Sheep on a few acres in California: what needs doing this September

Fire danger right now — Sacramento area

One district can stand in for a state, so this is Sacramento area. For the rating at your own address, the app checks it for you every day.

What sheep need in September

From the care calendar — the things that come round once a season for sheep in California.

1. Barber's pole weather — watch for pale gums

   Warm and wet is when barber's pole worm builds up, and it kills sheep and goats that looked fine a week earlier. Check gums and eyelids for paleness, watch for bottle jaw, and get a worm egg count rather than waiting for one to go down.

Plants in California that hurt sheep

Worth walking the fence lines for. Each one links to the official page with photographs, because a description alone is not enough to identify a plant.

• Garden plant or tree

  Oleander

  Look for

  Tall garden shrub with long, leathery, dark green leaves and white, pink or red flowers. Very common in old farm gardens and along driveways.

  Worst

  All year. Dried clippings are just as deadly and more likely to be eaten.

  What it does

  Attacks the heart. A few leaves can kill a horse or a cow. Deaths most often happen when someone prunes it and the clippings end up where animals can reach them.

  What to do

  Know where it is on your place and make sure nothing can reach over a fence to it. NEVER put clippings anywhere near a pasture, a feed area or a compost heap animals can get at.

  Photos and detail: Agriculture Victoria — Poisonous plants

• Weed

  Bracken fern

  Look for

  Coarse triangular fronds on a tough stem, often in big patches on poorer or timbered country and along bush edges.

  Worst

  Late summer and autumn, and whenever feed is short.

  What it does

  Horses get a thiamine deficiency — wobbling, then staggering. Cattle bleed internally and can develop bladder cancer with long exposure. Both build up over weeks of eating it.

  What to do

  Keep animals out of heavy bracken country when there's nothing else to eat, which is when they start on it. Look for it along the timbered edges rather than in the open.

  Photos and detail: Agriculture Victoria — Poisonous plants

• Garden plant or tree

  Avocado

  Look for

  The tree, and anything fallen under it. Common in old house gardens on acreage.

  Worst

  Whenever fruit and leaves are dropping.

  What it does

  Leaves, bark and fruit affect the heart and udder. Horses and goats get swelling of the head and neck; birds are very sensitive and can die quickly.

  What to do

  Fence animals and poultry out from under the tree. Don't throw pruned branches or spoiled fruit into a pasture or a chook run.

  Photos and detail: RSPCA Australia — Plants toxic to animals

• In the water

  Blue-green algaealso Cyanobacteria, Pond scum

  Look for

  Not a plant — a bright green or blue-green paint-like scum on still water, often blown up against the downwind edge of a pond.

  Worst

  Hot, still weather in summer, especially in a pond that's dropping.

  What it does

  Can kill within hours of drinking. Animals are often found dead at the water's edge.

  What to do

  Fence animals off any pond with scum on it and cart water until it clears. Check ponds on hot still days — that is when it blooms, and it can appear in a day.

  Photos and detail: Agriculture Victoria — Blue-green algae

• Garden plant or tree

  Yewalso Japanese yew, Taxus

  Look for

  A dark green evergreen hedge or foundation shrub, flat needles with paler undersides, small red berries. Extremely common around older houses — very often already planted on the property when she bought it.

  Worst

  Any time, and especially whenever someone prunes. Clippings tossed over a fence as a kindness are the classic way this happens.

  What it does

  One of the fastest-acting plants there is. A mouthful can stop the heart of a horse or a cow, often with no warning signs at all — animals are frequently found dead near the hedge.

  What to do

  Find out whether you have it before anything else on this list. If it's within reach of a pasture, fence it off or take it out. Never put clippings anywhere an animal can reach, and tell anyone who helps in the garden the same.

  Photos and detail: ASPCA Animal Poison Control

• Weed

  Water hemlockalso Cowbane, Cicuta

  Look for

  Wet ground only — ditches, stream banks, the boggy corner of a pasture, edges of ponds. Umbrella-shaped clusters of small white flowers, leaves with veins ending in the notches between teeth rather than at the tips. The root is chambered and smells of parsnip.

  Worst

  Spring, when it's green and other feed is short, and any time ground is disturbed and roots come to the surface.

  What it does

  The most violently poisonous plant in North America. The root is the worst part and a piece the size of a walnut can kill a cow. Seizures come on within an hour and death usually follows.

  What to do

  Learn to recognise it and keep animals off wet ground where it grows. Dig it out with the whole root, wear gloves, and don't leave the root lying where anything can find it. Never let animals onto ground that's just been dug or churned where it's known to grow.

  Photos and detail: USDA Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory

• Weed

  Poison hemlockalso Conium maculatum

  Look for

  Tall — often over head height — with a hollow stem blotched purple, fern-like leaves, and flat clusters of small white flowers. Crushed leaves smell musty and unpleasant. Roadsides, ditches, neglected corners, fence lines.

  Worst

  Late spring and early summer when it's tall and flowering. Most dangerous cut and wilted in hay, where the smell that would normally put animals off is gone.

  What it does

  Paralysis that works up the body from the legs; death comes from the chest muscles giving out. Also causes deformed foals and calves when eaten by a pregnant animal at the wrong time.

  What to do

  Pull or cut it before it flowers, wearing gloves and long sleeves. Bag it — don't leave cut plants where animals can get them, and never put it in hay. Watch for it spreading along fence lines and drains, which is how it usually arrives.

  Photos and detail: USDA Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory

• Weed

  Tansy ragwortalso Stinking Willie, Jacobaea vulgaris

  Look for

  Waist-high with flat-topped clusters of yellow daisy flowers, each with about thirteen petals, and ragged deeply-cut leaves. Bare patches, roadsides, overgrazed pastures and recently logged ground.

  Worst

  Summer flowering, but the real danger is in hay — dried in a bale it loses its bitterness and animals eat it willingly.

  What it does

  Destroys the liver slowly and permanently, a little with every mouthful. Animals look perfectly well for months and then go downhill fast, and by the time anything shows there is nothing to be done. Horses and cattle are far more sensitive than sheep.

  What to do

  Pull it before it seeds and bag what you pull — it sets seed even after being pulled. Never feed hay cut from an infested pasture. Keep pasture thick, because it only establishes where there's bare ground.

  Photos and detail: Oregon State University Extension

• Weed

  Locoweedalso Milkvetch, Astragalus, Oxytropis

  Look for

  Low, clumpy, often silvery-hairy, with pea-shaped flowers in white, purple or yellow and small pods. Dry open rangeland and overgrazed pastures.

  Worst

  Early spring and late autumn, when it's green and everything else isn't.

  What it does

  Permanent nerve damage that builds up over weeks — stumbling, staring, unpredictable and dangerous behaviour, and animals never fully recover. Horses are hit hardest. Animals develop a real preference for it and will seek it out once they've started.

  What to do

  Move animals off as soon as you see any eating it — once one starts, others copy. Don't graze locoweed ground when there's nothing else green. A horse that has been affected is never safe to ride again, so this is one to act on early.

  Photos and detail: USDA Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory

• Weed

  Johnsongrass and forage sorghumsalso Sorghum halepense, Sudangrass

  Look for

  A tall coarse grass with a stout white midrib down each leaf and an open airy seed head. Spreads by thick underground runners. Along fences, ditches and anywhere a sorghum crop has been.

  Worst

  The first frost, and any drought-stressed or wilted regrowth. Young regrowth after a knockdown is the most dangerous stage there is.

  What it does

  Frost or stress turns it to prussic acid — cyanide. Animals go down within minutes, breathing hard with bright red blood. In horses it also causes bladder problems and hind-end weakness over longer grazing.

  What to do

  Keep animals off it for a week or two after a frost and after rain follows a drought. Don't turn hungry animals onto it. Grazing it tall and letting it stand rather than eating short regrowth is the safer way round.

  Photos and detail: USDA National Agricultural Library

Ring a vet now if you see any of these

Not a list to think about — a list to act on. Every one of these is measured in hours.

• Suspected snake bite is an emergency — antivenom is time-critical.
• An animal that can't get up or won't bear weight needs a vet now.
• Laboured breathing is an emergency.
• Bloat is rapidly fatal in ruminants and needs a vet now.
• A suspected poisoning needs a vet now — what they ate changes the treatment.
• Birthing trouble is measured in minutes, not hours.
• A prolapse needs a vet now.
• Seizures need a vet now.
• Uncontrolled bleeding is an emergency.
• Pale or blue gums mean shock or severe anaemia — a vet now.
• Metabolic collapse is treatable but only quickly.
• Choke needs a vet now.
• Sudden eye injury or blindness needs a vet now — eyes don't wait.