YUCK! colour of water is this normal?

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jen1

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Sorry if I sound a bit of a numpty on this but I have only been soaking my horses hay since he has been on box rest but the colour of the water is disgusting, is this normal?

It's soaked over night and in the morning it's a horrible dark brown. The hay we have at the moment isn't fantastic so to be honest think I will keep doing it from now on. Should the water normally be this colour or is it because the hay is so naff? What on earth makes it such an awful colour, I am thinking that it can't be good for the horse, what ever it is that's coming out in the water?
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It is normal for the water to look tea coloured, however I don't think you are meant to soak it for longer than half an hour or it starts to loose nutritional value. (I believe however not a boffin so may be wrong)
 
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I don't think you are meant to soak it for longer than half an hour or it starts to loose nutritional value.

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Yes that is correct I believe.
 
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however I don't think you are meant to soak it for longer than half an hour or it starts to loose nutritional value. (I believe however not a boffin so may be wrong)

[/ QUOTE ] Depends why you are soaking it! If you soak it to remove dust, then you don't need to do it for very long. However, if you are feeding a fatty or laminitic then you actually WANT to remove some of the nutritional value, so it is soaked for longer!
 
you shouldn't really soak it for more than 20 minutes, as it will start to lose its nutritional value. even after this time the water won't be clear anylonger.

when you soak the hay, the water creeps into the fibres, making them expand, widening the 'gaps' in thme which allows any water soluble vitamins and minerals to creep out in the other direction. But it does the same to all the dust and rubbish that causes the horses to cough and splutter, so its a bit of a balancing act i'm afraid.
 
Yep, my hay is soaked for 24 hours and the water is a disgusting colour. I'm sure I read somewhere that the water toxic, but I could be wrong?

I deliberately soak mine for that long to get all the calories out.
 
It's soaked over night so it's wet for the morning when YO puts it in when I am working. Also he's quite a good doer so losing calories is not an issue and he is on vit/min supplement so hopefully everything balances out! He is looking well so suppose I am not doing too much wrong!

The hay is pretty c*&p though so wonder how much nutritional value it has? Vet said the horse needs feed and hay as wet as possible to make up for the loss of liquid he would normally get if out grazing all day long and to help against impaction and therefore possible colic. I assume though wetting it down has got to be better than feeding it dry due to it's quality even if my horse was out??? Think when he finally goes out and then back into work I will go with the 20min rule!
 
The liquid can have the same bacterial population as raw sewage (or so i was led to believe by the vets!)

in your case i would suggest that you are doing the right thing, especially if he doesn't need the calorie and you are giving him a vit/min supplement too.
 
Yep, that water can be very dangerous, please throw it straight down a drain.
 
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