Update on septic pedal osteitis shoes dilemma - now wondering about haylage and lami?

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soloequestrian

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Firstly thank you very much to those of you who responded to my last post on this - the shoes are now off and your support was much appreciated. My barefoot trimmer AND the farrier who kindly came to take them off both supported the move too.... she is now booted with comfort pads and *fingers crossed* seems very comfortable.
My next question is about haylage.
Normally all three horses are on haylage - one gets RAO and the haylage is just so much nicer and actually cheaper than good hay this year. My vet advised against feeding the convalescent horse haylage as it's contraindicated in laminitis cases. The Laminitis Clinic say the same BUT I've just been having a search on line and Dr Pat Harris, who I'm pretty sure knows her stuff, says that haylage actually has lower levels of sugar than hay, and another site says that fermentation lowers levels of fructans. Many other sites seem to advise feeding either hay or haylage for laminitis.
At the moment the convalescent is on hay, following the vets advice, but even though it's the best quality I can find it's still quite dusty and obviously nowhere near as nice as the haylage. The horse is slightly underweight now from all the stress and sedation, and it would make her rehabilitation into the group much easier if she could share their haylage. Also, the laminitis was stress-induced rather than a dietary problem.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks!
 
I was wondering how you were getting on - really pleased to hear your mare is doing well and you're getting support from your farrier.

I've read exactly what you've read - the hay v haylage argument is far from clear. I do believe the fermentation process lowers sugar levels but everything is relative. I think the only thing you can do is to send a sample of your haylage and a sample of your hay off to be analysed - you can then compare the results. Dengie do a forage analysis service. I'd be very interested in hearing the results if you do get both analysed.
 
I would personally never feed a laminitic haylage - most of the advise would say not to and until there is some clear cut answer I would err on the side of caution. The hay maybe dusty etc but if you soak it between 30 - 60 mins you should remove most of it as well as some of the residual sugars - that is the advice of the Laminitis Clinic.

I can only answer form my experience and the advice/diet from the Laminits Clinic means that my hw cob it still here and sound after her one and only bout of laminitis. My understanfding of laminitis is that it doesn't matter whether it is stress or diet induced it still has the same effects/symptoms etc and casues the same pain and problems.
 
My mare had a mild bout of laminitis last summer. When it became difficult to get old hay she had the Horsehage haylage which is for laminitics and she was ok on this. I mixed it with the best of the old hay when we had some to get her used to it - she was and still is on box rest/confinement for a tear in her DDFT. We have suffered no ill effects and I do feed her hay wherever possible. I only bought the Horsehage haylage as it is recommended for laminitics. Hope this helps.
 
I had a serious laminitic fit sports horse who could not take any access to grass and he was absolutely fine on haylage. I currently have rehab horse who also cannot take any grass at all, who is insulin resistant and he is going from strength to strength on haylage.

Haylage ferments and therefore has lower sugar levels than hay made from the same crop.

The Laminitis Clinic is not well thought of by my vets. They will approve, for example, any food which is up to 10 % sugar and there are many, many laminitics who cannot tolerate those sugar levels. They also sometimes resection feet, (cut out the hoof wall at the toe) which I personally think is barbaric. They recommend shoeing with heart bars to support the frog, to which I raise the question - why not take the shoes off and support the frog on the floor? I personally wouldn't listen to a word they say.

Try your horse on haylage. You will know within 24 hours if she can tolerate it or not.
 
If the dust in the hay is the problem then plonk it in water for 10 mins.
If you want to feed haylage then I would get it analysed. I would see if you can source some late cut stuff.
 
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