Plants That Will Kill Goats in Florida

Goats grazing in a pasture.

Many people think goats can eat anything. In popular culture, they have been portrayed as garbage eaters and living lawn mowers. If you go to a petting zoo, you may have goats trying to nibble on your clothes, purse, hair or anything else they can get their lips and teeth onto. However, goats are vulnerable to a variety of plants that can be harmful or even deadly. If you live in Florida and keep goats, you should keep certain plants away from grazing areas. Although goats won’t normally eat poisonous plants unless there is a shortage of food, it’s best to identify and remove potentially harmful plants from the animals' reach.

Alkaloid Plants

Although these plants are more abundant in the northwestern United States, Florida has alkaloids that will kill goats, including lupine, buttercups and larkspur. Alkaloid plants attack a goat’s nervous and digestive systems. Goats that have ingested plants in this family will normally convulse before dying.

Plants from Soil High in Copper

Soil with high levels of copper can cause a buildup of this mineral in plants, which is toxic to goats that eat them. Clover is a plant that grows rampantly in grazing areas and is highly susceptible to copper buildup.

Cyanogenic Plants

Wild cherries, peaches, plums and marsh arrow grass contain compounds called cyanogenic glycosides which, when broken down in the goat’s body, create a deadly hydrocyanic acid (HCN). Respiration problems, convulsions and tremors are all signs that a goat has been poisoned by HCN.

Photodynamic Plants

Certain plants will cause severe light sensitivity in goats--especially white goats with unpigmented areas of skin. Look out for St. John’s Wort, clover and rapeseed especially if you have white goats. If goats have eaten these plants and are out in the bright sun all day, they may appear sunburned. Large areas of their skin will begin to come off and in severe cases the animals will die.

Plants High in Nitrates

Under certain conditions, nitrates can accumulate to toxic levels in specific plants. Milk thistle, oats, rye and sugar beets can be fatal to goats if the vegetation doesn’t receive adequate water or sunlight. This is because the plants take up extra nitrogen from the soil in order to compensate for the loss of nutrition. Goats will ingest these unsafe levels of nitrogen and experience trembling, respiratory failure and eventually death.

References

• Florida A&M University Extension: Plants Poisonous to Goats and Other Livestock in the Southeast
• Washington University NetVet: Poisonous Plants Extension Goat Handbook
• University of Wisconsin Extension: Nitrate Poisoning in Cattle, Sheep and Goats