Alternatives to hay and haylage

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Baldybear

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Hello

Wondering if anyone has any advice? Pony is being fed haylage (horsehage and/or similar brand). He seems to have gone of this and not eating much.

Not good when he needs to eat as much as possible to keep the weight on.

Had a bag of horsehage recently which was old so had dried out a bit, pony scoffed it down. Also went past normal hay today and grabbed amouthful.

Now thinking he likes the "dry" hay rather than the rich "damp" horsehage.

Big problem he has COPD really allergic to dust hence why I cant feed hay, tried soaking but doesnt really work.

Anyone got any ideas, something different to feed maybe thats drier than horsehage but not dusty???

Am stuck for ideas! Thanks :D
 
do you have room to spread out Horsehage or wet hay so it dries out a bit? a bit of weldmesh or some puppy pen panels on a couple of trestles would make a good drying rack

Or fill up multiple haynets with Horsehage/soaked hay and hang them to dry off
 
what about using a complete hay replacement like veterans have? you could use grass nuts and soak them to provide a big tubtrug of lovely sloppy feed. generally horses love this! check it out on the veteran horse website, they know all about keeping weight on horses without hay/haylage :)
 
I was nursing my very sick mare earlier this year on a completely hay-free diet, she was also on box rest for a foot injury. I managed to replace all her lost weight with soaked high fibre cubes, soaked grass nuts, and some in-hand grazing. She did very well on it - I did not. I had to feed her every 3 or 4 hours, including getting up in the middle of the night every night for 3 months. She would wolf down whatever quantity of these soaked feeds you gave her as she loved them so much, so I couldn't leave her with a massive trug over night. Interestingly though she wouldn't touch fast-fibre.

My long-winded way of saying I wouldn't worry at all about getting the calories in, the problem is occupying their time and keeping a constant stream of food going through them to neutralise stomach acid. so I'd try to find long stem fibre that your horse WILL eat. what about good quality straw? Sounds odd but it might work, and you can supplement with soaked feeds as necessary.

Oh and also if your horse has RAO, what bedding are you using. I use cardboard which is totally dust free.
 
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