So Jess really has put a spanner in the works, and I need to rethink my management plans;
Jess' feet and fat tendencies need her off grass on low calorie hay. Her lungs currently need her on wet forage (and likely for the foreseeable I guess). The current 3 eat 18-25kg (1 - 1.5 small bales) of hay a day year round.
I don't have mains water, I have a bore hole and it takes me about 4 hours to pump 1000l which lasts about 10 days for normal drinking, feeds, washing stuff. Soaking hay would double that usage at least so isn't really feasible. Steaming might be possible, as may haylage but she's a greedy git with it and 10kg will be gone in 2 hours, leaving her another 10 with nothing to eat, even in 25mm holed nets.
I don't really want to split her from the others to feed her differently, ideally I'd like everyone together and eating the same, so likely going to need 13-15kg of forage twice a day. How the blooming heck do you steam and manage the quantity of hay without killing yourself trying? I do have a round bale net with 35mm holes, do I just swap to haylage and hope the novelty wears off?
ETA, when this happened 2 years ago she was absolutely fine over the winter on dry hay (checked by the vet). I let her on a bale (2nd grade, a little dusty on the outside) yesterday which had been out since Sunday morning and we'd had a couple of heavy spells of rain but it still set her off again within a couple of hours, so not sure I can rely on that.
Jess' feet and fat tendencies need her off grass on low calorie hay. Her lungs currently need her on wet forage (and likely for the foreseeable I guess). The current 3 eat 18-25kg (1 - 1.5 small bales) of hay a day year round.
I don't have mains water, I have a bore hole and it takes me about 4 hours to pump 1000l which lasts about 10 days for normal drinking, feeds, washing stuff. Soaking hay would double that usage at least so isn't really feasible. Steaming might be possible, as may haylage but she's a greedy git with it and 10kg will be gone in 2 hours, leaving her another 10 with nothing to eat, even in 25mm holed nets.
I don't really want to split her from the others to feed her differently, ideally I'd like everyone together and eating the same, so likely going to need 13-15kg of forage twice a day. How the blooming heck do you steam and manage the quantity of hay without killing yourself trying? I do have a round bale net with 35mm holes, do I just swap to haylage and hope the novelty wears off?
ETA, when this happened 2 years ago she was absolutely fine over the winter on dry hay (checked by the vet). I let her on a bale (2nd grade, a little dusty on the outside) yesterday which had been out since Sunday morning and we'd had a couple of heavy spells of rain but it still set her off again within a couple of hours, so not sure I can rely on that.