Does anyone feed fast fibre as a hay replacement?(laminitic horse)

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Ranyhyn

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If so how do you do it?

My mare is a great fat greedy pig and will probably devour everything I give her in one hit.

I can often go out and feed her every hour etc but some days I can't as I'm in work - how do you then feed them if they are inclined to greedilly bolt all of it?

I'm considering feeding her on this as a hay replacer during the day (she goes out at night) as my farrier has alerted me early, to a tiny pulse and heat in feet and it's my feeling that she's been laminitic in the past, so could suffer again.

Or am I just better off finding some hay somewhere and soaking it?
 
I would only feed fast fibre as a hay replacer to a horse with no teeth.

TBH I think you are better off soaking the hay, and triple netting it, otherwise your horse will bolt it down, and while people told me they'd get used to the fast fibre (or equivalent slop) and slow down, mine never did.
 
Agree with the above with only feeding it to an old lami with no teeth. It would cost you an arm and a leg as a hay replacer to a horse your size and she is likely to get through it very quickly. You would be much better off soaking hay in a tricklenet.
 
I'd also go with soaked hay, but if getting hold of it is an issue I'd probably feed something like Hi Fi lite or a similar chaff over fast fibre as a hay replacer as it will take a bit longer to eat and chew.
 
I agree with others I feed fast fibre but its a soaked pellet think porridge so I would think that it would be eaten too fast I think soaked hay and possibly a trickle net would be a better answer to keep the grazing activity going.
 
I laughed at the no teeth bit! Ok at least my worries were founded about noshing it all up! :)
It looks like ill just have to move my fencing work forward and get some hay in the meantime!
 
Also, depending on how much of it you'd give, there's a risk of them getting too much selenium when it's used in larger quantities. It's rather controversial that it's marketed as a hay replacer for this reason.

The other bonus to soaked hay is that with small holed nets it is harder to get out too, as well as the "lower in sugar" benefits. Trickle nets really are a different ball game from normal small holed nets so worth a go.
 
BoolavogueDC said:
Interesting about the selenium. As a sideline comment I'd read almost all uk soil was deficient in selenium...
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Quite probably :) A lot of people add it, but it's one of the nutrients which doesn't just get peed out when in excess but actually does damage.
 
philamena said:
Also, depending on how much of it you'd give, there's a risk of them getting too much selenium when it's used in larger quantities. It's rather controversial that it's marketed as a hay replacer for this reason.
Click to expand...

I did quite a lot of research on this, and while the general advise is not to supplement more than 5mg of selenium, selenium is in hay just as it would be in fast fibre, so if you are feeding ff as a hay replacer then you should still be within the safe limits, unless you are feeding it additionally in a supplement too.
 
ApacheWarlord said:
I did quite a lot of research on this, and while the general advise is not to supplement more than 5mg of selenium, selenium is in hay just as it would be in fast fibre, so if you are feeding ff as a hay replacer then you should still be within the safe limits, unless you are feeding it additionally in a supplement too.
Click to expand...

All comes down to quantities I guess...
 
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