Lami pony and haylage?

[MoodyMare11]

I've recently moved to a new yard with my lami boy and the only forage they offer is haylage or straw so Im currently only feeding him 3/4 net of haylage whereas before he was having 1 1/2 nets of hay, am I doing the right thing by giving him the haylage as I dont want to feed him straw 'cause he'll only start eating his bedding again.
He is being turned out as normal for 5 maybe 6 hours a day with 5 other horses and being lightly exercised 6 days per week.

Any other thoughts or things I could try?

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Is there no other bedding on offer than straw, if there is I would be using it and feeding straw.

It would be much better for him to have a decent amount of straw to chomp on than a very restricted amount of haylage. Plus despite the theories about high fibre haylage being ok to feed, I know that when I risked it my pony went down with lami....so I wont feed it.

NB important if you do feed straw to feed a good supplement or something with alfalfa (tho no all barefoot peeps are keen on alfalfa it does balance the things lacking in straw very well).

My lami prone girl has a small soaked haynet, a thin base bed of wood pellets/aubiose and then oat straw on top. If she eats some of that, at this time of year its not a disaster since our fields are bare and soggy so she is getting very little other feed/sugars.

 

[Pale Rider]

If you are worried, soak it, but long periods without anything is worse.
I'd be ok with him eating straw.
Haylage can be lower in sugars than some hay as haylage goes throuh a fermentation which hay doesn't.
Testing is an option.

 

[amandap]

I think he needs more forage I'm afraid. Haylage doesn't suit some laminitic horses but I think it depends how well (or not) it is made. I would feed oat straw mixed with the haylage and try increasing the amount but watch him like a hawk. Feed some yea sacc or some other gut support.
Alternatives involve buying in hay or guaranteed haylage such as Marksway high fibre or moving somewhere they provide hay.
My laminitic pony got footy (laminitis) when I tried to introduce some local grown haylage so to me feeding it is quite a risk for some horses.

 

[pinklilly]

The vet said it was fine to change mine from hay to haylage, I checked as he had mild lami twice late aummer / autumn, he is a tb though and the reason I wanted to change it because he'd lost interest in hay and didn't want to lose any more weight despite having ad-lib hay. He's a touch on the lean side at the moment but my vet said as he tested negative for EMS it was fine.