Horrible find in my hay yesterday

Oh My Word,

I wonder if this is what’s causing my Grace to choke so much, she is coughing up a lot of foam and bit’s of her food every night. It’s just too scary for my liking to tell the truth.

I have 4 milk goats and Grace is the only one with this problem, and it came on all the sudden. Just BAM, she choking. I’m going out to look at the alfalfa now.

Like you Jcran, I’m in Cali also, just a bit south of you.

Kris

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I know all the rules, but the rules do not know me ... Eddie Vedder

The picture of the flixweed baby is one I took in 2007...the herd mentioned in the Dr. Knight article is my neighbors. She had the initial problem in 2004 and some of her does dealt with the iodine issues for years after, the last one in that 2007 picture. I fed out the remaining bale to our horses as its not toxic when they are not pregnant. Flixweed and mustard are NOT the same thing but dried, they do look similar. The flixweed seed pod is 1- 1 1/2 inches long and mustard is a bit smaller I believe. If we are all vigilant, we can educate our hay providers. I believe it doesn't come back easily in a season if mowed, so that is why it tends to mostly be in first cutting...it is not prevalent in 2nd or 3rd cutting hay. It also tends to be in the hay that is along the borders of fields, the "ditch" hay that can have alfalfa and weeds in it. Just be vigilant. If I find any bits in my barn tonight I'll take pics but I think I got rid of it all.

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Joan Crandell
Wild Iris Farm
"Fair"- the other 4 letter F word." This epiphany came after almost 10 days straight at our county fair.

Mustard isn't the same thing.

Oh, the goats show NO symptoms when eating it; they LOVED the hay I was feeding that had it...as a previous poster said, its the flixweed that causes the hypothyroidism in the babies...and it IS horrific. And heartbreaking. And devastating in an economic sense, too.

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Joan Crandell
Wild Iris Farm
"Fair"- the other 4 letter F word." This epiphany came after almost 10 days straight at our county fair.

The flixweed I've found in hay had long seed pods like little string beans with seed dotted in a row. It is very fine in hay, the seed posts being maybe 1/16th of an inch wide or less and inch or two long. It's hard to find unless you know what it looks like.
It is also called tansy mustard- I think because the flowers are similar to mustard in they way they look but the leaves are tansy like.