Straw- Any way to avoid the smell?

[RoR_nut]

Morning!

Having been an avid Hunters & Bedmax user for years I'm looking into changing from shavings to straw as I'm currently going through a bag every 2 to 3 days with my gelding. He isn't overly dirty, just poos for Britain and then rolls it everywhere

The only thing that puts me off of using straw is the smell! I dont really want my lad stood inhaling the ammonia overnight and I dont particularly like getting the wafts from my clothing / hair either.

He will be fully mucked out every day, on a concrete floor. Is there anything I can do to make this a more pleasant experience for the both of us?

Many thanks

 

[meleeka]

You could use a sprinkling of wood pellets under. This is the reason I don’t use straw, the smell is just awful and I found my boots smelling of it too, even though I wash them.

 

[MasterBenedict]

Deep littering straw helps enormously with smell as the wet is trapped at the bottom and the odours cant escape. I currently have one on deep litter and one fully mucked out daily and the difference is hugely noticeable. Depends on your thoughts about deep littering though.

 

[ihatework]

Not really if you are lifting the bed every day.

Chuck wood pellets in the wet spot and a deep straw bed that is only lifted once a week - will cure the stink for 6 out of 7 days!

 

[honetpot]

I had a really dirty pony. I worked out where he peed the most and put wood pellets there with the straw on the top. The smell seems to get locked in the pellets. I used to pick out the dropping and the soiled straw and leave the pellets until they were absolutely soaked and take out about once a week. I used to by cat litter wood pellets on my weekly shop, so about one a week.

 

[RoR_nut]

Thank you all! I shall try with the wood pellets underneath and see how we get on!

 

[Keith_Beef]

I've helped a friend to muck out a couple of horses that are on wood pellets; apparently the pellets change colour, becoming red where the horse has urinated a lot, so she shovels out only the red patches and leaves the rest.

 

[Shoei]

I put massive beds in mine and muck out wet every day. Mine are out in the day but I find the only smell of I scrimp on straw. We are lucky as have our own so I can use as much as I like and when I say massive beds, they are very very deep.

 

[Casey76]

You need a deep enough bed so that it stays dry on top. I’d sleep on my beds But you can’t avoid the smell when you muck out, though leaving the bed up and letting the floor dry each day really helps.

 

[RoR_nut]

Thank you all.

I made the swap over on Wednesday evening and put a bag of wood pellets down in his wet area.
I dampened them with a zoflora & water mix and *Touch wood* there has been no ammonia smell!

Fingers crossed this lasts as he is a lot easier to clean out on straw and its a LOT better on my pocket

 

[tabithakat64]

nose peg maybe

 

[tankgirl1]

Deep littering

 

[Squeak]

What about trying just pellets? I personally go for straw pellets over the wood ones but I'd never go back to another type of bedding anymore.

 

[AdorableAlice]

http://stalosan.com/solutions/

This stuff is useful. It is a fine powder when used so I use a mask and don't throw it from a height. I use pellets on rubber in the wet spot and a deep straw bed on top. When I lift the pellets or any wet straw I sprinkle stalosan in the wet area and allow the box to dry and air. Smells are kept to a minimum.