Horse Owners Field Guide to Toxic Plants [Paperback]

Sandra Burger (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Breakthrough Pubns (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0914327623
• ISBN-13: 978-0914327622
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #754,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable but alarmist, May 18, 2004

By 

poltroon "poltroon" (Mendocino County, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Horse Owners Field Guide to Toxic Plants (Paperback)

This book is very valuable as a reference to a horse owner. The pictures are good, and each entry contains a description of possible symptoms and treatments (which I assume are correct). As a diagnostic, this book seems very useful and something you should have around.

However, as a new pasture owner, I found it incredibly alarmist. So much so that I almost :-) wanted to take my horses back to the boarding stable so I could stop worrying my pretty head about plants. Ha!

Practically every plant that has ever been known to harm a horse is listed, which means that the book is overwhelming. Some of the toxicities are mild and very uncommon, but the text is thick enough that it is difficult to determine whether the plant is likely to be dangerous without close reading. Clover is listed next to locoweed. In some cases, the plant listed is not itself toxic, but it tends to attract toxic fungi, as in the case of fescue. However, when reading the entries, they all have scary-sounding symptoms. It is difficult to ascertain under even a close reading whether the plant in question is really dangerous. There's a difference in my mind between "a nibble will be a life-or-death situation" and "symptoms will disappear if you remove the plant from the diet," and that difference is not readily apparent in the listings.

This book would be much improved if plants that were especially dangerous - plants that are acutely toxic in minute quantities and plants that are especially likely to be eaten in toxic quantities - were more obviously called out. I would love to have a quick icon at the top that tells me "Deadly - remove from pasture using any means necessary" or "Potential Problem" or "Not Likely to cause serious problems." This triage would allow me as an owner to concentrate my first efforts on learning to identify and eradicate the most dangerous plants, rather than being distracted by fescue and clover.

I'm glad that plants that can but usually don't cause problems, like fescue and clover, are listed. It's very useful when trying to diagnose a horse that's not quite right, and if they were omitted, the horse owner might incorrectly assume that the diet was not the issue. I would just like to see them flagged differently or perhaps included in an appendix rather than mixed in with the truly deadly plants that have no margin for error.

As it stands it is better as a reference for answering specific questions than as a book you can just read through when contemplating several acres of plants or potential plants.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference book for veterinarians and horse owners, September 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Horse Owners Field Guide to Toxic Plants (Paperback)

This is the best and most affordable compact reference book on toxic plants that I have seen. It lists common name, scientific names & local a.k.a.s. A detailed description of the plant is given as well as geographical distribution, signs of poisoning and a 'what to do' section. The best part of all is that there are full color photos for each plant as well as a drawing. The index allows you to look the plant up by name or by clinical sign (plants that will cause the sign are listed with their page numbers). Indespensible for the veterinarian or student. Useful for large and small animals!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for horse owners who pasture their horses, November 21, 2002

By 

Andrew Major (Henniker, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Horse Owners Field Guide to Toxic Plants (Paperback)

In the author's preface, she describes the reason that she wrote the book, the loss of a treasured friend. Recently (10/02), the nightmare was repeated with a friend of mine and her 18 month-old filly. The case appeared to be a simple case of colic, and the vet treated her accordingly. By the time we realized that the treatment wasn't working, I grabbed my copy of this book and we poured over the description of the symptoms. After matching the symptoms to the possible plant species that cause them, we began a systematic search of the pasture. It turned out that the filly had been poisoned by a common plant under uncommon conditions. Her symptoms were described in detail in the book, along with the treatment. Unfortunately, for us, the treatment came too late to save her.

The true strength of this book is the description of the symptoms and the treatments for the various plant toxins. The pictures and the descriptions of the plants are a starting point, but they will not make the reader an expert in plant taxonomy. They act more as a warning flag to encourage the reader to research similar looking plants in their pasture with a more detailed reference.

I am so convinced that this book is valuable, that I ordered 10 more copies that I plan to give away. I will give them to all of the 4-H horse leaders in the county plus the 4 vets who work with our young horse owners and their parents. Maybe we can, through education, give the caregivers the tools that they need to save a life. We owe them at least that.