From: Terry
I have 2 horses: a 29 year old Mustang and a 9 year old QH/Paint. I have lived on the same farm with them both all their lives since they were 2 yrs. and 10 months. Then I got married. He had 5 acres and built a great barn, we planted Kentucky blue grass and Horse pasture grass (purchased from TSC. The first year it was a great field. This year we have White clover EVERYWHERE! Both my babies are slobbering terrible. My vet said just make sure they have plenty of water, They do. But now my Mustang when she pees she bounces on her back legs until it starts then she stops bouncing. My QH just pours slobber all over me. The stalls stay soaked because of the slobber. IS THIS DANGEROUS TO THEM? I do not care how it affects me, it is them I am worried about. Terry
This is both a management question and a vet question, so I can help you with the management side of things. As your vet has probably already told you, there's no medical treatment for slobbers. The only "cure" is to remove the horses from the source of the problem. If you take your horses off the affected pasture for a few days, the slobbering should diminish and then disappear.
You are probably right about clover being the culprit. Wet weather in late spring and summer can result in clover (all kinds) and other legumes (such as alfalfa) being infected with a fungus that produces a mold toxin. Grazing horses may begin to salivate profusely - enough to soak their bedding... or their owners, as you now know. ;-) It doesn't take a huge amount of infected clover to cause this.
The reason your vet said to be sure that your horses had enough water is that horses can lose an enormous amount of water through this constant, profuse salivation - twelve or fifteen gallons a day! For horses, this is the real potential danger of the slobbers. It's not the toxicity of the mold that's the problem, it's the fact that it can cause the horses to salivate so much that their body fluids and electrolyte levels may become dangerously low. Especially in hot weather, horses can become dangerously dehydrated unless they are being managed carefully.
By the way, you were very wise to consult your veterinarian. It's true that legumes (such as clover and alfalfa) infested with "black patch" fungus are very often the cause of a horse's drooling, but they aren't the ONLY possible cause. If the weather has been hot and wet, and ALL of your horses are drooling, it's a good bet that "black patch" fungus is the cause, but it can't hurt to check - and if you ever discover that just ONE of your horses is drooling, call the vet immediately. A physical injury to the horse's mouth or tongue can cause drooling... and so can a fractured jaw. Other possible causes of drooling include "choke" - an obstruction in the horse's esophagus - and a particularly nasty disease called vesicular stomatitis.
Take your horses off the pasture when you see them with a major case of the slobbers, and feed them hay for a few days whilst they recover. Slobbers will typically disappear in a day or two after the horses stop eating the infected plants, so if your horses don't recover in a couple of days, or if they show other signs such as diarrhea, talk to your veterinarian again. If there's anything "good" about slobbers, it's that the effects are not subtle - even if you check your horses only twice a day, you WILL notice!
The most important thing to do, whether your slobbering horses are in the pasture, in the barn, or in a drylot, is to be absolutely certain that they have full-time access to clean water and a source of salt and trace minerals - not just a salt block, but loose salt as well. Dehydration is dangerous to horses, and in very hot weather, a horse with the slobbers can become dangerously or even fatally dehydrated.
In the short term, take your horses off the affected pasture and give them hay (and water and salt).
In the long term, you'll need to pay attention to your pasture management. Your pastures may be just fine, so don't panic! The weather conditions that lead to fungus, mold, and slobbers THIS year may not be repeated next year or the year after.
What's in your pasture - and what SHOULD be in your pasture? Ask your vet, and your county extension agent, for advice. Good pasture management requires effort, but there's a big payoff: happy, healthy horses. If you will be re-seeding or overseeding your pasture before winter, you can reduce the proportion of clover if it's too high. Generally, legumes should make up no more than 10% or 15% of horse pasture. If you discover that your pastures consist of 20% or 25% clover, you'll probably want to reduce that percentage. If you find that 30% or more of your pasture consists of clover, you will definitely want to reduce that percentage. But don't think that you have to remove ALL of the clover - legumes are a good source of calcium and protein, and are a useful component of many horse pastures.
Your vet and extension agent will be able to give you better and more complete advice based on your location and situation, but here are some general principles of pasture management:
Mow your pastures for weed control and maximum palatability. Some horse-owners find that at times when conditions are favourable for the development of "black patch" fungus on legumes, mowing their pastures shorter (keeping them at 3" or 4" instead of 6") can help reduce the infection by keeping the pastures dryer.
Remove or harrow the manure, depending on your situation and climate and stocking rate.
Rotate your pastures to keep them productive and healthy.
Re-seed and/or overseed your pastures as needed - you always want to have the pasture full of "good" plants, not weeds, and if your "pasture mix" contained 15% legumes, you'll want to try to maintain the legumes at 15%.
Fertilize as needed (usually in the fall), and follow your vet's advice about which products to use and how long to keep the horses off the pastures afterwards.
Herbicides may have a place in your pasture management program - again, talk to your vet about which products to use and how long to keep your horses off the pasture afterwards. If your fall or spring weed control methods include the use of a broadleaf weed control product, remember that this will kill off your pasture legumes (including, of course, the clover).
Total field renovation may be necessary in some cases - if you're looking at a field of weeds and wondering how to convert it to horse pasture, talk to your vet AND get advice and help from your extension agent.
Don't count on being able to see the signs of infection on your pasture legumes. Sometimes the signs ARE visible, and close inspection will show you tiny brown or black spots on the leaves of the legumes. In other cases, the spots will be so tiny that you would need a magnifying glass to detect them. And just to make things more complicated, the fungus may not affect all of the legumes in the pasture - it may be present in just a few locations! So don't count on being able to SEE the cause of the problem - it may be impossible. Instead, be aware of the weather conditions (the combination of hot weather, wet weather, and high humidity) that are most likely to result in fungus infection. At those times, you may want to mow your pastures lower, or you may want to move your horses to a drylot as a precautionary measure. Either way, be on the lookout, watch your horses carefully for signs of slobbering, and be sure that free-choice water and salt are always available to your horses. Careful management and the alert eye of a well-informed owner will help your horses stay healthy and hydrated, thus keeping slobbers in the "temporary annoyance" category and out of the "potentially life-endangering" category.
Jessica
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