Anyone remember hay tea?

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JillA

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Years ago used to be offered to sick horses needing intensive nursing care, when they could drink but were unable to eat. Made as any other tea by steeping hay in hot water.
My old toothless mare can't grind grass or hay/haylage as she has almost no functioning molars, but she does love spending time trying to chew it then quidding. Given that it was thought there was some nutritional value in the liquid from the hay, does anyone think she might be getting any nutrition from it? Or is just doing it to generate saliva?
She does get a soaked total hay replacer diet which should contain all she needs but doesn't always clean up and her weight stays pretty much the same.
 
When my old gelding was on box rest for an allergic reaction that made all his hair fall out I used to let him wander round the yard while I was mucking out and he would always make a beeline for the soaking tub and have a couple of slurps. It never did him any harm but not sure if it did any good either!

Nutritionally, I know soaking hay removes sugars but does not reduce mineral levels significantly so logically you could assume the water will have sugar and not much else...
 
JillA said:
Years ago used to be offered to sick horses needing intensive nursing care, when they could drink but were unable to eat. Made as any other tea by steeping hay in hot water.
My old toothless mare can't grind grass or hay/haylage as she has almost no functioning molars, but she does love spending time trying to chew it then quidding. Given that it was thought there was some nutritional value in the liquid from the hay, does anyone think she might be getting any nutrition from it? Or is just doing it to generate saliva?
She does get a soaked total hay replacer diet which should contain all she needs but doesn't always clean up and her weight stays pretty much the same.
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Yes, I remember it. I suspect there is a fine line between hay tea and oversoaked hay "sewage"!

I cared for a toothless pony for the final 5 years of her life. I gave her the dry weight equivalent of a 75% fodder/25% hard feed diet as a pretty wet mix of grassnuts/high fibre nuts, conditioning mix, grated carrot and apple and sugar beet. She thrived on it and made it to 44 before sudden ataxia saw her off. I think your oldie could do with more calories too. Pure high fibre probably isn't enough now. As to her not gaining any weight, I wouldn't worry about it unduly. Most elderly persons of any species are not exactly fat. They lose muscle, and then fat and horses are no exception. Its a sign of an elderly horse. As long as they are eating up (high fibre is pretty boring and tasteless which maybe why yours doesn't) and at least holding their own then that would be ok with me. My little pony friend adored her jumbo sized bucket and it was a standing joke that she must have breathed through her ears as she didn't come up until she had finished the lot! Slurp slurp, guzzle guzzle. :)
 
Who said she was on just fibre? She has unmollassed beet pulp + grass pellets + Micro linseed in vast quantities plus a decent vit & mins "balancer" and the occasional bag of a fibre feed with additives. She can't have cereal because she is IR and cushingoid but seems to look forward to and enjoy her soup.
I did a nutrition course recently on which it was said that recent research suggests that cushings changes the mucus layer in the SI so that food isn't as readily absorbed in to the system so I have accepted that she won't gain any more condition now. I just wondered when she doesn't clean up her buckets whether she is getting something from the haylage or grass.
 
I remember hay tea, but never used it. Tbh I wouldn't think its a good idea these days, you never know what's been sprayed on the hay.
Our oldie can still eat Haylage but not as fast as he used to do we supplement his diet with readymash extra mixed with veteran mix,sugar beet and ultra grass. He can't wait to eat it .
 
Not strictly tea, rather hay infusion. If there's a bucket of murky brown water that's soaked hay for a substantial time, my mare will make a beeline for that repulsive water and guzzle it down.
 
JillA said:
Who said she was on just fibre? She has unmollassed beet pulp + grass pellets + Micro linseed in vast quantities plus a decent vit & mins "balancer" and the occasional bag of a fibre feed with additives. She can't have cereal because she is IR and cushingoid but seems to look forward to and enjoy her soup.
I did a nutrition course recently on which it was said that recent research suggests that cushings changes the mucus layer in the SI so that food isn't as readily absorbed in to the system so I have accepted that she won't gain any more condition now. I just wondered when she doesn't clean up her buckets whether she is getting something from the haylage or grass.
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Err well, you did say she was on a total hay replacer diet and hay is pure fibre...

I don't think any old gut absorbs food as efficiently as in the younger animal.

Not all animals clear their food up. My own mare had a small haylage net for the entertainment as much as anything, as her teeth got worse she would chew it to death then quid it, so she must have been getting some goodness from it, her bucket feed was soaked and she had a big water bucket full of unmollassed chop. She generally ate up her bucket feed but the chop would be still half there in the morning. She just wasn't a greedy animal.
 
fatpiggy said:
Err well, you did say she was on a total hay replacer diet and hay is pure fibre...
Click to expand...

I think you might be confusing hay with straw - lots of natives (and others) live very well on just hay throughout the winter because this is a typical breakdown.

Fiber_chart_zps13b3799c.jpg


The feed companies of course would persuade you they all need vast quantities of their expensive cubes or mixes, to me they are the equivalent of our processed human food, full of who knows what lol
 
JillA said:
I think you might be confusing hay with straw - lots of natives (and others) live very well on just hay throughout the winter because this is a typical breakdown.

Fiber_chart_zps13b3799c.jpg


The feed companies of course would persuade you they all need vast quantities of their expensive cubes or mixes, to me they are the equivalent of our processed human food, full of who knows what lol
Click to expand...

After 49 years I think I know the difference and similaries thanks :)
 
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