frozen hay

[jay22]

Hi
i was hoping for some advise with this horrid weather,
i have to soak my pony's hay, i soak 2 hay nets in the evening one for pm and one for am when she is goes on her bare patch (lamanitic) as it is normally -6 when i arrive at the yard to feed and turn out the am hay in the net is frozen is it still ok to feed it to her?
i would normally giver her more grass but the ground is frozen solid so cant move fence posts.

thanks

 

[galaxy]

I'd imagine it's fine... No different to frozen grass.

Could you pour a kettle/flask of water over it just to thaw it out a bit?

 

[CILLA]

Our laminitic prone pony got laminitis last winter from frozen hay nets as like u we soaked but not doing that this winter giving it her dry.

 

[Angelbones]

I don't feed soaked hay at this time of year if the water freezes.

My reasoning is that you are sticking the sugars etc, that have soaked out of the hay into the water, back onto the hay, and that any sugars still in the hay have frozen much the same way they do in frosty grass. Also, I assume that the hay is frozen inside and therefore it would lower my pony's core body temp if he ate it. Now, I have no idea is this is right or total twaddle, but it makes sense to me! I just double net the dry hay instead.

 

[jay22]

thanks for replying i forgot to say i soak the hay for 1 hour then drain it.

 

[Angelbones]

thanks for replying i forgot to say i soak the hay for 1 hour then drain it.

If you are soaking the hay to reduce its calorific value then 1 hour isn't long enough - you'd need to soak it for a minimum of 6 hours (I do 12 hours approx). 1 hour is fine if you are doing it to reduce inhalation of spores and dust for your pony.

If you soak for an hour I would have thought that would be ok to feed it in this weather if you have time to let it drain properly and 'thaw' somewhat first. If you have hot water at the yard you could sit the haynet in some when you take it out of the cold water? Or pour a kettle of hot over it and then let it drain before feeding. Its so difficult to juggle all this, let alone in this bad weather. You haven't said what else you are feeding your pony but if he is out on a laminitic patch and being fed soaked hay in this weather, he may well be needing more that that to keep his condition on (obviously I haven't seen your pony so he may well be the opposite!). Good luck with it. x

 

[trendybraincell]

Frozen hay can cause colic, personally I stop soaking hay once it gets too cold but I just have a fatty. I switch to steaming in winter to limit dust.

 

[Lynds]

I know of someone who steams their hay by putting in a dustbin and pouring a couple of kettles of boiling water on it, put lid back on and leave for 30 mins... I am not sure how well this works for dust spore dampening but its perhaps worth a try and at least it wont be frozen?

I expect this works better if not in a hay net so steam can get through the hay better...?

 

[flyingfeet]

I really wouldn't bother - even my haygain needs defrosting in the cold weather. Steaming does not effect nutrient value, so unless your laminitis pony coughs, I would feed dry and avoid any further problems with frozen hay.

 

[Tnavas]

To be honest in the past we never soaked hay for lamanitic reasons - in fact the ponies if they suffered from laminitis where taken off grass and fed only hay. They certainly managed to survive.

Feed the hay as someone said in a small hole or double haynet to lengthen the time that it takes to eat through the ration.

Just make sure that hard feed is reduced to take into account the daily sugar levels