Feeding a horse who can't eat hay overnight

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PeggyPatch

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My pony appears to have an allergy to hay and haylege. Occasionally she has to stay in overnight. I was wondering what people would suggest to feed. I tend to give her just grass but she eats it like a bucket and feed and therefore it wouldn't last her the night. So I was wondering what others in the same situation do overnight.

Any suggestions or ideas welcome.
 
What is she allergic to? Just grass is not really any different to good quality hay, made in a factory instead of a field? Why does she have to stay in overnight?
 
Well she occasionally has to stay in overnight for a number of reasons I.e. I'm taking her out competing the next morning or if there was some issue and she had to stay in or if I ever move to a yard where she has to stay in overnight during the winter etc.

The vet recently come out and wasn't that helpful but suggested she may have a slight dust or pollen allergy. She thought it was more likely dust and told me to not give her hay and remove any dusty bedding. So I've done that but she thought she could have haylege. However I gave her some last night and she started coughing again today (it's not a really bad cough just a clear the thought type cough).

So I was wondering what people feed their horses overnight who can't have hay for whatever reason. I.e teeth, allergy etc.

A horse at a yard I used to be at had gingivitis and was unable to eat hay, they used to give her 4 buckets of nuts (they were a hay replacement cube) per day but knowing how horses need to trickle feed I worry about the one period without food.
 
I have a dentally challenged old girl who can't manage to eat any long fodder. She survives reasonably well on Equibeet (unmollassed beet pulp - you could use Speedibeet if you don't mind the cost) and grass pellets, soaked for 12 hours. You could add some chop to slow her down eating it - mine gets a big tub trug full morning and evening
 
Ok, thats similar to what I was thinking. How is she overnight on that? I worry if she's a long time without anything she may end up getting ulcers (I maybe over thinking this).
 
How about plain chopped straw ?
Are you sure it's eating that causing the allergy and not dust in the stable and from the bedding .
 
Most horses that have dust or pollen allergies can eat haylage without problems, if this is new I would be looking into it further rather than totally avoiding hay in some form, you will need to give something if travelling or at a show for a long day, also over winter even if out access to long fibre may still be required.
Your vet sounds extremely unhelpful, did she offer to give medication, scope or anything else to see if you could get to the bottom of it, it may just be a flare up that will settle, ventipulmin can really help as can some of the over the counter remedies which can be useful for maintaining a healthy airway function, I would persue it further get a senior vet if you have to as not being able to feed hay or haylage is going to be difficult long term and may not be best for your horse.
 
She gave her some ventrapulman and said try it for 10 days whilst I remove any dust. So she's day 3 and I've removed all the old shavings and put her on a dust free bed. Listen to her breathing and just said it was a little raspy but didn't really give me any more than that even when I questioned how worried I should be.

The cough is so on and off its tough to put my finger on it but it does seem to coincide with hay. Usually she lives out 22 hours a day (comes in for a few hours each day to be fed etc) and is fed on chop and a balancer. She doesn't get hay at the moment.

I trotted her yesterday, no cough and she had only been having the feed and just grass (the dried grass) . Last night she was in to keep another horse who was unwell company and today she had the cough again. As I said previously, it's only ever a clear the throat cough the tends to go and isn't all the time.
 
Nugz was diagnosed with heaves over winter, and has lami tendancies as well, but I can't feed him bucket feeds/chops etc to the quantities needed. If it is a hay dust issue, then soaked hay will rid you of that issue, as will haylage. If it is dust in bedding/stable then I have to brush down Nugz stable every other day (I spray with a weak dettol solution afterwards as well) and have been known to hoover out the cobwebs etc. The only bedding that doesn't set him off is easibed, everything else has too much dust in. So far, the dust in the paddock hasn't affected him.
The ventipulmin will take a bit to settle in, and it is also worth considering that some horses are suffering effectively from hayfever despite not showing issues before, and also a simple cold will cause the same on/off symptoms. There is also the fact that she is being field kept, and then stabled occasionally so is being exposed to dust in one big hit, rather than being able to gradually build up. No different to us humans deciding to dust a room after being outside all day :)
 
PeggyPatch said:
Ok, thats similar to what I was thinking. How is she overnight on that? I worry if she's a long time without anything she may end up getting ulcers (I maybe over thinking this).
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Mine isn't stabled - she has access to a small amount of grass - she can't manage that either but she chews it and quids it, so maybe gets some nutrition in the saliva. Adding a fair amount of chop would slow yours down considerably, but I do agree with the fact that haylage shouldn't set off a cough reaction, and you maybe need more investigation.
 
We've an old pony that due to how his teeth have worn down cannot eat hay. Most quid and then spit it out but he doesn't so he swallows it and then as its not digested, he ends up with bad diarrhoea.
If he's stabled he has a trug bucket with grass in. We put it in a tyre and tie a haynet over so he can't eat it as quickly. He also has a trug of fast fibre overnight.
 
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