Horses off their hay

Sprogladite01

Sprogladite01

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Started off with one of my boys suddenly refusing to eat his hay at all - and going overnight not eating at all. He will now pick sparingly at dry hay but he isn't eating nearly as much as he should be. Vet came out and checked him over as he's on 2x bute a day and he was given the all clear, but I declined further testing as he is being PTS in a few weeks.
Then my little companion pony has now started being very fussy with his hay - leaving soaked nets completely and eating maybe half his net at night but diving for the dry during the day (he's getting soaked hay as he's too fat and needs to shift some weight). Both are still grazing (limited turnout) and eating their feeds up.
I've tried starting a new bale to see if that made any difference (not really) and now wondering where to go from here. The hay is home grown and this year's cut - stored stacked on pallets in a spare stable covered with a super super thin and breathable paint sheet (we have swallows in there still). They have eaten almost half of it before they've started turning their noses up so am a bit confused! Any suggestions/ideas welcomed!

Edit to add: this all started last Friday, so it's been 5 days now...
 
Sandstone1 said:
Can you get a bale from somewhere else to see if they eat that?
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Yes, there's a farm literally over the road there I usually get my hay I can order a bale from - will give it a go but tbh they didn't like the hay much which is why I grew my own in the first place! Can't hurt to try though, thank you :)
 
We got some extra bales last year to supplement what we had grown, I filled 2 haynets with it and my horses wouldn’t touch it at all, it smelt fine and looked good, a couple of the other horses did eat it, I changed to some new hay and they were fine with that. I can only assume the bale I had open had got tainted in some way possibly rat pee or something on it. Haven’t had any more problems with our own home grown hay and now if I buy any in I always only get one bale and try that out first, I have to say my horses are definitely not fussy and have eaten crappy hay before but there must have been something on this particular bale that was wrong.
 
DiNozzo said:
Has your grass not just had a growth spurt? Ours haven't been hungry, the sunshine and rain combo has given us another spurt of good growth.
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Yes it has, but they are on extremely limited turn out (strip grazed and only out for 3 hours a day) - they are in and on hay otherwise. I wouldn't have thought he could get so full he wouldn't eat all night, and then refuse to eat basically all day again until he went back out. This pony normally starts kicking his door at 5.30am demanding more food so it's very unusual for him in particular, the other one has always been a bit fussy with his hay
 
Sprogladite01 said:
Yes it has, but they are on extremely limited turn out (strip grazed and only out for 3 hours a day) - they are in and on hay otherwise. I wouldn't have thought he could get so full he wouldn't eat all night, and then refuse to eat basically all day again until he went back out. This pony normally starts kicking his door at 5.30am demanding more food so it's very unusual for him in particular, the other one has always been a bit fussy with his hay
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Mine are the same, they only want grass. They're in all day to limit their intake and barely touch their hay. There was a study , according to my vet, which showed that horses on restricted turnout consumed as much as those out 100% of the time,( clearly I'm kidding myself getting them in then!) so I wouldn't rule out just being full...
 
Try a bale from the middle of your stack. When a stack is covered, even with a breathable cover, all ‘breathing’ a bale does goes out and up, so moisture will wick upwards and outwards too. The top and outer bales can be mustier than the inner bales. Not necessarily perceptible to our noses, but horses are more sensitive to undesirables.

When you say they ate it after baling fine and now aren’t, makes me think its to do with your bales maturing and the outer ones being mustier than the inner.
This all depends on the baled quality. If theyre baled over 18% moisture and quite tightly baled, tightly stacked, the inner bales wont breathe as well, and the outer bales can breathe, so you have the opposite thing happening: the middle bales of the stack are musty and the outer bales being fresher, because they can breathe.

Try to recall where from your stack you took the bales they are refusing, if outer bales, try inner bales, and vice versa.
 
P.s my horses eat pretty much any type of hay, so when they refuse hay or pick at it warily/slowly, or rarest of rarest, leave it and dont touch it, there’s always a reason and i switch hay if steam/soak doesnt work. i trust their senses better than mine.

If the hay is slightly musty, i had success steaming it, or dunking vigorously for 30 secs in very hot house cylinder water hosed into a barrel, draining it and feeding straight away.
 
Is the dry and soaked hay from the same bale? Could the pony be waiting until he gets out to the dry hay and getting enough of that plus grass to do overnight?
My mare used to hate soaked hay and would rather eat nothing.
 
Mine has stopped eating the alfalfa in her feed, it was never her favourite part of her feed but she didn't use to leave it. (This is part way through a bag.) I think it's probably because the grass has started growing again, she isn't hungry enough to eat alfalfa.
 
It's officially the hay... they are scoffing the new bale bought over by my lovely neighbours like they've never eaten in their lives. Will be thoroughly inspecting all of the hay that's left as I'd like to know what is wrong with it - such a waste as it's going to cost me to replace it which i could really do without. New delivery of hay coming tomorrow.

But pleased they're eating again at least!!
 
Sprogladite01 said:
It's officially the hay... they are scoffing the new bale bought over by my lovely neighbours like they've never eaten in their lives. Will be thoroughly inspecting all of the hay that's left as I'd like to know what is wrong with it - such a waste as it's going to cost me to replace it which i could really do without. New delivery of hay coming tomorrow.

But pleased they're eating again at least!!
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Thats good news, that theyre eating at least and you know for some reason the hay you have is tainted in some way.

Maybe its rat pee, or a weed they dont like, or its slightly musty? Rat/mouse pee is quite hard for our noses to detect unless we find their ‘nest’ area. If you have a cat or dog they’ll generally be very interested in sniffing about a hay stack that has vermin contamination as they’ll smell the pee easily.

I imported hay from eastern europe, excellent dry quality, smelled lovely and super high compression packaging, except it was loaded with wormwood weed and the horses refused to eat it! Wormwood is very bitter, and there was loads of it strewn through the bales of 1 pallet. Wasted almost £1k with that order!

It’s probably not a horrible tasting weed in your bales, as they wouldnt have eaten any of it since being baled. Likely vermin pee or moulds. I’d do a test soaking a whole bale for 5 mins in very hot water, (if youre able) and feeding after draining. That would kill some nasties, wash them out somewhat, and be more palatable to horse nose. You might be able to salvage your stack if its a mild contamination.
 
It could potentially be mice, rats or even the swallows still (we have a stubborn few who haven't left yet) which is why I've tried to keep the hay as covered as possible without choking it. Previously the hay was always soaked and thoroughly rinsed before feeding (albeit with cold water), so would have thought that would get rid of it if that was it - but hopefully will find something more conclusive tomorrow when we re-organise the stack and have a proper look through.

My neighbour has just spotted me out there feeding the lovable rogues and has just bought another 10 bales over for me bless him. I've also agreed with him that if I buy in bulk he will store it for me and bring it over in batches as storage is a problem for me and they are only over the road. I am very lucky to have such lovely and handy neighbours!
 
Sprogladite01 said:
It could potentially be mice, rats or even the swallows still (we have a stubborn few who haven't left yet) which is why I've tried to keep the hay as covered as possible without choking it. Previously the hay was always soaked and thoroughly rinsed before feeding (albeit with cold water), so would have thought that would get rid of it if that was it - but hopefully will find something more conclusive tomorrow when we re-organise the stack and have a proper look through.

My neighbour has just spotted me out there feeding the lovable rogues and has just bought another 10 bales over for me bless him. I've also agreed with him that if I buy in bulk he will store it for me and bring it over in batches as storage is a problem for me and they are only over the road. I am very lucky to have such lovely and handy neighbours!
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what a lovely neighbour! Ohhhh id love a neighbour like that, who’d bring me great hay ?

Swallows are mucky buggers arent they? We have them too and i have my tool barn to clean of bird poop this winter. Birds produce a dust from their wings/body, as a natural ‘feather cleaner’, so maybe if you have any exposed bales theyve got contaminated with avian body dust and your horses can smell/taste it?
 
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