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bexr
Gold Member
 England
818 Posts |
 Posted - 29 Mar 2009 : 09:44:49 AM
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Does anyone else have a horse that can not cope with or react to haylage.
My 20 year old mare, suffered 2 bad bouts of colic last October. Before she had them she would drop of eating her haylage, her coat would become dull and she would just look pensive. The first boat of colic just required a buscapan, and next day she was fine. She was given a full check by the vet, all the usual suspects, blood, worm count etc. All came back OK.
The second bout 4 weeks later needed a second visit. Her heart rate was high, and although she wasn't thrashing about, it was worrying.
Again the next day she was OK, but the blood test showed she had sludging in her bile duct. Also next day after both attacks her coat was shiney again.
I explain my concerns regarding the fact she wouldn't eat her haylage for about 3 days before each attack. He didn't feel, it should cause this kind of problem, but checked the haylage anyway. Confirmed it was good quality, but did say maybe the horse knows something we don't, and it wouldn't do any harm to change her to hay if I felt it necessary
So for the rest of the winter she has been on good quality meadow hay, and no problems.
But a couple of weeks ago, worrying that it was becoming harder to locate good hay, I decided to slow try to introduce haylage again. On friday when I collected her from the field I knew she wasn't right. Her bottom lip was tight, she mouthed her tea. I gave her a colic remedy and took her out for a walk. After checking her every 3 hours during the night she seemed fine.
She is now back on hay and will be staying on it.
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Bex |
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Qui Gon Jinn
Platinum Member
Scotland
1627 Posts |
Posted - 29 Mar 2009 : 09:53:18 AM
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| Perhaps she has an allergy to something that has been added to the hayledge during production? |
The Soul would have no Rainbow....If the Eyes had shed no Tears. |
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bexr
Gold Member
England
818 Posts |
Posted - 29 Mar 2009 : 7:40:44 PM
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| that was my first thought. I am not sure what they use on their fields. The haylage is made especially for horses. The guy runs a racehorse rehabilitation centre. I have been using it for 6 years, and I have never had a bad bale. The only thing with it is it's more like seed hay, than meadow, maybe it is missing some of the herbs, that is in meadow hay? |
Bex |
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Karon
Gold Member
England
1411 Posts |
Posted - 30 Mar 2009 : 09:32:36 AM
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I tried to give mine big bale haylage this winter - they've had it before with no problems in the past but not from this farm. They started refusing to eat it after just a day, and when they had to eat it as I stopped mixing it with hay it gave them the runs - not what I want with a mare that had had peritonitis last summer. So, sadly, I had to stop feeding it after using about a third of a bale and the runs stopped straight away. Needless to say they've all been on hay for the rest of the winter.
I don't know if anything had been added to the haylage, but I saw most of the making of it and don't think there was anything added. It seemed to be good stuff to me but obviously the horses knew better. |
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