Shavings help... Please

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nikkianddave

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I am losing the will to live, digging out 3 barrows full at least per day and he is only in the stable overnight.

We have mats down, and I am going through 2 bales minimum of megaspread a week which isn't the cheapest but it has amazing coverage.

we have shavings only on our yard, I am not a fan of deep littering (my own fault I know) but I like a very clean, fluffy looking bed.

any advice on cost effective but good absorbent shavings? Megaspread literally spreads everywhere and looks hanging after one night.

Tempted to try snowflake softchip as they are supposed to be absorbent and they are about £5.50 a bale locally, but they are tiny bales.

thanks x
 
I'd be tempted to try some wood pellets in the wet patch if that's allowed on the yard. I put them in dry to my shavings bed and much more absorbent than any shavings i've tried.
 
As above, try pellets, you can use them as they tell you by wetting the pellets when you first install the bed & the bed will fluff up. When the bed starts to get damp even when you've removed the wee put in a dry bag & this will dry out your bed a bit. If you by a pallet of pellet bedding it works out at £3.46p per 15kg bag delivered for Liverpool Pellets at the moment. I used to used shavings but found they became too expensive & really weren't that absorbent, pellets were much better & much cheaper. :)
 
this thread confused me, i though what help can i be?!

any way, would your yard not let you put a layer of wood pellets under the shavings? a friend does this for her very wet mare and it works rather well
 
I echo Natural Flake (Jenkinsons is the manufacturer), or even better use their dry sawdust underneath or for full bed. It works better than you might think. Its fab and is only £4 ish per bale.
 
Snowflake Softchip is still in 25kg bales which is bigger than many other brands, they are just super compact and look smaller than they used to. I like it as a bedding, it stays clean looking for a while but when it does go discoloured it really goes quick! Often I will throw in a bale of Aubiose which freshens the look nicely. Aubiose is a fab bedding but just too expensive for my purse!

Recently I was caught on the hop for bedding so randomly bought Bed Down lavender shavings and the bed looks squeaky clean a couple of weeks down the line and still smells amazing, have to say I am really impressed, they are tiny shavings and so easy to muck out too
 
That is a lot of wet each day do you think the horse could be drinking an excessive amount or is he a very large horse, I use megaspread and find it is brilliant I have a very thick bed without mats and for a 15h gelding I take out less than a Barrow a day if his in at night and get through 1 to 2 bales a week if in.
 
how old is the horse? thats a LOAD of wet? ours are in 3.30pm-6.30am and i only take out a couple of forkfuls of wet each morning (full bed on top of mats)

cushings?
 
Sympathize OP, my mare has always been a complete disgusting pig in her stable, trashes it even just overnight.
Only thing that really works for her is woodpellets. I use them anyway as I end up taking a LOT less bedding out with the poo, so my filly is a dream to muckout on them! They make the mare's mess bearable :P
 
Hi, sorry its taken me so long to reply, the initial issue was that Dave was in for a week before I turned him out with the rest as he is a newbie.
Another issue is that he kicks over his water (little SH!!+) I have started putting in inside a tyre, but he still kicks it until water splashes out.
He doesn't wee in one place. I tried a small bed to see if this helped and it made it worse, he spreads his bed everywhere so I made him a big bed, and he still wees everywhere, and poos everywhere.
Last night I dug out the wet for the first time in two days (he had only been in at night) and this with the poo from yesterday due to the bad weather... 4 barrows!!!!
Anyway, I had a word with my YO and we are trying Easibed, she sympathises with me as she has a very wet mare.
 
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