Kansas feed suspected of fatally poisoning dozens of horses at Oklahoma ranch

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - An Oklahoma ranch is reeling after dozens of its horses died over a week. The Elk County, Okla. ranch suspects Kansas feed may have poisoned the horses.

As the Kansas Department of Agriculture investigates, 12 News spoke with a local expert, explaining the difficulties of detecting toxic feed.

“We had some bad, really bad luck last week and it’s all over with now. We got some bad feed, and we wasn’t aware of the feed. It poisoned our horses and we lost several of them, said Beutler and Son Rodeo Co. Owner Bennie Beutler. “We had the worst luck we’ve ever had and if you lose one horse, that’s too many.”

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture started investigating last week and determined the bad feed came from Kansas.

“Things like this, you don’t ever think about them happening until they happen to you,” Beutler said.

In a statement, the Kansas Department of Agriculture said it’s been ed by the FDA about the feed and is also investigating. To ensure that the company followed protocol, KDA is reviewing records, as well as the company’s labeling and operating procedures. KDA hasn’t released which company the horse feed came from.

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture is analyzing a sample of the feed in two different state laboratories. We don’t know what exactly contaminated the feed.

Equine Veterinarian Dr. Jim Speer said there’s not much horse owners can do in situations like this.

“You just have to be dependent on who mixed the feed to do an accurate job but there’s always going to be human error that potentially could lead to this kind of toxicity,” Dr. Speer said.

He said there are things to look out for that may indicate that a horse needs help.

“Early signs of any kind of toxicity are the horse usually quits eating and then they can manifest with other conditions such as diarrhea (and) excessive water consumption,” Dr. Speer said.