Jericho
Well-Known Member
sorry - its a bit long and rambling but some advice appreciated.
Two years ago my little Welsh had laminitis caused by eating a load of chicken layer pellets and lots of lush fgreen grass with frost on it (she escaped out of her paddock!). She then got it very mildly in the spring when the grass came through so now we very carefully manage her. Ever since she has been on restricted grazing and hay which is soaked, not so much to take the calories out but because she is affected by the dust. She gets 2 - 3 sections but rarely eats all of it - she is however losing weight.
My TBx on the other hand is stuffed full of calaroific food so gets ryegrass haylage. He is incredibly wasteful and wont eat anything from the floor (he has a haybar in his field shelter) and tends to shovel it out). I usaully put a small bale (20kg) in whenever he has eaten the majority or every 3 or 4 days (he lives out 24/7). They live in two separate fields - him in 2 acres, her on about a 1/5th of an acre which is seperated by the field shelter with a partition.
My question is whether I could feed the haylage that he leaves on the floor and give it to the pony (the haylage is ryegrass 10 -12% protein) in a small holed haynet instead of the hay. It would probably amount to a section of hay in volume morning and night and is usally very dry by the time she gets it (would the dryness affect its quality?)
This would hoepfully save some money as 1) I wouldnt be wasting the haylage that my boy refuses to eat and 2) I wouldnt be wasting the hay that my girl refuses to eat.
On times I have chucked some of the left over haylage over the partition for her and she loves it. It would also have the bonus of keeping her dust allergy at bay. So the plan was that to just increase this a bit more... or am I increasing her chances of lami again???
Two years ago my little Welsh had laminitis caused by eating a load of chicken layer pellets and lots of lush fgreen grass with frost on it (she escaped out of her paddock!). She then got it very mildly in the spring when the grass came through so now we very carefully manage her. Ever since she has been on restricted grazing and hay which is soaked, not so much to take the calories out but because she is affected by the dust. She gets 2 - 3 sections but rarely eats all of it - she is however losing weight.
My TBx on the other hand is stuffed full of calaroific food so gets ryegrass haylage. He is incredibly wasteful and wont eat anything from the floor (he has a haybar in his field shelter) and tends to shovel it out). I usaully put a small bale (20kg) in whenever he has eaten the majority or every 3 or 4 days (he lives out 24/7). They live in two separate fields - him in 2 acres, her on about a 1/5th of an acre which is seperated by the field shelter with a partition.
My question is whether I could feed the haylage that he leaves on the floor and give it to the pony (the haylage is ryegrass 10 -12% protein) in a small holed haynet instead of the hay. It would probably amount to a section of hay in volume morning and night and is usally very dry by the time she gets it (would the dryness affect its quality?)
This would hoepfully save some money as 1) I wouldnt be wasting the haylage that my boy refuses to eat and 2) I wouldnt be wasting the hay that my girl refuses to eat.
On times I have chucked some of the left over haylage over the partition for her and she loves it. It would also have the bonus of keeping her dust allergy at bay. So the plan was that to just increase this a bit more... or am I increasing her chances of lami again???
