Which hay?

[frostyfingers]

My horse has had a terrible cough over the last 2.5 months caused by a deep seated bacterial infection which we have finally (fingers crossed) nailed with some monster antibiotics and many ££££'s! The results of the scope identified the infection but also mentioned that "it may be secondary to COPD" - which was nicely vague..... He's never coughed like that before so I've no way of knowing if this is just a one off and they're throwing in the COPD bit to cover themselves.

Thinking ahead I was thinking that perhaps I should soak his hay this coming winter - he lives out pretty much 24/7, only in the night before hunting and even then he's not shut in a stable but on a yard with access to the stable (which is huge (20x20) and open fronted) so he's not living in a particularly dusty atmosphere. The rest of the time he's in the field. I only started feeding him hay around Christmas and had some lovely seed hay which I didn't soak (he's a 16.2 TB hunting 3 days a fortnight). However I wonder if I should soak his hay now as a precaution, just in case his lungs have been affected by the infection.

My main question is which out of meadow or seed hay is the better, or does it not matter? I don't want to give him haylage as it's rocket fuel for him (and I also have to feed a pony and would rather not have to sort two separate feed supplies!).

 

[Apercrumbie]

I have never used seed hay but meadow hay doesn't tend to be too dusty and you will know if it is. As long as you give it a quick soak any dust will be gone and you should be fine.

 

[Carlosmum]

Dust levels in hay will vary depending on how well it was made, over drying (made when too hot) getting wet either in the swath or in bales will all effect the amount of dust as will the age of the hay, obviously we are getting into hay season so this years hay should not be too dusty as yet but if you are feeding last years it will have begun to deteriorate.
I would always soak hay for COPD and also for pony.

Re haylage it could be just the same quality as hay or as you say rocket fuel. Look for later made meadow haylage ie made around the same time as hay as the only difference will be the amount of drying the grass has been through and it would have the same feed value as the equivalent hay.