Best Dust Free Bedding

[Bugly]

I got a wonderful horse on loan this summer but he has COPD (or what ever its called these days!)......he's been on 24/7 turnout since May and his snotty nose is all but gone. Unfortunately he is quite weedy so I am going to have to start stabling him soon and I'm dreading the recurrence of the snot/cough.

I normally use wood pellets for my other horses, but they are going to be too dusty for him....I want to get him the absolute most dust free bedding possible.

What do you recommend? I was looking at Bedmax.

I'm going to steam his hay or give him haylage- if you have any other top tips such as a breathing supplement I'd be interested to know.

 

[K27]

Shredded newspaper bales i.e Paperdown or Diceabed or Cardboard bedding would be the best for a horse with respiratory probs.

 

[maykel]

nedz advance is great and if you like the pellets you will like this but it is a straw pellet not wood so its safe as you know whats init, as Im not sure about some of the wood they use for the pellets as arent some of them initially made for burning not for bedding horses on! and no dust at all really economical too!

 

[Snowysadude]

My old horse had RAO (COPD..) and shredded newspaper worked well apart from if he laid on it after peeing his rug would get stained with the ink and so would his legs which were white :S! I ended up using normal hunter shavings and to my suprise his RAO didnt get worse.
As for resp. supplements i tried them all!! I found that the liquid supplements such as the NAF easy breathing liquid worked best for my boy, rather than powder supplements. If you would rather use powder than liquid though i would recommend the globevite respiratory supplement.
His breathing also really improved when i switched him to haylage from soaked hay, so i would recommend haylage also.

Hope all goes well and this helped a bit!

 

[kerilli]

cardboard, better than paper by far (tried both), unlike most other types of bedding, cardboard does not break down to dust with use.
haylage is a good idea too, or steamed hay.

 

[Bugly]

I think i'll stay clear of shredded paper as he's also grey! I can just see him with headlines all over his legs. I have a good supplier of cardboard locally so I might give it a whirl.

thanks for the advice on breathing supplements too.

 

[K27]

[ QUOTE ]
I think i'll stay clear of shredded paper as he's also grey! I can just see him with headlines all over his legs. I have a good supplier of cardboard locally so I might give it a whirl.

[/ QUOTE ] I can honestly say with the Paperdown or Diceabed bales we've been using I've never ever encountered the print coming off and one of my horses has lots of white on his legs!! its totally clean!, one of the boys has very mild COPD and on paper/ fed good quality haylage (the wet is taken out every day) have no probs with him whatsoever. Have tried Cardboard and that too reallydoes make a clean dust free bed- the squarer cut cardboard is better than shredded IMHO.

 

[ernikins]

I second nedz advance - not dusty at all and really absorbent so less ammonia in the air.

 

[helen1105]

my boy was diagnosed with COPD (RAO) last year he is stabled on easibed www.easibed.co.uk and i have also just found snowflake softchip same type of bedding www.snowflakeanimalbedding.co.uk/vites/softchip which uses a whiter wood which keeps my bed cleaner for longer i use 1 bag a week on my 14.2 half on a sunday and half on a wednesday i take the wet out on these days and it works well.

one of the girls on my yard used card board for a very short time it was awful stuff to muck out

 

[kerilli]

[ QUOTE ]

one of the girls on my yard used card board for a very short time it was awful stuff to muck out

[/ QUOTE ]

i love it, it takes me 4 mins per stable to muck out in the mornings (how sad am i, timing myself?!) and never smells.
personal preference i guess, i hate mucking out straw beds but some people love using straw!

 

[catymmh]

I love Nedz too, is a doddle to muck out, NO urine smell at all but was proving a tad expensive BUt i didn't want to change from this type of bedding and discovered Five star which works exactly the same way but gives you a really fluffy bed and is much cheaper. I've got some pics of it - bedding pics which you might find useful.

 

[LadyJane]

I got some rubber matting about 6 months ago and then you only need a small amount of other bedding to go with it.


You can buy the matting from stable-mats.com. I got the 17mm thick as it is only an extra £3 and it seems really hardwearing.

Here is a direct link http://www.stable-mats.com/products.aspx?browseBy=category&productCategory_id=41

 

[mrdarcy]

Have to point out having had a look at the Five Star bedding website that it's not the same as Nedz Advance. The Five Star bedding is made from wood whereas the Nedz is from straw. The Five Star is more like wood pellets you can buy from places like Liverpool Wood pellets but more expensive. I'm not sure what the benefit of Five Star is above normal wood pellets.