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View Full Version : Rye Grass Staggers


VickiGG
22nd Apr 2007, 11:39 AM
Do you guys see much of this over there???

We have a it alot here...

I am going insane. My horse grazes at a nice place - we have an arena and the lady that owns the place is great - she'll swap covers, feed, etc when I need her to - but it's full of rye grass.

My horse has odd symptoms and also got them on previous grazing (paspalyum) - all in varying degrees and not all at once, itchiness, spooky, sometimes stumbles (if really bad), girthy, tetchy under tummy, swollen flank, swollen fetlocks (hind), hoppy when in trot on corners, sore muscles, stiffness (has trouble bending on circles), eyesight badly effected if not on mycosorb .... need I go on?

I have tried restricting grass and feeding mainly hay - and I feed alleviate and detoxify twice a day - also 2 weeks ago finished a container of this herbal detox (Sarsparilla, Schisandra, St Marys Thistle and St Johns Wort) - which worked well, I was soaking hay for a while there too... he was good (after a month of hoppiness etc) for the last two weeks and then three days ago - back to being spooky and hoppy. His paddock is like a bowling green - so I wonder if he would be better with some longer grass? Then he wouldn't eat the hay at all though.....

I don't want to yard him - the yards are quite small - he'd go insane. I can't exactly rip up the paddock and make a track (it's a dressage ppty), and I don't like strip grazing - he is in a small paddock by himself as it is....

Apart from the obvious - moving grazing - but then I can't be sure the grass there will be any better, I am really happy where I am - anyone else had any great results with alternative treatments???

Jessey
23rd Apr 2007, 07:53 AM
I've not heard of horses getting staggers, only cows - but maybe we call it something different. My horses have grazed rye grass, but mostly that was on a mixed herbage field.
Sorry that wasn't much help was it :o

ClaireBear_nz
23rd Apr 2007, 09:38 AM
My sisters gelding had it, we're south of you. He was quite spooky, and seemed to slip over in the float a bit. He was quite stiff around corners etc.
We just kept him off the rye when it was really bad, and had a special part that was grazed short with no rye and gave him lots of hay, and he got better. He probably had supplements too, I lost count!