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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
   
Location: Pacific Northwest | I have a gelding with pretty bad IAD. He used to get his hay steamed but my steamer broke multiple times so I gave up on that. He does pretty good on getting his soaked but when I moved out my parents mainly took over his care and they don't soak his hay. I hadn't been riding him but I like riding him during the summer so I was going to start up. I can tell his lungs are irritated and I'm worried that just soaking his hay won't be enough.
Back when he was going regularly to a respiratory specialist she had mentioned he might need to be taken off hay all together. He already gets beet pulp and alfalfa pellets, so I was thinking about upping the amounts and maybe adding a complete senior feed or Omolene 400? He gets a multivitamin every day and has access to pasture.
Does anyone else have experience with a horse that couldn't eat hay for one reason or another?
I was also thinking of maybe soaking at least one flake morning and night. My parents just think it's messy and hassle, and when he's not being ridden he does fine on dry hay (no cough at all) but every time I've tried riding him his breathing gets mucusy and raspy. He was on a LOT of different things when I was trying to run him and I don't want to do all that again. I just want him to be able to trail ride and do light arena work. |
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 Chasin my Dream
Posts: 13651
 
Location: Alberta | Is putting him on alfalfa cubes an option? |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | Chaffhaye or cubes is what I would look into. They also have dry chopped hay sprayed with molasses that might be an option. Could do a 50/50 split with senior as well. You can do 100% senior but isn't ideal. We have one that is on all equine senior diet.
Edited by Tdove 2016-04-30 5:07 PM
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Yes I work at a feed store and it sells most everything I would need. I don't know how to go about figuring out the ratios of what to feed. They all get beet pulp and alfalfa pellets to mix their supplements with but I've never fed it as a main source of food.
I know you replace it for hay pound for pound, but if I were going to do say, alfalfa cubes and maybe some other hay pellet (he eats Timothy hay and we sell Timothy pellets at the store) would I just do straight half and half and he wouldn't need added senior feed or added beet pulp? I know beet pulp is a good source of fiber but would the cubes and pellets be enough?
He gets zero grain right now. He gets beet pulp, alfalfa pellets and Timothy hay. He's a fairly easy keeper. I'm not sure if a senior or other complete grain is really necessary or if he would fine on cubes, pellets and vitamins. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | I am not a fan of beet pulp. I can replace some hay but not much. I thought you were trying to get away from soaking anything? Horses can do great on all hay diet. Cubes are long stem fiber like hay. Hay pellets, senior pellets, and beet pulp are not. If cubes work well for him and you don't care about giving grain (fine idea), then I would give him 18-20 lbs of cubes. If you wanted to cut some of that down with Timothy pellets you could give say 15 lbs of alf cubes and 5 lbs of Tim pellets, or you could give 20 lbs of either alf/Timothy mix cube of alf/oat hay mix cube. I would prefer one of the latter. A simple 12:12 purina mineral block would work great in any of those rations.
You could give the beet pulp, but I don't see anything it would benefit you and would be one more thing to feed and soak. You shouldn't need to soak the cubes, especially alf/oat mix. I hope that helps. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Tdove - 2016-04-30 7:39 PM
I am not a fan of beet pulp. I can replace some hay but not much. I thought you were trying to get away from soaking anything? Horses can do great on all hay diet. Cubes are long stem fiber like hay. Hay pellets, senior pellets, and beet pulp are not. If cubes work well for him and you don't care about giving grain (fine idea), then I would give him 18-20 lbs of cubes. If you wanted to cut some of that down with Timothy pellets you could give say 15 lbs of alf cubes and 5 lbs of Tim pellets, or you could give 20 lbs of either alf/Timothy mix cube of alf/oat hay mix cube. I would prefer one of the latter. A simple 12:12 purina mineral block would work great in any of those rations.
You could give the beet pulp, but I don't see anything it would benefit you and would be one more thing to feed and soak. You shouldn't need to soak the cubes, especially alf/oat mix. I hope that helps.
Sorry I meant steamed hay vs soaked hay he did better on steamed hay. When we soak hay you have to dump the water and my mom doesn't like the mess it makes. but when we soak pellets it just goes in a tub they eat out of. The hay cubes we sell are really hard I would have to soak them.
I think I'm going to try slowly decreasing the hay and increasing the amount of cubes and pellets and see how he does. |
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