Hay replacer suggestions - for a horse that only wants to eat hay!

[now_loves_mares]

My very poorly mare is currently having an extended stay in horsepital. She broke her pedal bone 2 weeks ago, and turned out to be extremely sensitive to the Danilon. This gave her dorsal colitis which lead to a serious impaction colic. The impaction has cleared but she's on a very restricted diet to ensure she doesn't impact again. The only thing she is interested in eating is hay and is ignoring the various hard feeds the vets have tried her with. However, the recommendation for a horse with colitis is to avoid all hay for 3 months, and feed short chop/fibre replacers instead. The longer grains require more digesting in the hind gut, plus irritate her already ulcerated/inflamed colon, hence the ideal being to avoid it.

Currently in my tack room I have alfa a oil, happy hoof, top chop alfa, speedibeet and A&P fast fibre. I am going to visit her tomorrow and will take small samples of all of them to see if she's interested. However are there any that are very close to grass or hay, but shorter? Alternatively, anyone in the area have access to a hay chopper?

Also if anyone has experience of Dorsal colitis I'd be happy to hear it! I've read that psyllium husks and corn oil are both recommended to help as well.

Oh and also one of the symptoms is she has a very low protein count, so in an ideal world the food would be high protein; but actually that's not key as her protein should start to improve naturally as her colitis improves.

 

[Tr0uble]

What about Readigreass or Graze on, or Just Grass?

 

[martlin]

Just Grass, Supreme Grass, RediGrass, GrazeOn ummm that's all I can remember - they are all the same-ish, freeze dried grass, chopped in small bits

 

[xxRachelxx]

Ditto to readi grass or graze on.

 

[appylass]

Badminton Hay Replacer Cubes, my lot love them, they can be fed as they are or made into a mash by soaking.

 

[TGM]

Ditto the suggestion of the grass chaffs suggested by everyone else. The different brands vary a bit nutritionally:

Readigrass 12/13 MJDE/kg 15% protein
Graze-On 10/11 MJDE/kg 16% protein
Just Grass 10 MJDE/kg 13.5% protein

 

[now_loves_mares]

Thanks all. Would any of them be softer and/or more appetising than the others?

 

[martlin]

Mine like Just Grass most, but are happy enough to munch on RediGrass.

 

[now_loves_mares]

Apparently vet has tried Redigrass and not interested. She does seem to like the happy hoof for now though so that might have to do her for a bit.

Thanks

 

[CBFan]

There is one called valley grass which is aparently much softer than the likes of graze on... if she likes her happy hoof perhaps they can graually introduce the graze on or whatever into that? handfull at a time.

You have my sympathy - my boy has recently returned from horsepital having suffered an impaction... it's really not nice.

Hope she makes a speedy recovery xx

 

[carol993]

Hi
I am new to this forum, so hi to everyone.
My Horse has a very sensitive stomach and suffered grade 4 ulcers for some time. He suffered bouts of colic too, but he is very fussy and will not eat hay. I found the readigrass gave him colic and he gets fat very, very quickly. I scoured the country looking for something to give him which wouldn't make him ill. I eventually found a feed made by Rowan Barbary, which I cannot recommend highly enough. They do a whole range of feeds including forage and hard feed. My horse loves it and others on my yard have started to use it too. We have not yet found a horse which doesn't like it! This is their link to the website, it won't hurt to take a look at what they have. http://www.rowenbarbary.co.uk. Good luck.