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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| What did you do to maintain a horse that is competing and cannot have hay? I have a horse with chronic allergies/heaves and he cannot tolerate even the best quality hay. What feed regimen worked for you? I realize this will be a lot of work, but she is working far too well not to go to the winter rodeos and it is not really an option to "turn her out" and eat hay because it will only make our situation worse when I do get back on her. Really appreciate any input, tips, etc... If only I had started this a long time ago she would probably have been better off, but I have never had to do this before and I want to get it right to keep her feeling good and working good. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
 
| I feel your pain. I have one just like it. Here is what I do and it seems to really work. I tried soaking his hay and wetting it down then he wouldnt eat it. I found that if I left a bucket of water next to his hay he would dunk it on his own and eat it. Really helps. Not he loves to dunk his hay and eat it. LOL My vet said to go to a 100% pellet diet but a friend of mine always has colic issues withe that. They need the stem for good digestion. I also use ventipulman the day before, day of, and day after every race. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| She's a bleeder... likely due to the chronic allergies, so I do treatments of dex/ventipulmin as prescribed by my vet, she runs on lasix and gets electrolytes and air power before a run. She won't dunk hay, I wish.. that would be handy. She also won't eat it wet down and is picky and a hard keeper. So this is a total challenge, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep her in running shape for as long as she can. She will likely have to adjust to a "no hay" diet for the rest of her years and I know she will deteriorate fast if I put her on hay, even if not being ridden.
If she is turned out in an area with cut grass/hay laying out she will have a chronic cough even on the freshest hay. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 209
| Have you tried hay cubes? You can find them in 50lb bags at Tractor Supply. My friends horse that had severe hay allergies could eat them well and did great on them! She didn't wet them down till the mare got older and had some teeth problems. |
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 Jr. Detective
 
Location: Beggs, OK | What about Chaffhaye? It's completely moist and soft and very digestable. You can feed it free choice. www.chaffhaye.com |
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 Tough Patooty
Posts: 2615
Location: Sperry, OK | can you give her a senior feed (complete with forage in it). Not sure what your feeding program is, but maybe you could add this to your current program and feed it instead of hay on the road? Maybe try the hydration blocks, alfalfa that you put in the water, try to wean her onto those.
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 Texas Taco
Posts: 7499
Location: Bandera, TX | I have no suggestions, but want to say that I'm sorry you have to deal with that. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| I have yet to try anything, as she is still on pasture for the most part. Have tried wetting her hay the few times we travelled and she was off of pasture but she would just pick at it, and still made her cough (though not as bad). I'm just looking for a starting point here. I appreciate all of the comments, I plan to look into everything suggested to determine what might work best for her. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| rachellyn80 - 2014-09-24 2:54 PM
What about Chaffhaye? It's completely moist and soft and very digestable. You can feed it free choice. www.chaffhaye.com
I'm really interested in this... Do you feed it? What do you think? Where do you get it? What is the cost? Thanks, I did look at the website but would like a barrel racer's perspective on it :) |
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Location: not settling | Have you tried feeding alfalfa cubes? Hubby's calf horse has severe heaves and he is on alfalfa cubes(soaked) 2x a day and grain 1x a day. Gets 2cc's of 4mg Dex 2 hours prior to riding too as prescribed by vet. Cubes do suck to haul around and have to soak on the weekends but it works. |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | a sr feed, soaked beet pulp and or soaked alfalfa cubes |
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 Ms. Poutability
Posts: 2362
Location: In my own world | I like purina hydration hay. It's a block u soak in water. But it still has enough texture to be like hay. I feed it to one that chokes. I have seen Hay Steamers. They are suppose to be for horses that have heaves |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 632
Location: CO | I use chopped alfalfa easy
Add water stir and serve!!!
Edited by Sunshine1 2014-09-24 8:33 PM
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| I dont know what brand of feed, go to your feed store and ask then for there rep, a lot of them are trained in nutrition and they have calorie charts and they know what is in there feed and others feed. I would figure out if there is anyway i could steam or wet hay or maybe feed alfalfa, or what u can feed. imthink you can run a blood test find out what your horse is truly allergic, you can get shots. I just know horses need forage, if they are truly allergic the grass or being cured they are allergic. Feed reps know a lot about feed. I feed blue seal and i went to colonial regionals and blue seal had a rep there learned so much about feed and i been around horses for 45 years. They can help you with calories and and fiber. |
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 Queen Bee Cat Owner
Posts: 3629
Location: Way up North | Have you thought about doing the allergy testing and injection series? It's the only thing that worked with mine and now he is great. Otherwise might try getting on soaked pellets and see if they works for her. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 421
Location: Texas!! | I am also using the hydra hay by Purina, it is coming in real handy!! I soak it while I'm dumping feed, filling buckets, and cleaning stalls. |
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 Member
Posts: 33
Location: Texas | I feed Wedland's One N Only to replace forage (free choice).
I know of multiple people who have done this as well with no problems. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | I'm curious if any research has been done to see if certain bloodlines or combinations of bloodlines are prone to produce these horses that are allergic to their natural food. I mean hay can't be that much different than plants that cure on the stem to provide winter food. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| My vet has never offered allergy testing to me as an option.
I am leaning towards investing in a hay steamer and supplementing with chaffaye and/or soaked alfalfa pellets/cubes.
She is by Dash Ta Fame and out of Firewater Flit daughter who I ran successfully with no health issues for about 5 years before she was injured. |
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Draw the Line
Posts: 1371
Location: Too Far North | I would use soaked beet pulp along with alfalfa cubes. I use this now with my endurance horse along with turnout in the pasture. She does great.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | I agree with the soaked alfalfa cubes. That's what my bleeder eats. The cubes count as long stem forage so they are still getting the value of "hay" in their digestive system. I soak mine for about 10-15 mins and my horse gobbles them up! |
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Veteran
Posts: 216
| I deal with the same thing and have for about 3 years. I did the allergy testing and now give shots. Also have a hay steamer and soak hay cubes along with some meds. He went from not being able to breath well to a top 1 d horse. He also has respiratory issues as well. It's alot of work but he is my once in a lifetime horse. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| readytowin - 2014-09-25 9:45 AM
I deal with the same thing and have for about 3 years. I did the allergy testing and now give shots. Also have a hay steamer and soak hay cubes along with some meds. He went from not being able to breath well to a top 1 d horse. He also has respiratory issues as well. It's alot of work but he is my once in a lifetime horse.
I feel for you! Curious what kind of results your allergy tests gave you? Also, do you have better luck with certain hay, or just whatever is baled the cleanest? |
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Veteran
Posts: 216
| CheckItOut - 2014-09-25 9:57 AM
readytowin - 2014-09-25 9:45 AM
I deal with the same thing and have for about 3 years. I did the allergy testing and now give shots. Also have a hay steamer and soak hay cubes along with some meds. He went from not being able to breath well to a top 1 d horse. He also has respiratory issues as well. It's alot of work but he is my once in a lifetime horse.
I feel for you! Curious what kind of results your allergy tests gave you? Also, do you have better luck with certain hay, or just whatever is baled the cleanest?
Allergy tests revealed lots. The most significant was molds and the spores from hay. The only way to elimate that is to steam or soak your hay. The kind of hay doesn't really matter if you do this. Use what you have. The steaming and soaking takes it out. If you soak the hay, it must be soaked for minimum 30 min but no more than an hour or so. After that the plant spores grow back. It would be well worth it to do the allergy testing. |
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Veteran
Posts: 234
| We just made our own hay steamer from a DIY video on you tube for about 55.00 cost - if you decide to go with a steamer then make your own in case it does not work you wont be out the money - it is bulky to have to carry around however |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| Have any of y'all with these same allergy issues looked into or tried the chaffhaye? I was looking on the website and google and could not find much information about it being beneficial for horses will allergies. Any thoughts? Anyone tried it? |
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 Vodka for Lunch
Location: Lala Land | Mine is still able to eat hay, but I do soak alfalfa pellets 2x daily or you could go to a complete feed like Triple Crown Complete but it's more costly than if you're able to soak hay pellets. I think Tractor Supply has a Timothy grass/alfalfa mix pellet or you can buy the straight pellets. I know pellets are cheaper at my local feed store than at Tractor Supply. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | I have a horse with moderate Inflammatory Airway Disease and he does MUCH better on steamed hay rather than soaked. Soaking his hay is fine if he's just being a "horse"; he won't cough out in the field or during a trail ride or just a light ride, but if I'm trying to keep him in running condition he will start to get a mucus build up that I can hear when he breathes. If I steam his hay it keeps all of that away. He still needs an inhaler or ventipulmin at times though. He's a pretty bad case and I don't run him anymore, it wasn't worth it in his case to go through all of this trouble just to run him. He's got a whole mess of other health and soundness issues on top of it. |
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NO HAY diet for horses competing with chronic allergies/heaves