Grass nuts and choke

NeverSayNever

NeverSayNever

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Just this week Ive been feeding a small about (1 mug) to my Sec D in a very wet feed of chaff and supplements. Last night she had a nasty episode of choke, first ever. Thankfully she is fine this morning but gave me a real fright. I felt truly terrible but the vet assured me in part Id been very unlucky as some people feed grass nuts dry in treat balls etc anyway. I'm already beating myself up for not soaking them though.

So, people who feed them, do you soak fully? (I use simple systems). Im really unsure what to do with her feed now as last winter on speedi beet she was a bit loopy and i was really sure the grass nuts would be the way to go keep weight on this year. I already use a large amount of linseed in grass chaff with a balancer and adlib hay.
 
Ours choked really badly on the simple systems grass nuts too, they had to be fully soaked for them to be able to eat them. I've not had the same problem with the graze on grass pellets, although we make sure the chokers just get a soaked feed now with no lumps. We're now moving them all off the grass nuts, as the graze on ones just seem to go to dust when fully soaked, and mine won't eat it.

Have you looked at fast fibre? This is what we moved ours onto post grass nuts, it soaks down really well and our oldie seems to do very well on it weightwise, atm at least. One thing I think we need to add is some chaff of some kind, although this is because I feel weird just feeding a horse mush iykwim? They don't seem to mind though! We're feeding fast fibre, speedibeet and linseed :)
 
Not grass nuts but I have one prone to choke, I add half a cup of veggie oil after feed fuly made up just so it slides down and doesn't form a ball in her gullet. Have to add here though that keeping teeth up to date is an absolute must for chokers... told on her by vet and EDT so I swear by that.

Going back to Stencilface's post, I've not encountered grass nuts before. Would they - or your alternative be of benefit keeping weight on when a TB & type when as the grass going into winter in my field is shocking. Thanks.x.
 
My Sec D has choked a couple of times, pretty scary. He's now on Hi-fi lite chaff, micronised linseed and Baileys no 14 conditioner. Its soaked really well. To start with I had a couple of rocks in his feed bowl but removed them some time back. Treats like apple I grate up and carrots are a definate no no. I'm possibly being over cautious but he's such a pig and will scoff the lot as quickly as he can. So far so good, touch wood!

Agree with teeth and regular check ups - Mine had his wolf teeth out and his tushes have been pushing through for some time so maybe that didn't help.
 
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I used Northern Crop Driers grass nuts for many years, always soaked, mainly because they are very hard and I heard that a local horse broke a tooth on them.
 
thanks all, teeth are done regularly and are up to date. Ive fed fast fibre before but it just doesnt have the calorific content we need for weight gain. Will look at the baileys Cambrica.. do you mean no 14 lo cal balancer or no 4 conditioning cubes? thanks
 
TBF the ones of ours that choked are prone to it (27 yo pony and 29yo TB) but they have both been fine so far on the fast fibre, I think it just soaks a lot better. I think normal horses would likely be fine, the 27yo tends to bolt his food, and the 29yo has worse teeth (although they are regularly seen to!) :)
 
Stencilface said:
TBF the ones of ours that choked are prone to it (27 yo pony and 29yo TB) but they have both been fine so far on the fast fibre, I think it just soaks a lot better. I think normal horses would likely be fine, the 27yo tends to bolt his food, and the 29yo has worse teeth (although they are regularly seen to!) :)
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mine is a very healthy 9 year old though who has never had choke before :( fast fibre is designed to be soaked and fed as mush too so its a different type of feed really:frown3:
 
One of mine gets itchy on too many grass nuts so I make up a bucket of really wet speedibeet and add a scoop of grass nuts, stir and leave to soak for 12-24 hours. This gives a sloppy feed with the added nutrition of the grass nuts
 
Yes, I soak them. I did try feeding them dry (as it says you can on the bag) but I had episodes of choke as well, these are horses not prone to choke, but they did with dry grass nuts. Nothing gets dry grass nuts now.
 
If you added micronised linseed to the fast fibre then that would give you a much higher calorific content. Just a thought. I had my girl on this combination before we switched to thunderbrook. She kept weight on it and shes a poor doer. Copra meal is another you could look at
 
Alll ours are fed soaked, but then I wouldn't put a bowl of dry feed (including mixes & nuts) in front of them anyway, everything would be at least dampened as any feed can cause choke.
 
My STB has had choke twice since I had him in December 2012. Both times from dry hay. I feed him grass nuts twice daily with no problems, but we use Northern Crop Driers version with 3/4 a mug of micronised Linseed.

I ALWAYS mix with a little hot water straight from the kettle if being fed straight after prep (Just add cold after so it isn't too hot). Takes about 2 or 3 minutes to soak up and serve. Otherwise, I tend to just throw in half a scoop of cold and leave it for half an hour or so. If it isn't wet enough can always mix a bit more in, takes seconds.
 
claribella said:
If you added micronised linseed to the fast fibre then that would give you a much higher calorific content. Just a thought. I had my girl on this combination before we switched to thunderbrook. She kept weight on it and shes a poor doer. Copra meal is another you could look at
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she was getting a mug and a half of micronised linseed all last winter and it didnt help unfortunately

pip6 said:
Alll ours are fed soaked, but then I wouldn't put a bowl of dry feed (including mixes & nuts) in front of them anyway, everything would be at least dampened as any feed can cause choke.
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neither would i, i always feed a very wet feed as Ive been 'aware' of choke but it still happened with her having a sloppy feed unfortunately :( Looks like for her, grass nuts will have to be properly soaked or avoided :(

STB that's scary as mine get a round bale out in the field in the winter, so not soaked. Do you soak hay now too?
 
I've been experimenting with how long to soak them, perfect seems to be half an hour ish, less time and there are still hard lumps (my oldie has no teeth) longer than that and it dries out and turns to dust. He seems to like it at this consistency and has done wonders for his weight (emerald green feeds). I found micro linseed didn't work on him either
 
NeverSayNever said:
she was getting a mug and a half of micronised linseed all last winter and it didnt help unfortunately



neither would i, i always feed a very wet feed as Ive been 'aware' of choke but it still happened with her having a sloppy feed unfortunately :( Looks like for her, grass nuts will have to be properly soaked or avoided :(

STB that's scary as mine get a round bale out in the field in the winter, so not soaked. Do you soak hay now too?
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Not as scary as what the dentist told me! In the field hay will naturally absorb moisture from the air (and rain) so wouldnt worry. Mine is okay with a large round in the field. I had his teeth done last month for the first time since we had him, and was advised that whoever did his teeth before had filed them all flat so he has no grooves with which to chew. As such I have to either soak his hay or feed haylage, and can expect his teeth the take 2-3yrs to be back to normal.
 
I've fed the SS grass nuts last year to a couple of horses - but they got them along with the SS unmolassed sugarbeet that needs soaking overnight. So both grass nuts and beet got well soaked and turned to mush. Would that be a option for you? They do seem a very useful feed.
 
NeverSayNever said:
thanks all, teeth are done regularly and are up to date. Ive fed fast fibre before but it just doesnt have the calorific content we need for weight gain. Will look at the baileys Cambrica.. do you mean no 14 lo cal balancer or no 4 conditioning cubes? thanks
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Sorry yes its the lo-cal balancer (14) Being a Sec D I do have to watch his weight as he is young so only in light work. Having the ML he has put a bit of weight on but also looks in super condition coatwise. I've also noticed recently that his hooves are incredibly hard, he's not shod and does do roadwork so either I'm lucky or its something I'm feeding him!
 
cambrica said:
Sorry yes its the lo-cal balancer (14) Being a Sec D I do have to watch his weight as he is young so only in light work. Having the ML he has put a bit of weight on but also looks in super condition coatwise. I've also noticed recently that his hooves are incredibly hard, he's not shod and does do roadwork so either I'm lucky or its something I'm feeding him!
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I have the opposite Im afraid, mine is Sec D but doesnt keep weight on over winter at all so the lowcal wouldnt suit Im afraid, we'd need to look at the conditioning cubes but im worried about the potential of them being rocket fuel.

BrightBay,thanks yes im going to experiment with soaking them in the future, I tried speedibeet last ear but she was really hot on it so Im reluctant to go down the beet route again.


I spoke to SS today and they reassured me that for a healthy young horse with up to date dentals that I fed the grass nuts exactly as theyd recommend and in a normal healthy horse they are very unlikely to cause choke. So either it was bad luck, SS arent painting an accurate picture of their product or my girl has some kind of underlying reason for this, only time will tell.
 
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My boy had a nasty episode of choke after eating grass nuts earlier this year, he had to be tubed in the end and I nearly lost him! If I feed grass nuts now I soak for 24 hrs until they are mush!
 
NeverSayNever said:
I have the opposite Im afraid, mine is Sec D but doesnt keep weight on over winter at all so the lowcal wouldnt suit Im afraid, we'd need to look at the conditioning cubes but im worried about the potential of them being rocket fuel.
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I feed the no4 to my Welsh sec A and his temperment hasnt altered and he is looking so much better
 
I trickle feed grass nuts from a treatball but my mare has had a very bad choke from grass nuts - we were using them as a bribe while she was scanned and she took a huge mouthful of them. I'd only ever feed soaked or slow trickle fed
 
Grass nuts are the basis of all my horses feeds, but have always fed them well soaked. do a bucket overnight for the morning, then refill and soak in the morning for the evening feed. They have chaff as well as other stuff added so it doesnt matter if ive overdone the water and its turned to slop as the rest soaks it up. They all love it and never had a problem even with the old ones
 
I've had 4 horses, none 'prone' to choke, that choke without fail if given dry grass nuts. It only takes a few. They're absolutely fine on softer pony nuts ect and if soaked they're fine with grass nuts.

Just make your grass nuts up the day before like sugarbeet and you'll be fine.
 
Mines on the SS red grass nuts i havent had an issue with feeding them dry as such but he does have alfa a aswell so he does get his dinner soaked a bit now the grass nuts are added as ive heard horror stories!
 
We used to feed our retired cob mare on soaked grassnuts and a small amount of dried grass chaff. She choked twice, so we gave her more chaff with the nuts and the problem was solved.
We usually used Northern Cropdriers or Argo grass nuts.
 
I'm another that soaks grass nuts.

I'd read that they were fine to be fed dry provided they had an equal anount of chaff added but I tested them with a bit of water....similar to a wet feed & I was shocked at how hard the pellet remained.
Not a risk I fancied taking TBH. A good soak for a few hours & they are fine.
 
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