# Poke weed poisoning



## peregrine (Dec 9, 2008)

Hi there-
I havent posted in a while b/c I stopped milking my doe, Viola, in July--she still has her two 10 mo old kids with her and they try to nurse...Anyway, the goats and horses have eaten our pasture and browse down and we were looking for hay, in the meantime we put them in the neighbors 1/2 acre pasture lot which was way overgrown with tall waist high grasses. Well there was also a good bit of pokeweed in there that the goats got into--at least Viola did--and if she ate as much as was obviously chewed off the plants then I am seriously worried about her. She has diarrhea, it's pretty bad. She gets up and walks around and she ate some carrot tops I brought to her, but she just lays around and looks beat. Of course when I went to feed her daughter some grain she wanted nothing to do with it.

So, this is what I did:

C/D Antitoxin 12 ml sq and 6 ml oral
Bose
Thiamin
Vit b 
Probios
Mylanta
Corn oil

I did not give banamine because I do not want to slow down her gut at all.

Is there anything else I should do?
How much more C/D antitoxin should I give her tomorrow?

Thanks--any success stories related to plant toxicity would be helpful. I am really worried and want to be hopeful that this does not mean the end of her.

Alisa


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

Did you remove your goats from the pasture that has the poke in it ? If not ,they will continue to eat it. 
Do you see any signs of this goat eating poke ,like purple on her ?

I have tall poke with berries on it now and my goats do eat it ,however my goats are use to it being around in the pasture and move on and dont over do the poke as it will give them diarrhea and make them off feed for days , I really dont do anything other than make sure the goat is not wormy or if a young goat I worm them and also start them on cocci meds and start them on probios and pepto bismol and if the poops continue I move to scour halt ,probios, B vitamins but stop the cocci treatment after 5 days .

To me I have almost 30 wooded acres and it's impossible to remove all the poison plants ,so far I havent lost a goat .

Do a goat check : Is this goats gums pale ?, When did you last worm the goat ? and with what amt. and what wormer ? , What is the goats temp ? , What age is this goat ?


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

after giving her all this stuff make sure she is ruminating. Just for the record I would have done as Linda. Mainly because if they have diarreah they are passing the poisons thru, so for me it is a wait and see game. I don't do the oil or the antitoxin unless in obious pain ie; grinding teeth, bloated etc. I might do charcoal but deffiently probios and B Complex.


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## peregrine (Dec 9, 2008)

I took the poke out and took the girl goats to their own pasture last night. I checked on her this AM and she was chewing cud laying down, still looking tired and less energy, but she ran to a gum tree branch I took down for them and chowed down. I think she will be ok. Yes, the diarrhea was purplish but there was no purple around her mouth (?). I know that they ate the poke because its obviously been chewed up and the parts that were inside the fence were all gnawed off while the parts that were outside were still full and with berries. I just dont get why the other goats did not have a problem and only she did. Maybe because she is the mama and still lactating (a little) and does seem prone to digestive issues. Anyway, I am going to worm her today since its about time. Thanks for your help.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

activated charcoal


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

If she ate that much poke it probably wormed her lol. Glad she's doing better. My goats eat poke all the time, but never enough to color their poo!


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## peregrine (Dec 9, 2008)

Well, it's taken her this long to get right after eating the poke. She must have been the only one who was ignorant enough to eat it. I was really concerned about her, because even though she showed signs of going back to normal 2 days ago, later that evening she was acting like she was going downhill again--the poor girl wouldnt even eat the honeysuckle vine I brought to her, and normally she goes nuts for that stuff. Finally, last night I saw a sort of normal clumpy poop with more clump than runniness. I had given her a second dose of C/D, because she seemed sooo slow and weak and off and was just not eating anything at all, just laying down all the time, not even drinking. I gave her more vit b, more mylanta, and wormed her for good measure (corid and cydectin). This AM she seemed to be more of herself, and now, tonight, I am happy to report she is 100% fine--Halleluyah!--and is prancing around with her daughter just as sweet and obnoxious as she ever was  Oy, the pokeweed, that stuff is nasty. And you know, I cut it all out of the pasture and threw is over the fence, and I see her craning her neck out the fencing reaching her lips over trying to get more of it! WTH? Why dont goats know they shouldnt eat this toxic stuff? Baffling. But I wont go on too long I am just so glad she made it through!


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