Need alternative to soaking hay in winter...

[wildhorses]

I have a horse that was diagnosed with heaves this spring and has done very well with her treatment regiment. Since diagnosis I have been soaking the hay to minimize the dust, and I think it has made a great difference. But with winter quickly approaching soaking hay isn't goin to be much of an option. Our winters are brutal, freezing cold temps, and I don't have a heated barn. So I am looking for some alternatives that would minimize the dust. Obviously soaked beet pulp is out of the question as it's just as much hassle and not practical with our weather. I am wondering if alfalfa cubes would be a better solution, or a different type of hay cubes, or if alfalfa pellets would be a better choice? She has been getting hay only as also had a slight touch of founder so trying to drop some weight and prevent further founder. So good nutrition with the hay is important. Any ideas or advice on other options would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[ruffian]

What about a complete feed - I think Purina has a pelleted feed that you don't need to feed hay with.

On a side note, what are you bedding on?

 

[Marty]

Dealing with heaves is very hard. If its going to be as cold as you say, I wouldn't worry about her gaining weight too much as she is going to be buring calories to stay warm You can look into Purina Horse Chow 100 to address the founder issue or go to a ration balancer Enrich 32, but whatever you feed, anything that goes down her throat, cubes of any kind, etc. needs to be served wet.Purina Equine Sr. does turn into mush when they start eating it though. You might want to go to that but its not the best idea for a founder condition. You seem to be so on track with the soaking of hay working now so I would keep it coming. She needs to graze on her hay to stay warm. By all means,soak warm beet pulp too. It was a pain for me too when I went through this so I would soak the stuff in the house and carry it out to the barn as I didn't have warm water out there. Keeping her out of the wind is key. Don't worry about not having a heated barn. The dry heat would work against her condition. I hope you get it worked out. Best wishes.

 

[ruffian]

One option I've used is to keep a cheap microwave in the barn and warm up the water out there. I found one for $10 at a garage sale and it works great.

 

[Charlotte]

What about something like Triple Crown Sare Starch Forage? I'm feeding that to a laminitic mare and she's doing wonderfully on it. It's a chopped hay product, low NSC, has all of the vitamins and minerals added and has a light oil on it so that there is no dust. My mare also has breathing issues due to a past pneumonia and can't tolerate hay dust.

It is an 'all in one' product. You don't feed anything else. Comes in 50 pound plastic wrapped compressed bales.

Is this, or something like it, available in your area?

Charlotte

 

[Reble]

Alfalfa hay cubes are fine, no choke and can feed without soaking.

Think about apples, carrots, or horse crunch a lot harder than hay cubes.

Been doing this for 7 years.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Do you have a kettle at your barn...ie do you have electric?

If so you could steam instead of soak, I have done it and it was a matter of five minutes, and the horse loved the result. She was a very bad case, and we even had to be careful of her shaving bred, not to put her in until it was settled after mucking out, etc.

If you are interested in steaming I will put up the details, let me know!

 

[chandab]

What about something like Triple Crown Sare Starch Forage? I'm feeding that to a laminitic mare and she's doing wonderfully on it. It's a chopped hay product, low NSC, has all of the vitamins and minerals added and has a light oil on it so that there is no dust. My mare also has breathing issues due to a past pneumonia and can't tolerate hay dust.

It is an 'all in one' product. You don't feed anything else. Comes in 50 pound plastic wrapped compressed bales.

Is this, or something like it, available in your area?

Charlotte

I wish I could readily get the RC safe Starch forage, but I have to jump through too many hoops, and no one here really needs it. But there are times in the middle of winter, when it would be great for supplementing, as it wouldn't freeze like the stuff you should soak does.

 

[mydaddysjag]

Ive never had alfalfa cubes that were even as soft as apples or carrots, Ive actually had to break them with a hammer before. What brand are you buying thats soft enough that you dont need to soak?

 

[jleonard]

The first thing that came to mind was the Haygain steamers (probably because I spent much of WEG sitting beside their booth). I'm sure the big steamers are expensive, but they have a portable one that may be an option. I didn't see prices on their website, but it may be worth checking into. Here is a link to their portable steamer Haygain

 

[Mominis]

Ive never had alfalfa cubes that were even as soft as apples or carrots, Ive actually had to break them with a hammer before. What brand are you buying thats soft enough that you dont need to soak?

Cubes scare me to death. I worried about my big horses shoking on them. Now that I have the little guys, the's no WAY I'd feed them. I am a strong supporter of chopped hay (see the other hay thread). It works great, there is virtualy NO dust, and you can add water to them and make them a mash, if needed.

 

[muffntuf]

Mominis - I have been feeding hay cubes for the past 8 years. For heaves I would suggest soaking them in heated water before feeding. They will eat them up before they freeze. I live in the Tundra also. I do even feed them not soaked, they learn to eat them dry, but I make sure I have water in front of them.

 

[Reble]

Ive never had alfalfa cubes that were even as soft as apples or carrots, Ive actually had to break them with a hammer before. What brand are you buying thats soft enough that you dont need to soak?

My goodness, I would never buy cubes that had to be hit with a hammer.

Our cubes will break up in your hands.

Fresh and come in mini or regular size cubes.

Direct from our feed mill just around the corner.

If you have an older horse or one that is pron to choke not advised.

Just what we have done for many years.

There is no waste when feeding cubes

Cubes are easier to feed & store

They are high in nutrients

 

[wildhorses]

Thank you all for the input. I have a Tractor Supply Store near me and a Purina dealer, but that is about it, other than local elevators, so maybe hard or impossible to get some of the products you suggested. Our windchills can get as low as -50 degrees and we have very very nasty winters at times, so soaking isn't an option, and even if I soak in the house, I guarantee it will freeze long before the horse can eat. When the freezing weather sets in it is near impossible to do anything with water. I have seen some of the bagged baled forrage and didn't know if that was an option, how dusty or nutritious it was. My local feed elevator makes alfalfa pellets that I used to feed another old horse but they were rather dusty too. I guess I will have to look at my options locally and make the best choice. Thanks again!

 

[chandab]

My local feed elevator makes alfalfa pellets that I used to feed another old horse but they were rather dusty too. I guess I will have to look at my options locally and make the best choice. Thanks again!

Don't know how hard the little pellets are, but to cut down on the dust, you could always "strain" them. I put my beet pulp pellets through a collander/strainer while dry to remove the fines, as its the fines that have the dirt and other ick often found in beet pulp. Just an idea.

 

[Charlotte]

Tractor Supply has this TnT product which sounds like it wouldn't be dusty since it has a light molasses in it. T n T Chops

In the feeding instructions it appears that it can be fed wet or dry. I notice in the product reviews one person talks about using it with a COPD horse.

Charlotte

 

[Mominis]

Charlotte, the TNT Chops are what I use. They are wonderful! Though TSC (at least around here) doesn't carry them anymore. The lady at our TSC said that the company that produces the TNT chops just couldn't keep up with the demand through a big retailer like TSC.

 

[Minimor]

We're cold here too, and there's no way I could soak hay during the winter so I can understand your problem. When it's 40 below using heated water doesn't help any; tried to do it one winter long ago and never again--cold temperatures, water + hay just = one BIG mess!

Any alfalfa cubes we've ever had were very hard. I wouldn't feed them to Minis without soaking, and even some of them stay hard after soaking--I've had to pick a few of those out of the soaked cubes.

A better option is grass cubes. We buy some alfalfa/timothy cubes that are actually quite soft. They crumble up quite easily and are soft enough for the horses to chew. We do feed those without soaking, but do crumble them up by hand first if there are some bigger chunks. We cannot get the 100% timothy cubes here, but they are available in some places. There is a plant in Sask. west of us and the cubes get shipped right past us to Winnipeg and Ontario, but we can't get them here in Brandon. We could of course drive 2 hours to buy them in Winnipeg but don't need them badly enough to do that. I am told that the timothy cubes are very soft & crumbly so would be good for horses to eat without soaking.

Soaked cubes....if your horse likes them & is hungry enough she might eat them up before they freeze. Some of our horses aren't that keen on them, and if they were given a tub of them on a cold night they would surely have frozen cube mush left in the tub the next morning--they'd eat a lot of it, but some would be frozen around the edges of the tub before the horse got around to trying to finish the meal. For those of you who haven't lived where it gets to 40 below...you have no idea just how fast a pan of wet cubes will freeze!

I once bought a couple bags of chopped/compressed hay just to try--I wouldn't buy it again. The hay was so very dusty--no way that could have been fed to a horse with heaves. It was very disappointing, given the fact that this particular bagged hay came from a facility that was sending feed to Japan--feed that was supposed to be absolutely top quality--I can't imagine that the buyers in Japan would have been happy with that stuff. Also given the high price of the product I expected a lot better. So, anything you do buy I would suggest buying just a small amount of the product first so that you can try it out and make sure that it will work for you.

 

[chandab]

Charlotte, the TNT Chops are what I use. They are wonderful! Though TSC (at least around here) doesn't carry them anymore. The lady at our TSC said that the company that produces the TNT chops just couldn't keep up with the demand through a big retailer like TSC.

As far as I know TSC has changed to a Lucerne Farms product, at least that is what my local TSC carries: http://www.lucernefarms.com/feeds_forage.shtml [The local one carries the Hi-Fiber product.]

 

[chandab]

Soaked cubes....if your horse likes them & is hungry enough she might eat them up before they freeze. Some of our horses aren't that keen on them, and if they were given a tub of them on a cold night they would surely have frozen cube mush left in the tub the next morning--they'd eat a lot of it, but some would be frozen around the edges of the tub before the horse got around to trying to finish the meal. For those of you who haven't lived where it gets to 40 below...you have no idea just how fast a pan of wet cubes will freeze!

Isn't that the truth. OUr horses mostly get just a ration balancer and grass hay, but come winter they do get a serving of soaked beet pulp, and since I only feed 1/3# dry measure (then soaked, about 4 cups soaked) it seems to be an amount they can eat before it freezes solid.