I have read that milkweed is poisonous to goats but, when we go for a walk, I have seen them grab a leaf and chew it. I've tried to take it away but then it becomes a game and I will never get it from them. They will stand a safe distance and look at me as they chew it. I haven't found what the effects are from eating it. Does anyone know?
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I wish I had a perfect answer for you since you give us so many answers. However I can give you some thoughts to think about and you always seem to be able to make sense of my thoughts!
Mine also love the oak leaves. And I have heard my whole life that the milkweed was poisonous. But I also remember my whole life that my dad (a very wise old gray haired animal lover) would always say that a goat would not eat it if it was poisonous because they are smart and picky.
And Deborah, if you remember we went through this a while back when discussing mine eating the azaleas, because I have seen those "nibbles" my whole life yet when we put them in a new pen they pigged out because they were "confined" within reach of them and we had not put the hay in the pen yet. They were deathly ill and one of my favorite meat bucks had bad seizures and then stood in the rain like he had horrible brain damage so we had to go ahead and slaughter him. (As a matter of fact, the sire to Marley's beautiful twins)
In fact, I had Butter out for a walk (DRAG is more like it with her) yesterday and she reached out and snatched a mouth full of azalea and it was gone. I was horrified and put her up. I know that you would not let them take that chance without trying to stop them also, but they really don't always let us.
So, I chalk all this up to what we decided about the azaleas. I feel very strongly that for the MOST PART they really don't eat poisonous stuff UNLESS it is the only thing available and that DOSAGE so to speak is more the issue at hand. I use the word DOSAGE for a very important reason. Not only do I feel that if they eat small amounts of certain things that it probably is not going to hurt them BUT, I also FEEL CERTAIN in the pit of my gut that they are actually using some of these things for medicinal/supplemental purposes. YES, I MEAN THAT! I feel they need certain things and WHEN GIVEN VARIETY will choose some things that they actually need certain amounts of for VARIOUS REASONS UNKNOWN TO US and if it seems MINIMAL , we should TRUST THEM!
We all know about having to much sugar/salt etc. for people-yet without any salt we would die and with out some sugar at certain times some of us will die. How do we really know everything they need. They may know better than us about some things!
In one of the veterinary goat books, the author says that goats actually have a higher tolerance for poisonous plants than cows and sheep. A lot of lists lump all three into the same category and assume it will be poisonous for goats if it is for sheep and cows. Sometimes it is probably dose related, so a few bites won't hurt them but a large quantity would. I understand your frustration though because oak is also on all of the lists, and we have tons of oaks here on Antiquity Oaks! They have eaten leaves at every stage of development and never had any negative side effects.
We don't have milkweed around here, but I've been having the exact same issue with red osier dogwood. So far, nothing "bad" has happened from the girls' occasional nibbling on the leaves, though I've seen it on lists of plants poisonous for goats??