Toxic Plants and the Common Caprine
Unlike the public's vision of a goat, the cast iron-stomached beast that can eat everything from a tin can to plastic wrapping, there are many things that can kill a goat. Some poison plants are ingested by accident, while browsing, but a major reason for the toxic poisoning of goats comes as a result of starvation.
As with all nutritional toxicology, it is the size of the dose, and the poison present in the plant that will determine whether the animal lives or dies. This web page is devoted to the caprine species, and to many of the plants out there that can kill them. It gives a fairly comprehensive list of plants commonly found in areas with goats, but it is not complete.
List of toxicants in plants poisonous to goats
This list comes from an old Dairy Goat Management book that I had kicking around at home, and may be incomplete. For a more
comprehensive, and more scientific list, consult Mary Smith, and David Sherman's
Goat Medicine.
This series of web pages was created by Kevin Kirchofer, an undergraduate student at Cornell University for the AS625 class. All comments and suggestions are welcome.
WARNING: These web pages are only meant to be informative. Neither Cornell University nor the author of this site endorse or recommend the use of these plants.