Deep litter question - too wet?

C

chestnut cob

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I have deep littered for years, never ever had a problem with it with any horse. I deep littered with this horse last winter and he always had a clean bed on top, never really had trouble with the wet coming through. However, since the cold snap, his bed is disgusting. My feeling is that the wet base froze and it's now too wet, since defrosting.

I've gone from being able to put on either 1 bag of cardboard per week or bale of shavings over about 10 days (I alternate) to needing 1 bag of wood pellets on the base, 1 bag of cardboard on top, plus a further full bale of shavings... EVERY week
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since everything defrosted.

He had a bag of cardboard on the wet base on saturday plus a full bag of shavings on top of that. By this morning, his bed was soaked through. A bag of shavings stays dry for maybe 2 days now.

I'm wondering whether my only option is to dig the base out and start again? I suspect I already know the answer to this...
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I usually only take my base out once a year, but do take the top off to level out every now and then. It's seems not to be enough and I think the whole base will need to come out...

Any suggestions?
 
I'd bite the bullet and stick in 2 or 3 bales of shavings, then make sure you put down at least one a week thereafter.

The bed will only be 'wet' if there's not enough dry matter being put in.
 
Thanks SS. Do you really think simply putting in extra bedding will solve the problem though? I just wonder whether he'll just stomp the clean onto the wet and make it all worse. I don't really want to dig half a winter's worth of wet base out, not least because it takes so long to form a decent base anyway, but am loathe to put on 2/3 bales of shavings for him just to mush it all up and make a bigger wet mess.

Ah, for the days of my lovely little "chestnut cob" who, even on deep litter, always had a pristine white bed with just 1 bale of shavings per week max
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Sorry, I'd also bite the bullet but take out the centre by turning it and taking off the bottom very soggy mess then raking over what's left and topping up with shavings. Bore I know!

Is it peculiar to cardboard do you think, is it meant to be deep littered as I've deep littered with both shavings and straw and never had a gooey mess like that with either whether there's been frost or not; I've even been able to scrape the top dry layer off once the horses have gone out and kept that as their summer beds when they only come in for the farrier or something which you couldn't do if it was sopping as yours sounds.
 
I think you are going to at least need to dig out the centre by the sounds of it.

I'm also very surprised at using cardboard as a deep litter bed, it's notorious for going squidgy and for that reason is usually done on a regular muck out or semi-deep litter.

I'd also probably try and limit using so many different bedding types at once. you could probably get away with a wood pellet base and shaving top but cardboard is probably best used on it's own.
 
When I started the base in autumn, it was shavings. I then moved totally onto cardboard but it didn't have enough bulk (without putting minimum 4 bags per week on) so I tend to alternate with shavings. The wood pellets only go on v occasionally, as the layer above the base, because they're so absorbent. I don't use them within the rest of the bed. I compact them down onto the base so they don't really tend to get mixed up with the rest of it.

I didn't realise that about cardboard until I'd had it down for a while. Initially it seemed like a great bedding but I won't be using it again. I imagine it's probably best used with rubber mats as it's not very bulky and the other horses who have a daily muck out on cardboard always have huge holes through to the concrete. Either way, it was fine until the cold snap. Bed hasn't been the same since.

The middle is coming out over the weekend I think.
 
I don't really know whether it's just cardboard which behaves that way, though the real base (ie, the bit in contact with the concrete) is shavings, as it was left over bedding from the summer/autumn (I do what you do in summer and am usually able to leave my base down alone).

When you say rake over what's left, do you mean make break it up and make a new base with that?

I think the wettest bit is really going to have to come out however I do it, anyway. Bet you wish your weekend was going to be as exciting as mine
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If you don't want to start the bed all over again I would whack 3 - 4 big bales of good shavings on top to give it a good dry surface again then top up as normal after that.
However, I would avoid using cardboard on a deep litter bed cos they just don't mix !!
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Thanks. It did mix really well until they ended up staying in for 2 or 3 weeks out of 4 while we had all of the snow and ice. Since then, no matter what I do I can't get the bed dry (or drier, I should say), and he's just trashing it.

I'm going to dig the very wettest bit in the middle out at the weekend. Joy of joys
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Then I can top up with shavings and hopefully keep the bed a bit cleaner for the rest of the winter. No more cardboard!
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I'm going to move onto wood pellets next winter, with rubber mats.
 
Ahh this is what Ive gone though!!! The base is shavings and just like yoy I used cardborad evey other week and shaving. I ended up taking 7 big barrow loads out of his bed as I couldnt handle the squees even though I add more bed etc. It was foul!!! Now I have stopped using the cardborad as it just doesnt work at all with his bed ending up with a very squesse bed. The amount I took out was loads and I got right down to the yukk bit hopefully all cardborad gone and now using Auboise two bales of this down and is working lovely no skiping out to find the base like I did most mornings!! Ths shavings at our yard are not that absorb so hence the Auboise would of liked to try LWP just not allowed. O a good amount of stable zone works wonders too.
 
I'd echo what others have said though I wouldn't dig out the middle, I'd get the shavings fork and scrape an inch or so off the whole of the top of the wet layer. Then whack in at least 2 or 3 bales. One thing to think about is whether the icy weather changed your horse's turnout arrangements. It did mine! Sunny went from out overnight, in during the day to out during the day, in at night. The difference was staggering and I was taking a heaped wheelbarrow full of yukky wet out every day. Normally I only poo pick, tidy up, scrape a bit of new down and bobs your uncle.
 
Thanks BoF.. only thing is that I am taking a good layer off the top of the wet layer, sometimes daily. It just seems that no matter how much clean bedding goes on top, it's just soaks the wet straight up and turns to mush.

Yep, TO was definitely affected. They stayed in 24/7, bar 2 x walker sessions per day, for about 2 weeks. He was having 2 bales of shavings per week on then.
 
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Thanks BoF.. only thing is that I am taking a good layer off the top of the wet layer, sometimes daily. It just seems that no matter how much clean bedding goes on top, it's just soaks the wet straight up and turns to mush.

Yep, TO was definitely affected. They stayed in 24/7, bar 2 x walker sessions per day, for about 2 weeks. He was having 2 bales of shavings per week on then.

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How about trying Auboise I was having the extracy same problemas you are now it was foul!! No matter how much new bedding was put in it didnt make a difference!! Auboise have stopped the base being showd up in the morning.
 
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How about trying Auboise

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I actually use Aubiose and shavings together - and find it a really good system for keeping my horses bed dry, deep and fresh looking.
 
Weezy, all of ours drain out of the front of the stables. There is a huge drain in front of about every second stable and the concrete is patterned to make any liquid run from the stable into those (make sense?). None of the stables have drains in.
 
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