Diastema treatment and haylage or hay alternative?

[IhaveTooMany]

My8yr old recently had diastema treatment and was advised that halage or hay and other long fibreous feeds will impact his recovery ie only let him have grass. I am scared to bring him in as obviously he has no foilage to sustane him through the night. Has anyone found an alternative to the usual hay hayalge or chopped versions? Would grass blocks be sufficient? I am manage him out in the field it's a mission as I have other horses who I like to graze and have a bale at the same time. But I like to bring them in on the worst nights. Vet advice is only if you have to then bring him in on hay/haylage but try avoid it
No alternative indoor grazing recommended from him so feeling stuck!! The hay and haylage wraps round his teeth so causing the problem. He said chopped isn't any better.. Struggling here. Does he just completely winter out with my other 2 stuck in the corner with their bale. Not how I like it. I like them to have the 2hole 9 acres plus a bale on winter.

 

[whirlwind]

One of mine had this a couple of years ago and whilst grass is better for them there was no blanket ban on hay/ haylege? It was only short chop/ chaff I was advised to avoid entirely. We think mine was trauma based as only one in the mouth and healed up completely after 2 visits to the vets. He’ll be having his yearly check again this week coming and hopefully no repeats

 

[Equi]

It’s not practical to avoid hay and haylage for life. My mare gets hay when she comes in (though she does live out 24/7 on grass barring super wet weather) and I just have the dentist pop in every couple of months to wash her teeth if they are passing by.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I was always told chaff short chop feed is worse I just check my horses teeth and syringe water and clear the bits where food gets stuck.

 

[MidChristmasCrisis]

Completely impractical…our oldie has diastema s…we flush out her mouth using either a hosepipe or large syringe and use hexarinse too.

 

[TPO]

I had the same a year or so ago.

We didn't have grass then either so I was stressing. I tried short chop haylage, because I was told long fibre was worse, but that didn't work out either. I was also told haylage was "worse" than hay, in this situation.

I upped his bucket feeds (renewed calories anyway because of another issue) and offered steamed hay as usual.

He was checked every few weeks at that point by the dental vet because of other issues that turned out to be unrelated. He now gets 6 monthly appointments and eats hay fine.

If your horse is masticating fine and not quidding I'd carry on as you were. It's impractical to go without foragw alternatives to grass at this time of year.

 

[cauda equina]

This is good stuff

Hay Replacer for Horses | HayCare

Quick soaking hay replacer - high fibre Timothy grass for horses with poor teeth.

www.simplesystemhorsefeeds.co.uk

It can be fed very wet as soup, or drier like a mash
You still have the problem of them scoffing it down and then being left with nothing to pick at, although mine managed 2 weeks box rest with feeds I think 3 hrly in the day then a gap of about 6 hrs overnight

 

[TGM]

We've had a couple with diastemas and they were both fine on long hay/haylage, but we avoided short chopped chaffs. If your horse really can't have long fibre as well, then you could look at giving him a big tub of a soaked hay replacer such as grass nuts, HayCare or Fast Fibre, depending on the horse's other conditions. Soaked grass nuts would probably be better for a good doer, HayCare or Fast Fibre for a good doer or laminitic.