Tears of girl, 9, as sycamore seeds kill her pony
A GIRL of nine has been left heartbroken after her pony died from eating sycamore tree seeds. Eva Machan thought the animal, Painted Paula, would be safe grazing in her field. But she deteriorated rapidly after eating the seeds last week and had to be put down.
Eva’s mother Juliet, 44, has warned other horse owners to be alert to the problem. The seeds are often called helicopter seeds because of the way they spiral down from the trees in the autumn.
They contain a toxin called hypoglycin A. Horses eating them can develop atypical myopathy, a condition which causes muscle weakness and organ failure. It is fatal in four out of five cases.
Eva, from Henley-on-Thames, had had her pet, known affectionately as PP, since May and she and her five-year- old sister Zara rode her nearly every day. She loved caring for the pony, mucking out her stables and feeding her grass and oats. Mrs Machan said Eva, who goes to the Abbey School in Reading, has been devastated and ‘very tearful’ over the animal’s death.
Mrs Machan noticed something was wrong when they took the chestnut-and-white pony to a gymkhana at Addington, near Bicester.
She said: ‘She was a bit sluggish. About half an hour later she literally just stopped walking – she stopped dead and wouldn’t move.’ Vets assumed PP had cramps and treated her with muscle relaxants and pain relief. But within a few days she deteriorated so much she had to be put down.
Mrs Machan said: ‘The final test showed kidney failure. It was a horrible and completely unexpected experience and we need to avoid this happening to other horses.’
The family have now moved their other pony, Polo, away while two nearby sycamore trees are felled. Mrs Machan added: ‘It is no-one’s fault. We hope that by people reading this we may help prevent other animals suffering unnecessarily.’
There have been a number of reports of horses dying from the condition in the past few weeks as autumn takes hold and the seeds drop and scatter.
Sycamore seeds are not thought to be harmful to humans but can cause vomiting in dogs.