# Potatoes poisonous to horses ?????



## horseandhound08 (7 February 2009)

Friend had a horse colic recently as someone had given it potatoes to eat in its field altho there is a sign on gate clearly stating dont feed horses!!!!

What is it about potatoes that is harmful to horses ????

last thing was people feeding pony grass cuttings thinking they were doing good , pony got terrible lami !!


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## stacey_lou (7 February 2009)

Potatoes are as bad as rag wort for horses! Im not to sure as to why but i think its beacuse of the starch levels.When I studied one of my text books mentioned it.


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## Box_Of_Frogs (7 February 2009)

It's the green parts of the potato that cause the problems. And whilst it is indeed poisonous to the horse, it's not the same as ragwort, though that gets to be a pointless argument if your horse is seriously ill through any sort of poisoning! The following is from H&amp;H:

When potatoes are green and sprouting, they contain high amounts of the poison solanine. Potato poisoning is rare in humans because boiling, roasting or frying destroys solanine (we rarely eat raw potatoes!). 

If a horse eats a green potato, it can cause the following 

- excitability followed by depression 
- decreased heart and respiratory rate 
- gastric problems such as colic 
- co-ordination problems and muscle weakness 
- convulsions 
- large amounts may cause death from cardiac arrest 

Hope this helps.


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## kerilli (7 February 2009)

potatoes are from the same family as deadly nightshade, iirc. nuff said.


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## brighteyes (7 February 2009)

Copied from Wiki

 <font color="green"> Deep-frying potatoes at 170°C (306°F) is known to effectively lower glycoalkaloid levels (because they move into the frying fat), whereas microwaving is only somewhat effective, freeze drying or dehydration has little effect and boiling has no effect[ </font> 

I was taught never to use potatoes with any green on - so I don't.  Certainly wouldn't feed spuds to a horse


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## milliethemoo (8 February 2009)

In the old days I used to boil potato skins and mixed them with bran after hunting.  I was told to do that by an old farmer. it never did any harm but not sure if it did any good either. Potato is not harmful if cooked but it is not a thing horses should be eating . We wouldn't eat hay would we.? I feel potatoes should be left to being used as apoulice only.


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## Tootsiepop (14 February 2009)

I remeber reading in a book somewhere that there was a member of the Irish Team in the "Olden Days" who fed here horses potatoes as the staple part of their diet.  I suppose that it would do no harm to feed a small pot of boiled potatoes every day.


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