High Risk
Description:
Yews are evergreen trees and shrubs which can grow to over 13m in height. They have flat needle-like leaves, about 25mm long which grow in pairs opposite each other along the branches. In the autumn the yew produces red fleshy berry that forms a protective coat around a black seed. All parts of the tree is poisonous except the red coating to the berries.
Lack of co-ordination, coldness, rapid then weak pulse, excitability preceded by collapse. Sudden death can without any symptoms being shown. Horses are the most susceptible of all animals and may die within several minutes of feeding on the young shoots.
Notes:
Yew is one of the very few poisonous plants that animals will
eat voluntarily at all times of the year. The literature states
that 100 - 200 gm of the needles is a fatal dose for a horse.
Clippings and fallen leaves are just as toxic as the fresh plant.