How many times can you use the same water for soaking hay?

Porkie

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Have to start soaking his hay (vets instructions) and just wondering how many times you can use the same water for soaking it ??
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It looks disgusting after just one net but YO is gonna go nuts as she's on a water meter and is mental about how much water we use !!!
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Is it safe to keep the same water for a few days and just keep topping it up - or should it be fresh each time??
 

kerilli

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i used to use the same repeatedly and never had any problems. i used to top it up through the week and empty it out every week and start again. i'd use a bucketful to rinse the haynets after pulling them out though.
fwiw i steam it now though, only takes 2 kettles full to do a net, much less water (but more electricity of course!)
 

GermanyJo

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the water is relatively toxic after soaking so you should change it every time... as Kerilli says though, steaming is supposed to be better anyway as you do not 'wash out' the nutrients in the hay
 

Fairynuff

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In a perfect world, it would be changed after one soaking, at the most two. The water from one soaking is already filthy and legally you cant just chuck it down the nearest drain, but thats bye the bye. What you could do is steam your hay. You need a thick poly bag or a smallish bin with lid. Put your hay in bag/bin, boil kettle and chuck over hay. Close bin/bag and leave for a wee while. The steam and heat will kill or bind any moulds/spore to the hay so you wont lose any nutrients to leeching plus you wont use gallons of water. M.
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Bossanova

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It's fine to leave for about a month, less in the warmer weather. It has no adverse affects- have a yard of very fit and healthy horses surviving on this toxic-water- soaked hay
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sandr

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[ QUOTE ]
legally you cant just chuck it down the nearest drain

[/ QUOTE ]

Really??? Didnt know that!! Can i ask why?
 

BigRed

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apparently the quality of water after it has been used to soak hay, is eqauivalent to raw sewage, so I guess you have to make the decision whether you want to soak your horse's hay in raw sewage water several times. this is the major problem with soaking hay. Why don't you feed haylage instead ?

Soaking hay is not cost effective, you lose a lot of the feed value in hay when you soak it, so you probably have to feed more hard feed. if you bought good haylage you could feed hardly any hard feed.
 

mik

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Raw sewage contains bacteria from the gut, this is the problem with it, where on earth do these bacteria enter in hay? Have you got rats, or cats in the hay? Yuk.
I refresh mine each time. I really like the steaming idea and i am off to try it for my boys.
 

QuobAsti

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Porkie, can i ask what is the reason the vet has told you to soak your hay for?

My reply would differ on your answer.
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Cyberchick

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If it is a long soak then I change mine each time but it is a bit stinky as well but if I am just dunking it to get it wet and get some dust out then I will reuse it.
I had heard about the not putting the water down the drain thing but I always do. I think steaming is a great idea.
I dont like soaking my hay for long periods of time and my horse has survived fine on dunked hay but I suppose it depends on what circumstance you have to soak.
 

kerilli

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QuobAsti is right. if vet has said to soak hay because horse is fat and he wants the hay to have as few calories etc as possible, then soak it in old water, that's fine. if it is because of a breathing complaint, to keep down dust and spores, then steaming will be ideal.
 

QuobAsti

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If you have to soak hay for weight reasons, then soak for 2-12hrs, the longer the hay is soaked the more the sugars are leeched out. Personally i would change the water each time if soaking for the above reason and i wouldn't re-use the water, would you drink it? I have been on yards with water meters and always change the water each time for soaking.

If you have been told to soak the hay to make it less dusty or something similar then you could just put the hay in soak for 10-20mins (i wouldn't of thought the water would be too bad and you could change every other day or so) or as others have said you could steam it for about 20-30mins.

So to leech out sugars etc it need to be soaked for a fair few hours and water changed daily.
If you don't need to lose the nutritional value a short soak or steam will do the trick.

Hope that helps
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Porkie

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[ QUOTE ]
Porkie, can i ask what is the reason the vet has told you to soak your hay for?

My reply would differ on your answer.
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[/ QUOTE ]

It's because of a breathing complaint. Had to have vet out Friday night as he had some kind of attack - was like an asthma attack really - was breathing like he'd done cross country and really coughing and wheezy. Had to have steroid shot and ventapalmin - may have to have an inhaler
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Our yard has a proper steamer but the hay seems to dry out again too quick and still makes him cough and soaked hay seems to be doing the trick as it needs to be quite wet.

Hoping that when the worst has past he can have steamed rather than soaked though.

Vet said its the rape seed flowers as we are surrounded, plus he's 28 - although still quite healthy and in ridden work (well, normally when his breathing isn't like this !!)

Loosing calories from hay isn't an issue as he certainly doesn't struggle to keep the weight on !! Unfortunately he likes his food and only has to look at it to put weight on !!
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kellyeaton

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i use the same water for five days and then swill bin and use fresh but when i pull it out of bin a chuck a couple of buckets over the hay before i feed!
 
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Donkeymad

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If you are giving the hay a good soaking, you should change it every time, and, as said, must NOT throw it down a drain. The contents are equivalent to sewage, but not the same as sewage. It is just as, or more, toxic.

If you are just giving a quick 20 minute soak, you can get away with changing the water every few days.
 
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