Hay or is it her cushings????

[Jessey]

I've had a hell of a job with Hay this year, its so difficult finding rye free hay and what I have got has been dusty or upset my allergies or the horses just don't like. I have tried to find haylage but most of it is rye.

I found some that wasn't too bad from Mike but after 4 months on it they suddenly stopped eating it....I still have one and a half mini hesston's of it in the barn I've been mixing it with the stuff they do like and they leave virtually all of that stuff every day, neighbours horses are still eating it fine.

Steve's stuff they love but he doesn't have any more (that's the stuff that makes my sinus bleed from allergies), he offered me 2 rounds of his stash but its been stored outside (he has cows) so I declined.

I convinced myself I was just being over protective about the rye and brought a round off of another neighbours supplier, Martin, its a mix grown specifically for horses with some rye, lots of timothy and some fescue and others I can't ID. 4 days after I started mixing it with Steve's stuff and Jess was very slightly off, just when turning tight on solid footing.

She's been back on Steve's for the last few days and seems better but as of this morning I am out I have half a small bale of timothy haylage left, but at almost 8 quid a bale I can't afford for her to be on that full time, she'd need a bale a day.

There is an old supplier of mine I could ask, but I stopped using his because it was dusty. I just don't have the facility to soak hay (no mains water). The other old suppler I could try, but the neighbours horses who are eating mikes refuse to eat Peters, and he's an awful driver and I don't think he would be able to get into my field as its a bit fiddly, so I'd have to figure out a way to pick it up.

ARGH On the up, Steve can supply me with as much as I can store when he cuts the new lot, the problem is I can't store enough to see me from cut to cut, I might get 8-10 rounds in the barn which would only get me through about 6-7 months. I might have to figure out a way to stack it....

 

[joellie]

Hay hasn't been the best this year and its also been very hard to get with the wet summer we had. That's where I am from I don't know if its the same with you? I have noticed that what hay was about was also up in price. I was lucky that I stocked up in the summer of 2016 and am still using it. Will have to try and get a big stock in again this year.
Just an idea about them suddenly stopping eating it, if mice or rats have been going through it and peeing on it the horses will sometimes stop eating it. I know you had a bit of a problem with mice so could this maybe be why they stop eating it?

I also find the large rounds are a lot more dusty than the small square bales.

Sorry not much help

 

[Jessey]

Its been poorer quality than I have seen in a good few years, I think a lot of it wasn't baled in ideal conditions.
It could be the mice (I've killed 6 now ), we don't have any rats thankfully, but both types of hay are stored next to one another, so if it were mice I would have expected them to refuse all of it.
I am going to look at some small squares this weekend hopefully, but he can't tell me if its got rye in it so I'm pretty wary of buying loads. I normally buy big bales as its much more cost effective, hay is expensive here as there isn't really stock in this area (because of the forest) so not many farms to produce hay, small bales are normally £5-6 each, 4ft rounds about £40, 5ft rounds I pay £45 each, mini hesston's £40, full hesston's are £70.

 

[Trewsers]

What's this hay you speak of?!!! We've had small bale hayledge made locally which has seen us through. Now buying bagged from feed place at £11 a bag. I can't wait for summer

 

[Jessey]

What's this hay you speak of?!!! We've had small bale hayledge made locally which has seen us through. Now buying bagged from feed place at £11 a bag. I can't wait for summer

Jeeps £11 I wish summer meant rest bite for me, but as Jess is on very limited grass year round even that doesn't help me

 

[Kite_Rider]

Jessey is there any way you could soak the rye grass hay? I don't like Belle having hay with rye in but like you that is all I can get, soaked she's fine on it, but I know that's not an ideal solution, especially as you don't have easy access to water.

 

[joellie]

Its been poorer quality than I have seen in a good few years, I think a lot of it wasn't baled in ideal conditions.
It could be the mice (I've killed 6 now ), we don't have any rats thankfully, but both types of hay are stored next to one another, so if it were mice I would have expected them to refuse all of it.
I am going to look at some small squares this weekend hopefully, but he can't tell me if its got rye in it so I'm pretty wary of buying loads. I normally buy big bales as its much more cost effective, hay is expensive here as there isn't really stock in this area (because of the forest) so not many farms to produce hay, small bales are normally £5-6 each, 4ft rounds about £40, 5ft rounds I pay £45 each, mini hesston's £40, full hesston's are £70.

Yes if it where mice it would be all the hay not just one type..unless you have picky mice lol
That's about the same price the hay is here this year, some farmers are looking even more for it and the straw is double the price it was in previous years.
I paid £3 a bale of hay in 2016 and got 400 bales we also got straw for £2 a bale, the straw is £3.50 a bale this year!!

@Trewsers £11

 

[carthorse]

Jessey is there any way you could soak the rye grass hay? I don't like Belle having hay with rye in but like you that is all I can get, soaked she's fine on it, but I know that's not an ideal solution, especially as you don't have easy access to water.

If Jess is anything like Little Un then soaking it won't be enough, likewise he can't manage high fibre rye haylage even if all the analysis shows it as safe for laminitics & metabolic problems.

@Jessey Devon Haylage do a timothy haylage that's very nice & if you can manage a pallet then the price isn't bad.

 

[Jessey]

If Jess is anything like Little Un then soaking it won't be enough, likewise he can't manage high fibre rye haylage even if all the analysis shows it as safe for laminitics & metabolic problems.

@Jessey Devon Haylage do a timothy haylage that's very nice & if you can manage a pallet then the price isn't bad.

Yep I have her react to low sugar rye haylage before so its a no go I can get low sugar hay that's she's fine on but it's dusty so I would be soaking for dust rather than to remove sugars.

I was looking at devon haylage last night, but a pallet is still £6.77 a bale, though those bales are slightly bigger than the ones I have now. Based on the DM analysis, she'd need about 16kg a day as fed.

I have just found some meadow hay in small bales about half an hour away, I just need to figure out getting it somehow.

 

[Trewsers]

Jeeps £11 I wish summer meant rest bite for me, but as Jess is on very limited grass year round even that doesn't help me

I know what you mean, can imagine the limited grass is a juggling act too.

 

[Trewsers]

Yes if it where mice it would be all the hay not just one type..unless you have picky mice lol
That's about the same price the hay is here this year, some farmers are looking even more for it and the straw is double the price it was in previous years.
I paid £3 a bale of hay in 2016 and got 400 bales we also got straw for £2 a bale, the straw is £3.50 a bale this year!!

@Trewsers £11

I know it is quite dear but they have to ship it up here so I can see why. I am just hoping that the grass will start coming through sooner rather than later. Mr T keeps saying they are costing rather a lot to feed atm

 

[Jessey]

I know it is quite dear but they have to ship it up here so I can see why. I am just hoping that the grass will start coming through sooner rather than later. Mr T keeps saying they are costing rather a lot to feed atm

It's already started here @Trewsers so hopefully you're only a couple of weeks behind us

 

[carthorse]

Yep I have her react to low sugar rye haylage before so its a no go I can get low sugar hay that's she's fine on but it's dusty so I would be soaking for dust rather than to remove sugars.

I was looking at devon haylage last night, but a pallet is still £6.77 a bale, though those bales are slightly bigger than the ones I have now. Based on the DM analysis, she'd need about 16kg a day as fed.

I have just found some meadow hay in small bales about half an hour away, I just need to figure out getting it somehow.

If it's any help Little Un is a 14.2 welsh cob in work & in the winter I normally feed a slice (the bale splits into 4) of DH timothy & then 2-3 slices of well soaked hay plus his daytime grazing. If the weather is too bad to soak his hay properly I'll give 2 slices of haylage & a slice of hay soaked as well as I can manage. Even if he's only had a couple of hours out 2 slices of haylage is pretty much his maximum, at that amount he barely touches his hay & doesn't pick up haylage off the floor, and he's a greedy little cob. It's very fibrous so seems to fill him up, I don't think he could actually put away 3 slices!

 

[Jessey]

If it's any help Little Un is a 14.2 welsh cob in work & in the winter I normally feed a slice (the bale splits into 4) of DH timothy & then 2-3 slices of well soaked hay plus his daytime grazing. If the weather is too bad to soak his hay properly I'll give 2 slices of haylage & a slice of hay soaked as well as I can manage. Even if he's only had a couple of hours out 2 slices of haylage is pretty much his maximum, at that amount he barely touches his hay & doesn't pick up haylage off the floor, and he's a greedy little cob. It's very fibrous so seems to fill him up, I don't think he could actually put away 3 slices!

Yesterday jess had 2 slices of Timothy haylage and 3 small bale slices of hay, morning and evening plus some of the stuff she doesn't like incase she was really hungry.I only had 2 of those small bales though.
I'm picking up some small bales to try tomorrow, if she's OK on it I can get a fair bit of it.

 

[carthorse]

I assume your haylage bales must split into smaller slices than mine since 2 slices morning & night would be a whole 20kg bale. Fingers crossed that she likes the bales you can pick up tomorrow, though mean as I am I sometimes think some hay they aren't keen on is useful to offer because I know it's there if fatty is hungry enough but he won't eat it out of pure greed.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Sorry they don't like the haylage. Can you not find rye free at a feed store? Ours has 2 types of bagged low calorie rye free haylage, which is what I'm on now as it's almost impossible to get hay delivered at this time of year.

 

[Jessey]

I assume your haylage bales must split into smaller slices than mine since 2 slices morning & night would be a whole 20kg bale. Fingers crossed that she likes the bales you can pick up tomorrow, though mean as I am I sometimes think some hay they aren't keen on is useful to offer because I know it's there if fatty is hungry enough but he won't eat it out of pure greed.

The hay she doesn't like I'll def use eventually, I'll keep putting it out as her back up ration it will be great in the summer.

 

[Jessey]

Picked up 7 bales of another hay yesterday, mixed meadow hay, not sprayed but very clean as they hand pulled weeds and I am pretty sure Jess left almost all of it and just ate the other stuff (I'd mixed half and half) so this morning I put out just that (she has a new strip of grass too) so will know for sure tonight.

I am actually starting to wonder if this is a weird blip with her cushings/Prascend, it started about a week or two before she kicked Hank (which was 5 weeks ago), she is being really difficult to get her balancer into and I had to stop her extra bits like copper, zinc and salt as she flat out refused to eat it with that in after being fine with it before. She's being ridiculously fussy about hay and isn't actually grazing like normal either. Generally if I give her a 2ft strip of fresh grass she will mow it evenly to nothing, this last month she eats probably 75% of it and leaves the rest. She's hungry, she fusses for fresh grass and for her feed and hay but when she gets it she is just unimpressed and walks away, I don't want her dropping much more weight as she's actually a bit on the thin side, I can see ribs, her tail head is sticking up and she's dropped top line, she can afford to be like that with spring on its way but I don't want her going too far the other way.

Her original diagnosis of cushings was made when we were looking for an explanation for completely neurotic aggressive behavior, so I do wonder if she is out of whack again, unfortunately with her ACTH testing doesn't show us much as she is symptomatic even when her levels are normal or borderline to the guidelines. I might have to get a TRH stim test done but I have no baseline to know if its up, down or normal for her.

 

[chunky monkey]

Hope you've put your finger on it. Although I appreciate it doesn't answer how to resolve it.

 

[Jessey]

Hope you've put your finger on it. Although I appreciate it doesn't answer how to resolve it.

I might just back off the drugs for a few days and see if it changes, if not I'll come up with the next idea