Flipping hay coughs

[seoirse]

My poor horse has a hay cough, which I know after a couple of days on haylage and some respirator will be gone, but its so annoying, my last horse was the same too. I feed him big bale haylage all winter, but we had to stop a couple of weeks ago as we (3 large horses) weren't getting through it quick enough and it was going off as the weather is milder now and they aren't eating as much. The girl who owns the other 2 has gone onto the hay supplied by our farmer for now until the grass really gets going and her boys are fine. Mine is in a right state, despite the hay being quite good. I thought he was doing ok as he's been on hay for 2 weeks but last night he had a bit of a cough and today he's terrible. This happened in January when we had a short hiccup in our haylage supply and I had to feed him hay for a couple of weeks too. Soaking it doesn't make any difference. Poor horsey. I'll just have to buy small bales of haylage from the feed merchant at a squillion quid a bale until we've got grass. Why does it take 2 weeks for the cough to develop and why does everyone else on my yard get away with feeding hay? We have about 35 horses and not one of them coughs the way mine does on hay, last boy was the same. What the heck am I doing wrong???!

 

[POLLDARK]

Are you soaking it for long enough? It takes a good time for the pollen grains to swell enough not to be a problem, I think you need at least 12 hours of soaking. A pony I had was prone to a hay cough but the next winter I started straight away with soaking for 12 hours & no problems with a cough thereafter.

 

[seoirse]

Hmmm. Perhaps not. Vet told me 1-2 hours was sufficient for soaking hay for dust/pollen reasons though sometimes I have soaked it all day as its more convenient to put it on before work and leave it all day etc.

I've got to get horse clear again now anyway, so back onto haylage for a bit, but I might try the 12 hour soaking and see if he can tolerate that as I've never consistently soaked it for that long for him as I was going with what the vet said.

I don't actually need him to be able to manage hay much of the time as the big bale haylage works cheaper than hay from Sept - Mar, its just each end of the winter when its too mild to open a big bale and he only needs a little bit it would be helpful if he could manage hay. At the moment he's only getting 1 slice each end of the day and its enough to bring him to his knees. Poor chap.

 

[AdorableAlice]

I would be seriously looking for somewhere to turn him out and get him away from anything the aggrevates his air ways as soon as possible.

COPD can be very tricky to deal with and needs very careful management if it takes a real hold.

 

[seoirse]

He's out 24/7. Being in doesn't aggrevate the cough though. It's just hay that he can't tolerate. He can be in on a straw bed and eat haylage and he's fine, but as soon as I feed him hay, he coughs. It's a pain in the bum as it's good hay! It's also quite baffling.

 

[AdorableAlice]

Well he is a bit unique isn't he ! straw ought to see him off completely.

Could you try the small bale haylage. It won't go off if you keep it somewhere cool and a bale lasted my 17.2 3 days last summer on a routine of out in the day and in 8pm -6am. I double netted it to slow the gannet down. It was about £5.50 a bale. More expensive that traditional hay but not expensive compared to buying ventapulmin and having a useless horse.

I am in Worcestershire and the brand is Horsehage, comes in bales that are just about liftable. Two sorts - pale blue and dark blue wrapping, I think the pale blue is rocket fuel and the dark more suited to pleasure horses, but do check it before buying, it could be the other way round.

I think it is a nationwide available product.

 

[seoirse]

Well he is a bit unique isn't he ! straw ought to see him off completely.
QUOTE]

Agree totally, my last horse had his picture next to COPD in the equine ailments dictionary and even being in on paper next door to another horse on straw used to set him off, so when I got this new horse and the owner said he 'coughed a bit' on hay 'sometimes' I wasn't worried, especially as I knew we'd be feeding haylage all winter anyway.

The small bales of haylage, think its equilage, at our local feed merchant are £7.95 a bale. I just went and got one at lunch time and nearly cried. £5.50 is much more manageable as our hay is £4.50 a bale anyway. I will have to have a shop around and see if I can buy a delivery of horsehage if the 12 hour soaking doesn't work.

Thanks for the help.

 

[LaurenBay]

My Horse has mild COPD. I have to wet her hay everyday. She is out during the day and has a big haynet overnight. I hose it down, then do my other jobs, then hose it down again. I also wet her feed. This has helped loads! I don't tend to soak it as I don't want to loose the goodness from it (she is a touch underweight)