[jaykay]

I came home to find the goats in a closed off section of garden (one that is just wild). No idea currently how.
The place looks like a plague of locusts have hit it 


They've eaten the apple tree and the contorted hazel. Not a problem.
They haven't touched the box, the climbing hydrangea or the alchemilla.


But they have stripped a low growing bush that has leaves that look like laurel. The habit of the bush isn't normal laurel, it is flattish. But the leaves are certainly evergreen. And the pair of them (or Ellie most likely) have eaten a bucketful of leaves.


Right now they both seem full of themselves and are tucking into their tea.


1. Anyone know what the bush might have been?


2. If it was laurel and if laurel is poisonous, what would I expect to see and when? And is there anything I can do to stave off potential problems.

[deepinthewoods]

activated charcoal, asap, just in case it is laurel, and get a positive id on the plant.

[plumseverywhere]

can you get a picture on here Jaykay? x

[Plantoid]

Bung up a picccy off the net , Check out  cherry  laurels , varigated laurels &  laurel noblis ( bay tree ) and any similar ever green  leafed shrub you can find that way it can be I'D & ideas put forth .
 
I would be surprised if what they ate harms them for goats were the test animal of choice for chemical and bio testing at the Porton Down germ warfare place before human trials were instituted....
Evidently a goat is at least nine times more resistant to most posions than a human thats why they are sucessfull browsing animals .. not much harms them.
 A good site to look into is " hedges4you "    They have an extensive range and loads of evergreens to look at.

[Lesley Silvester]

One of mine ate just a small amount of laurel (variegated) and she was in terrible pain the next day, throwing herself across the shed and bellowing.  The vet had to give her something and she did recover.  It was only after she was ill that I went to see what she might have eaten.  The laurel was dug up that day.

[jaykay]

Well, they're all ok this morning, thank goodness.


So maybe it isn't laurel but it looks most like that except that the leaves ar rounded at the ends not with that little point. But glossy like that and the same sort of size and colour.


Anyway, the goats seem to have survived it and I will be barricading the place as much as I can. I'm still not sure how they go there and wonder if someone opened a gate. Normally there are no 'someone's anywhere near but......


Will keep trying to identify it and I'll go and see if they left one leaf for a photo.

[Mammyshaz]

Glad everything is ok. a bit of a mystery how they got there, 

[jaykay]

This is the plant. The leaves are 3-4" long. Never seen any flowers on it.



Got to be out most of the day and evening at a friend's wedding so am wary about a repeat. Not that there's much left to eat!

[deepinthewoods]

it looks like laurel to me, but if it was your goats would be showing signs of poorliness by now so i dont know.

[Dogwalker]

If there's other things to eat will they eat something poisonous?

I've walked a goat up my track and she very carefully eats around foxgloves and dog murcury without touching them.
And one of the others can clear a bucket of mix leaving just the bits she doesn't fancy that day.  They seem very selective.

[jaykay]

They're still fine   


Unsolved the mystery of them getting in there. My 'doesn't live next door but owns the land' neighbour had been up moving some sheep and had come through the paddock/yard gate to see if I was in. And seems he left it unhooked. The goats had come back into the yard as normal, got through the gate into the paddock and then climbed over the wall into the garden.


I can tell they've been over the wall cos they've knocked some topstones off and Colin told me he'd come through the yard to call.


I suppose he wasn't careful to fasten it since it will have seemed that there were only chickens in the yard which come and go into the paddock anyway. But the goats can bring themselves back to the yard from the ghyll, when they want to come in.  I will have to put a chain or something on the gate.

[Mammyshaz]

Relief the mystery is solved. They're tuff stomached little goats thank goodness 

[Lesley Silvester]

Going on my experience, it doesn't sound like laurel although it does look like that family.  My girl only ate a small amount and was ill.  Whatever it is thank goodness your goats are alright.

[doganjo]

Could it be bay?  That's the same family isn't it?

[jaykay]

Bay's the same family but the leaves are slightly 'leathery' rather than full gloss, aren't they?


When it grows back I will take my mum and dad in to see it and see if they know - they're quite good on gardens.