Hay soaking, is it 12hrs or 24hrs

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karendav

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Hi, should hay be soaked for 12hrs or 24hrs when feeding lamanitics? I soak mine for 12hrs, I find when its soaked any longer it smells kike vinegar!
 
Instead of soaking you could try steaming to cut down on the dust - big water butt, put hay net in, add a few kettles of boiling water and put lid on til cooled down. Saves the hay net getting really heavy after its been soaked!

Worked well for my TB who has a dust issue and stopped me further damaging my back - fractured a bone after hauling wet haynets out of the soaker. No way will I do soaking again!
 
Kay2 said:
Instead of soaking you could try steaming to cut down on the dust - big water butt, put hay net in, add a few kettles of boiling water and put lid on til cooled down. Saves the hay net getting really heavy after its been soaked!QUOTE]

I'm not biting anyone's head off here or having a go so please don't shoot me down in flames. Totally agree with the idea of steaming rather than soaking if you are dealing with COPD and having to get the dust off but you need to soak for up to 12 hours to remove the necessary sugars when dealing with laminitics, steaming just gets rid of the spores.
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soak v steam

I soak the hay to reduce the sugar levels cos one pony is a chronic laminitic, dont know if steaming would work the same.
 
dragzb said:
Kay2 said:
Instead of soaking you could try steaming to cut down on the dust - big water butt, put hay net in, add a few kettles of boiling water and put lid on til cooled down. Saves the hay net getting really heavy after its been soaked!QUOTE]

I'm not biting anyone's head off here or having a go so please don't shoot me down in flames. Totally agree with the idea of steaming rather than soaking if you are dealing with COPD and having to get the dust off but you need to soak for up to 12 hours to remove the necessary sugars when dealing with laminitics, steaming just gets rid of the spores.
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Ooooopppss....was on speed reading! Missed the lamanitic bit! :o:( Otherwise wouldn't have suggested :eek: the steaming bit cos my horse is a non laminitic TB girlie.....so am obviously being VERY stupid today....sorry Karen!!
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12 hours should be fine, after that I don't think it makes difference. I find mine will only eat hay that's been soaked this long if I thoroughly rinse it before giving it to them - having seen the water that's left I can't say I blame them!
 
yeah thanks, that water left behind is gross isnt it , its supposed to full of toxins aswell apparantly. I put the soaked hay in a trough in the paddock and my old pony chucks the hay out an drinks the water thats drained off, think i might have to rinse it like you say you do , carnt do him any good can it really!
 
Just to add, my vet says after 10minutes you have sorted 90% of dust. After 20minutes all sugars start to break down. He suggests not soaking for any longer than 12hours as this can turn the hay.
 
I agree martini, also using the same hay water twice is really bad. (inless used straight away)

Because of the sugar content in the water, if left sat over night and reused, there is more (yucky!!) bacteria in hay water then sewage water!!
 
Kay2 said:
dragzb said:
Ooooopppss....was on speed reading! Missed the lamanitic bit! :o:( Otherwise wouldn't have suggested :eek: the steaming bit cos my horse is a non laminitic TB girlie.....so am obviously being VERY stupid today....sorry Karen!!
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Makes a change its usually me that does the speed reading and then sticks my foot completely in it.

I seem to remember reading something somewhere (my brain gets a bit fuddled sometimes I just put it down to my age) that if you soak more than 12 hours the water ends up being like raw sewage or something.
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