Haylage for the older horse.

[Derfette]

Ideas, thoughts, suggestions would be gratefully received . . . I have a 25 year arab who has now started to find haylage more difficult to eat. He is fed the haylage from a net, as he tends to be very messy if it's on the floor or in a hay bar and I think that the less he can take in 1 mouthful the easier it will find it to eat. The problem is, I'm still finding lots of semi chewed up lumps of haylage on the floor in the morning and am now thinking about getting some sort of chaff cutter or similar to shorten the length of the haylage. Anyone ever used this sort of thing or have any other suggestions about what I could try?? He's currently fed fibre with cool conditioning cubes and a balancer. Any suggestions??

 

[FfionWinnie]

Have heard of folk using a garden shredder to make it easier to eat.

 

[be positive]

If his teeth are bad so he is struggling to chew he may be best having more of a hay replacement available than chopping up the haylage as he will still need to chew it or risk choking on it if he tries to swallow it in clumps, it will potentially stick together more once it is chopped up.
I think my first step would be to get his teeth checked again to ensure there is not something amiss causing this, then if he is still struggling or dropping weight replace part of his ration with a good quality chop or soaked feed and also look into a different supply of haylage or hay, something softer may be easier for him, a meadow grass mix ideally.

 

[splashgirl45]

probably obvious, but have his teeth been checked recently....this could cause quidding ....I would put up with the mess and feed from the floor if he was mine...haylage haynets make it more difficult for them to eat. is it possible to give him meadow hay instead as this is softer than haylage....it could always be soaked if necessary. some people give a bucket of chaff for their oldies to eat if they are having problems eating hay or haylage....good luck

 

[Derfette]

Thanks for replies so far. His teeth are checked regularly every 6 months and the last time was only a couple of weeks ago and everything's fine. Will certainly look into an alternative meadow hay, got to be worth a try.

 

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

A friend's old boy can't cope with hay/haylage anymore so get soaked readigrass type stuff as a replacement, plus proper silky meadow hay.

 

[VikingSong]

Have you thought about using fiber nuts, alfalfa and speedibeet/kwikbeet as a forage replacer? Dodson & Horrell recommends it for veterans:

https://m.youtube.com/?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#/watch?v=7PIsLiuiqBc

 

[Derfette]

Have you thought about using fiber nuts, alfalfa and speedibeet/kwikbeet as a forage replacer? Dodson & Horrell recommends it for veterans:

https://m.youtube.com/?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#/watch?v=7PIsLiuiqBc

Was thinking about changing the cool conditioning cubes to the fibre nuts but unfortunately any kind of speedi/kwik beet feed doesn't seem to agree with him. Have tried to have a look at that link, but it doesn't seem to be working.