Soaking Haylage

Joanna710

Joanna710

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In the past I have been fortunate enough to never have to deal with a laminitis-prone horse, a result of which being that I now have no idea what to do re prevention and feeding.

I've had my boy for just over a month now, and although he has a large crest anyway due to his breed (Friesian), I am a bit worried that this could be an early indicator for laminitis, as it was rock-solid the other day when I brought him in. He was muzzled the next day, however I didn't think he was getting anything through this as the holes were far too small/ few, so instead I've moved him to a more or less bare starvation paddock.

Now the paddock IS bare, and he just stands there watching the world go by, I've started giving him a small haynet of haylage daily, to tide him over. He is by no means overweight, it is purely based on the size of his crest that I am taking these precautions.

Now, haylage. Can it be soaked to reduce sugar content, like hay? If so, how do you do it and how long for?

In an ideal world I'd feed hay but that isn't an option on my yard :/

Sorry for the essay, just thought I'd slightly set the scene. Should I even be worrying about lami if he isn't overweight?
 
I'll bump this for you as I'd like to know too.

I have a laminitic who coughs on hay and I'm worried that even high fibre haylage may be too rich. My pony is on the light side however.
 
Thanks for your suggestion Sidney... Would ideally like to use the haylage produced/ supplied by my current yard. It's included in our livery costs, would be a bit of a pain to have to pay for extra!
 
I soak mine for 12 hours. It was made by a local farmer. It's absolutely fine. It makes it swell up to a greater volume so it fills them up more, and the sugar is definitely coming out in the water just like with hay.
 
I know a lady that soaks hers. Her horse had equine metabolic syndrome and COPD with asthma. Vet recommended it, she just rinses it through after taking it out of soak. The water doesn't half smell though compared to the hay water!
 
cptrayes said:
I soak mine for 12 hours. It was made by a local farmer. It's absolutely fine. It makes it swell up to a greater volume so it fills them up more, and the sugar is definitely coming out in the water just like with hay.
Click to expand...

Oh, that's what I wanted to hear! What did you soak them in? And do you hang them to dry first or can you feed them wet? Don't have anywhere in the field to hang nets so I'm currently just filling a net and dumping it in the field, in the opposite corner from his water to make him walk a bit.
 
I feed it wet but I wouldn't let it go over to the next day unless the weather was cool. I bought a fantastic tub off eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QPS-Plast...ondsWaterFeatures_UK&var=&hash=item826a1402af

Incredibly cheap for a really tough trough. My OH fitted a tap but you can have it supplied with a bung instead if you don't have an OH like mine. Pull the plug and it drains for 15 minutes and then it's far less heavy to lift out. I don't rinse it but I use new water every time. I feed from racks, not nets, so I need it not to drip all over me too much!
 
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