This message is from: Joanna Crell and David folger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hello all.
this is a huge warning, not heeding it could result in trauma or death.
Hay cubes / alfala cubes are processed to be hard , so hard that they absorb
moisture and swell quickly before they are adequately soft enough for a
horse to swallow sometimes. Having seen a horse die from choking on one,
tossed to him by a teen ager who couldn't admit to it causing hours of
horrifying pain while no one knew what the problem was the pits. The cube
lodge in his esophagus, causing a stricture and terrible unfixable damage.
The worst part was that the horse didn't appear tobe choking, only
depressed. Our vet now owns 2 endo scopes with a tool that can help remove
a lodged object, it has already paid for itself many times over but why
tempt fate? Cubes should never be fed dry as a treat, they should always
be soaked, same with beet pulp. One of the most important lessons anyone
should learn is to keep you animals hydrated, this is a great way to do
that.
Next, heaves is a disease of the environment. you can change that and
help quite a bit. Think of Asthma and what triggers it. DUST. MOLD.
Stress. too cold air, sometimes. A horse with heaves should not not not be
kept in a barn with hay. Air exchange is a good thing, as big a hassle as
it may be, find a way to be the heavy horse out side away from food storage,
Soaking the hay, is often a huge cure, washing the hay, ( ie. wetting and
letting the first water rinse out the hay is even better. I hate it but do
it, even in the bitter winter and after years of testing and re-testing our
practices, it works wonders. Stress. That is sometimes what horses feel in
barns or in the field while they eat next to another mate. Sometimes a
lonely horse has stress. It fuels heaves like crazy. I do alot to find out
what will calm my horses. Cold air, using a muzzle in the worst case
scenario, will pre warm the air a bit, not had much luck on this. I have
tried ventipulmin and all orts of steroids, Horse size inhalers are muy
expensivo. Herbal remedies and support work only so well. Heaves start
somewhere and does its damage progressively,look for the simple solution and
stay with it, it is worth it. Horses go with dust and grime, using shavings,
brushing them in a closed space and running vacume blowers to clean and
neaten our stables does our animals health a great diservice. Lung disease
is an insidious enemy, and horses don't smoke.
