seem to ignore it in favour of other grasses.
This year, 2020, has been particularly extreme for Alsike Clover. It is toxic to horses both fresh in the field and dried in their hay. Do some research; know what to look for. There are both red and white clover varieties that are fine for horses to eat. They grow differently on the stem and have a water mark that appears as white v on their leaves. Alsike Clover stems are smooth and not ‘hairy’ the leaf is serrated with no water mark. The flowers tend to be a combination of white with light pink. Left unchecked in horse pastures, Alsike Clover can hold deadly consequences.
Image retrieved from http://www.horsedvm.com/poisonous/alsike-clover/
