An excerpt: “Mushrooms appear to be more prevalent this year due to the rainy wet weather,” said Cynthia Gaskill, DVM, PhD, who is a clinical toxicologist at LDDC, in a statement released by the LDDC on Aug. 3. “Thousands of species of mushrooms exist, many of which do not pose a threat to animals. However, a number of poisonous mushroom species exist and can potentially cause poisoning in animals.

I once consulted on a case of suspected mushroom poisoning of a horse in Texas. Upon inspection of the pasture, many smooth-capped Lepiotas were found. They were difficult to identify to species, so that is as far as the identification went. According to one resource I was using at the time, there are thought to be be perhaps hundreds of similar Lepiotas of this type, most of which have not been fully described. The horse died of liver and/or kidney failure, so mushrooms were indeed prime suspects.

Did you know that the author Nicholas Evans, who wrote The Horse Whisperer, suffered a mushroom poisoning last year?