Barley Straw as fodder for ex-COPD sufferer?

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Rose Folly

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My fodder merchant has let me down over the haylage I ordered for this winter. What he does have though, is really nice quality barley straw. Have been on this forum, Google etc and most reports of feeding it are very good.

But - one of our horses is COPD. Once we stopped feeding her hay and put her onto haylage 18 months ago she's been as fit as a flea, but we had so nearly lost her after some rogue hay (looked, smelt nice, but too dusty).

Her regime is that she's out 24/7 as long as the weather permits, and then only stabled at night. There's nothing to stop her carrying on with haylage except the price, and also that she, and her friends, are extremely good doers.

Has anyone had experience of feeding barley straw to a COPD or ex-COPD hors?. I'd be so grateful to know. Any comments gratefully received. NB Think COPD has other initials now - but have gone blank as to what they are.
 
I fed a TB years ago with COPD,hay..but I used to poor boling water over hay net. She seemed ok with that when hayledge was difficuit to get.
We had to buy off the yard,so not that easy to just get in...
 
Introduce very carefully and do not allow ad lib access to help avoid impaction colic. However many people use this as a feedstuf with success. Some dietary supplementation will be necessary for vit and mins.
 
Just to clarify - my mare can never eat hay, soaked or otherwise, again - full stop! The reason I'd like to feed the barley straw is that it isn't too rich if fed sensibly - and is going to be cheaper than haylage I've been offered. We'd probably still mix in a bit of haylage, and they have hard feed as well. Thanks so much for the replies so far.
 
its RAO now. I wouldnt feed straw to a horse with it. Even the cleanest is dusty and if you cant feed hay then i doubt that feeding straw will be any good. If you feed haylage you could cut down on hard feed, so making up for the price difference
 
No ,definately not. The aspergilus mould that causes the problem lives in straw as well as hay. I would not even consider straw bedding.
 
Thanks so much for the advice. I'll be getting some barley straw for the others, but the COPD (now I know its RAO) one will be on three blades of haylage, pea haulms if I can get them, and fresh air. She might even have a waistline this winter!

ps Don't know how I survived before joining this forum. It is such a comfort having a wealth of advice available at the click of a mouse.Much appreciated.
 
My old TB had COPD and i used to feed him pea or bean straw- it looked horrible but was cheap and he did well enough on it to only require a token feed as well as being ventipulmin free :) it had a feed value similar to alfaalfa and was something i used to ask them to bale for me as its often ploughed in.
 
Thanks Darkly-Dreaming-Dex. East Kent also suggested pea haulms in another thread some time ago, so I'm off to talk to the feed merchant tomorrow. Not sure if peas/beans are harvested much in Somerset though. When we lived in Bedfordshire they were everywhere.

I was chatting to the next-door farmer today and he says he's not ploughing his rape straw back into the ground this year but feeding it to his dairy cows - more signs of hard times ahead?
 
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