Best hay replacer for laminitics?

TwyfordM

TwyfordM

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So my hay supplier has run out, have enough to keep me going for a couple of months but want to make sure I'm preparing incase I can't get hold of more. Thankfully my horse is a Welsh and laminitis/cushings so eats minimal soaked hay anyway and I also feed straw. Most of yard has switched to haylage which I obviously want to avoid!
Was looking into simple systems hay bricks, the Lucerne ones look a better fit sugar/starch wise than the grass ones?
She's on top spec zero chaff as part of feed so could increase the portions there,
Obviously want to avoid anything high sugar/starch and too much protein
Any ideas or products that might be useful appreciated 😊
 
There are a few of the bagged haylages that should be safe for a laminitic (obv ignore this if she’s previously done badly on known low sugar haylage). I had a very sensitive PPID laminitis prone Welsh D who actually did better on haylage generally. Horsehage Timothy, Devon Haylage Timothy or Native Grass or (unsure if available outside of Yorkshire) Cravenbale Meadow are all ones I fed successfully.

Also https://forageplus.co.uk/product/dust-extracted-meadow-hay-for-horses/


I appreciate none of these are cheap options but neither is feeding bagged feed or forage blocks as hay replacer.
 
Just mind the Lucerne/alfalfa for high protein and calcium levels. The sugar may be low but other nutrients are high. The calcium would need to be balanced out with a phosphorus feed. If she’s not had alfalfa as majority forage diet, and is of an age, it would be a bit rich and imbalanced in a few ways to now use as a majority forage source for her.
Also, some alfalfa that’s not made into pellets, and is chaff-like, if fairly dense stalky…which most with good teeth can handle. But again it might be a shock to her gut system to switch to a much stalkier forage, as main source forage.
The odd brick as a treat here and there wouldn’t harm IF she tolerates alfalfa, but as a main forage feed it has too many downsides than good. It’s better for horses in work.
Of course there would be softer alfalfas out there that many use, mainly USA, but the chaff I’ve tried of it…was it dengie?….quite fibrous chunks, and leafy granules, but my horses only got a literal handful with feed, teeth ok and metabolic healthy.

Beet pulp is a good fibre replacement that is good for poor dental, but it does have higher calcium ratio to phosphorus, so again would need a phosphorus based addition to balance it out if feeding volumes of it to replace hay.

If it’s sugar levels you’re more concerned with, I’d trial haylage with her. Timothy haylage is good if her teeth are good, it’s stalky, but softer than alfalfa stalks.
To help your hay supply last longer, you could mix your current hay with timothy haylage as a trial to see how she gets on.
 
PurBee said:
Just mind the Lucerne/alfalfa for high protein and calcium levels. The sugar may be low but other nutrients are high. The calcium would need to be balanced out with a phosphorus feed. If she’s not had alfalfa as majority forage diet, and is of an age, it would be a bit rich and imbalanced in a few ways to now use as a majority forage source for her.
Also, some alfalfa that’s not made into pellets, and is chaff-like, if fairly dense stalky…which most with good teeth can handle. But again it might be a shock to her gut system to switch to a much stalkier forage, as main source forage.
The odd brick as a treat here and there wouldn’t harm IF she tolerates alfalfa, but as a main forage feed it has too many downsides than good. It’s better for horses in work.
Of course there would be softer alfalfas out there that many use, mainly USA, but the chaff I’ve tried of it…was it dengie?….quite fibrous chunks, and leafy granules, but my horses only got a literal handful with feed, teeth ok and metabolic healthy.

Beet pulp is a good fibre replacement that is good for poor dental, but it does have higher calcium ratio to phosphorus, so again would need a phosphorus based addition to balance it out if feeding volumes of it to replace hay.

If it’s sugar levels you’re more concerned with, I’d trial haylage with her. Timothy haylage is good if her teeth are good, it’s stalky, but softer than alfalfa stalks.
To help your hay supply last longer, you could mix your current hay with timothy haylage as a trial to see how she gets on.
Click to expand...

I did wonder about the Lucerne, not something I've used before. Tend to avoid alfalfa usually
 
TwyfordM said:
I did wonder about the Lucerne, not something I've used before. Tend to avoid alfalfa usually
Click to expand...
My horses hadn’t had much of it before and absolutely loved the taste of the handful I gave with a bland bowl feed….their eagerness for the bowl feed markedly increased!
I used it as a way to get a bit more grams of protein into one of them daily, and it added that ‘green’ taste in the bland bowl feed - grass nuts are practically impossible to get where I am so I gave alfalfa chaff a try.

Some grass nuts available in the uk might be low sugar, and they have nice fibre level. Emerald Green make theirs from the high fibre grass leaves of tall fescue, which must be low sugar compared to other grasses, as the deer here even leave eating tall fescue grasses in favour of the sweeter fescues!
 
My EMS pony (and current PSSM1 cob) have done fine on haylage, so I wouldn't discount it unless you know that source is too high in NSCs. I used to order pallets of meadow haylage from Baillies.
 
Meadow cobs and fast fibre, top chop zero.

We had to have a mash diet last winter for medical reasons and meadow cobs and fast fibre kept her weight down but her stomach full.
 
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