Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) aka Heaves

Poor Chance, my sensitive 22 year old Arabian was diagnosed with COPD this spring.  He was coughing a lot this winter and spring; and not just a little cough.  A labored, violent, knocks a loud fart out of him that echos through my neighborhood kinda fart. So we had the vet out to float his teeth hoping that was the issue; I was worried that he wasn't chewing well and could choke.  He needed the dental work but after a few weeks he still was having some issues.  I contacted them again so they gave us some Ventipulmin syrup to see if that was effective.  We had him on that for about 14 days.  He improved and seemed good for a little while, an occasional cough but nothing as regular and violent as before.

Then he got to coughing more and more; so one more trip from the vet and a final diagnosis....COPD, aka Heaves. I'm still learning a lot about what this is and how it affects him.

The Ventipulmin helps but eventually horses can develop a resistance to the drug and at $150 for a two week course it's a bit pricey. Environmental conditions are what seem to be the triggers for most horses.  The hay this past year was not the best but sometimes you can't help that.  One way to help with this is steaming the hay.  For thousands of dollars you can buy a great steamer for your hay bales but who wants to spend that when were are tons of options for DIY below $200.  My husband immediately went online to find the supplies and ordered them so we could make a steamer.  

We are working on making better substrate around the barn, so the dusty dry clay that kicks up when we don't have a swamp out back will be curbed.  He's been here for four years, so I really don't thing it's environmental, we haven't had big changes.  The hay isn't necessarily the cause, Dani is not having issues, it's just some horses develop it from what I'm reading.  He's 22 and not a 10 year old so this diagnosis to me is just part of the aging process.

I have done some research on some supplements to help with mucus and inflammatory maintenance of the pulmonary system and one of the best recommended supplements was Heave HO.  Just the name alone makes we want to buy it!  It's $68 for a months worth and that is much better than keeping him on the Ventipulmin.  If he has acute occurrences we have the ability to give him that medication for a couple weeks as needed.

With summer time coming to an end I'm glad to report he's done really well on grass and his supplement.  When there have been weeks I've had them on the dry hay, he hasn't had too many issues.  I'll report once we start steaming hay this fall, here's hoping we don't hear any coughs from the old man!

Get Your Fall Hay!!

We received some hay for the fall and winter months.  It's amazing how fast the grass goes brown even though it's been pretty warm.  I still had a lot of hay left from the spring so when we had 100 bales arrive it was tough arranging it in our hay area.  With two doors you can't stack the hay in as tightly so it's been a big of an issue.  

We stack a lot of it under the tool shed overhang on pallets and wood beams.

Then several busted bales were stored in the tack room or in the shed and were fed first.  I've gotten it so I can enter the feed room again but am working on the hay under the overhang first.  Dani doesn't seem to know where to stand in order to pester me for food.  First she was at the feed room, then realized okay...tack room area was the place.  Now she had to hang at the gate and nicker while I load up the hay.  Chance just stays by his stall like he normally does and wickers softly.  Such a sweet boy.

Better to have too much hay to store than not enough!  We got a good deal on this hay as well so very happy on the pocketbook!

Ration Balancer-New Feed

I'm always looking for a good ration balancer for my horses.  I had my mare on ProAdvantage when I was at Grandview and before that I used SmartPaks.  She doesn't need the extra calories for sure.  A lot of pleasure horses don't unless they are hard keepers.  I changed to Nutrena Empower since the local feed store kept that product.  It was a good feed but made Chance look like he was wearing red lipstick on his little white muzzle!!  LOL.  The store closed and I had to figure out what to change them to.

Southern States is the big chain feed store here along with Tractor Supply.  They had some decent brands but not a big selection.  I happened upon Tribute at Hurdle Mills Feed.  They have a great balancer that also has added joint support!!!  Tribute Essential K Plus GC  contains Glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and MSM which are the primary supplements for joint health.  Since both horses are over 15 years I figured this is a great find!  It doesn't cost that much and comes in 50 lb bags vs. 40 lbs.  The price for the bag I think was in the high 20's or very low 30's, I don't remember since I've only purchased two bags so far.  Compared to the mid 20's for a 40 lb bag of other balancers plus the fact this has some added benefits...I'm sold.  The horses like it and eat it up...well Dani will eat anything, LOL.

I feed Chance only 22 ounces per day and Dani gets 26 ounces...it's very low feeding rates so they don't get all those calories.  I'm pretty happy with the nutrients listed, it's comparable to a lot of the good ones out there.  We'll have to see how it goes on this but both my babies are pretty easy keepers.  Just thought I'd share about this new to me feed!

Molded Hay

It happens on occasion.  Hay can mold if not baled perfectly dry and if stored improperly.  Luckily this was only one section of a small bale.  All the other hay was fine.

If I ever come across hay that is really tightly bound I make sure to inspect it closely.  This one was pretty obvious and pretty fuzzy in areas

I figured I'd post the pictures since when I was first a horse owner I was so worried about moldy hay and that I might miss seeing a moldy section and accidentally feed a horse.  Well, most of the times it's pretty easy to see.  Hopefully this pictures show what to look for.

Hay Bags

I like using hay bags, I've seen first hand that they reduce waste and definitely extend the chew time a horse gets from the same amount of hay.

At first Chance wasn't too sure about the hay net, he scouted out the piles I set out in the run-in shed since I had not purchased more hay nets yet.  He would eat the free hay first and then grudgingly come back to the hay net.

Dani is a pro, so she showed him how to work the bags and he's gotten to a point that it's no big deal.  Of course every pony wants huge mouthfuls of hay at a time.  These bags make them savor every little bite.

We finally got two more bags for the run-in shed feeding station.  I want to keep the bags in a protected place for when it's raining.  The ones I use in the stable yard can be moved to the stalls if we have heavy rain.   It's not ideal but I don't want all my hay getting soaked therefore being wasted in the yard.  Plus I like to help keep my ponies drier during the wet rains.  So far we haven't had any major skin issues, just Chances chest dermatitis.

Our hay routine seems to be working well but I definitely can't wait until the green grasses come back.  I'm sure the ponies can't wait either!  Yum!

Weighing Hay

I've always weighed my grain and tried to with my hay to get a feel for how much to feed.  Once you are familiar with your hay and the flake weights you don't have to weigh every time but it is always good to make sure you are feeding the proper amount.  Horses need from 1.5-2.0% of their weight in forage.

The shipment of bales I purchased are around 30 lbs each.  Yikes.  That is small.  Luckily when the horses still had pasture to graze there wasn't as much of an issue that I wasn't feeding them "enough".  But as I was needing to lean on feeding hay as their main forage I wanted to get the hay weighed.  So I made a hay tote with tarp, wood and rope.

I already have the scale which works nicely with a bucket but it's harder to get the small hook around the two twine ropes of a bale.  The hay tote worked one time, then the ropes broke off.  Ugh.  Instead of going through and trying to make it work I just figured a few bucks and I could get a hay bale carrier.

The one I purchased is from Tough One and very easy to throw the flakes of hay into it, grab the straps, weigh and then carry the flakes to the various locations I leave hay for the horses.  

I make sure to locate hay in several places so boss mare won't run Chance off the hay.  They still seem to eat well next to each other off the initial pinning of ears and deciding who should eat where.  So this wasn't really a good DIY project and I'm sure I could have created another version that actually worked but...I've got enough projects right now!  

Hay Sourcing

I had finally found a great source for hay in Colorado, Horse Food Bank.  Not that it was the best hay ever but they always had good hay and a portion of the money went to a good cause.  I'm starting over in North Carolina so trying to find a good source here will surely take some time.

A local store didn't have hay located at their store for me to view and it seemed difficult for me to get anyone to tell me how I could take a look at the hay.  I don't like buying sight unseen.  I was getting down to one bale so ended up going to Hurdle Mills Feed to pick up 50 bales of Fescue mix hay.

This place sources hay from various locations and this was a pretty decent source.  The bales are small though only weighing about 30 lbs.  Some maybe more or less.  Interesting.  Is that normal for this area?  It seemed that many of the bales were a little loosely bound too, at least I only had one bale bust open.  I can go back to Hurdle Mills and try another variety of hay when I get low but I'll double check the weight beforehand.  I never expected it to be that small!  Essentially I'm paying $485 per ton!  Yikes!  That's not good.

Anyhow it's good hay and the horses seem to be fine with it.  I don't like the green twine though, too easy to lose that in the hay and accidentally have it end up where it shouldn't!  Who makes green twine????  I got the hay stacked in the feed room all by myself since I did it during the week.  There is certainly more space in the middle once I get some pallets cut properly and if I can stack it higher I think we'll be able to put up at least 75 bales in there while leaving room to move around and access the grain bins.

This first year is going to be a little all over the place while I figure out how best to store the hay here and then how much to put up depending on the state of pastures throughout the year.  That's another thing, we have to work on the pastures.  There are some bare areas and some pretty significant weed infestations we have to deal with in order to get them producing good quality forage.  That will be another post though!

Anyways, I am happy to have some hay for now and will continue to send out feelers for where I should get my next load.

Springtime Woes

The grass is green, the sky is blue, spring showers are creating a world of gorgeous blooms.....everything is perfect!  Well, not so much for the poor chestnut mare.  Springtime means grazing muzzle.

I made some bright pink fleece covers to prevent rubs.  N wanted to make sure if the muzzle came off or the pieces fell off she could find them.  Last year my dark green ones....those blended well with the ground so several have been lost to be never found again.  The fabric store had a perfect fleece scrap for me to buy, pink with flowers on it.

No matter the color, Dani hates it but she has to wear it during the day when the grass has the highest sugar content.  Here's hoping she loses some weight and then maintains a good body weight or we may have to have her wear the thing for a longer period!

Darth Vader Pony!!!

My pony has transformed into a Darth Vader horse.

Hooo-purr, Hooo-purr, Hooo-purr, Hooo-purr, Hooo-purr, Hooo-purr....

No seriously, it's just a grazing muzzle.  She's wearing it part time, if we can keep it on her.  The grass is lush with recent rains and she's not used to grazing 24/7 so we want to keep it slow with her intake.  I was sad to leave her today with the muzzle on.  I'm sure she'll learn to eat and drink just fine like all the other horses that wear them do, it just sucks and I'm in worried mom mode.  Hopefully it will only be for a month or two and then she can be free as the grass dries out a bit and we turn more to hay.

Today I walked her around the easement around the pastures.  It's a 10 foot wide path that we'll have to ride sometime, very pretty views, open plains and the mountains in the distance.  It was a gorgeous evening even though I got bit by a mean fly.  Dani was good mostly at staying where she needs to while being led and didn't get too excited with nearby horses running up to her and running off.  She has settled in well and one boarder who does the feeding often (she keeps her Morgan here and only lives about 4 miles from the place) loves Dani.  She's partial to Morgans.  I get that.

After our walk we passed by the goat pens.  I love goats but these guys weren't too sure about us.  I guess looking at the shadow we did look a little monstery!  I adjusted Dani's muzzle, gave her some treats and led her into her pasture.  Hoping things go well.  It wasn't adjusted right before so I was told she ended up having a funny necklace on.  So far the new barn is smooth sailing.  I was sick for two days so didn't get to see her.....I think she remembers who I am.....LOL

The Hay with It!!

My 100 bales that I bought last September did not last as long as I'd hoped.

There were several reasons:

1) The bales weren't as heavy as originally thought so my estimate for a years amount didn't pan out

2) Many bales and sections of bales were tossed due to mold

3) My hubby and I caused three bales to have mold since these particular bales were stacked too close to the outside wall of the shed and were eventually touching the ground of the shed due to critter dirt moving (bunnies and their burrowing!!)

This year I'm upping my count to 130 bales of 60 lbs., I really should only need 121 based on 20lbs per day.  Depending on the weight of each bale will depend on how many bales I'll need to buy, 130 sounds like a safe bet.

I just purchased 30 bales for now to tide me over, not the best quality but it's slim pickings out there at this time of year.  Dani doesn't seem to mind and actually seems to prefer the courser hay.

Hopefully we'll have some success with a hay co-op this year and find better prices on hay as well!

Wind and Sand

It's been so windy lately!  Out at the barn there is no place to hide from it either.  How I miss an indoor arena.  I've mostly been going out to care for Daenerys, letting her graze in the yard for about an hour and bringing her back in for her dinner.  She doesn't mind not being worked.

This week she is on her monthly sand colic purge.  I use Sand Clear but the crumbles don't seem to be as palatable to Dani as they've been in the past.  I want her to get the full serving and benefit.  I added some grass hay pellets to help her ingest more of the Sand Clear since she doesn't get enough supplement to really mix in the Sand Clear but it's not really doing the trick though, she still leaves a lot of the crumbles.  I'm thinking of trying a new brand and a more pelleted form....any suggestions?

I get her supplements from SmartPak, here are the other possibilities that are reasonably priced.....

This weekend the hubby and I have to work on our backyard fence before another section blows down and breaks.  I figure it's best to be preemptive about this kind of thing.  That unfortunately means less time with pony and less time to work on the trailer.  Now that the weather is warmer we will begin on the roof of the trailer and get things sanded and sealed well.  More to come on that once we get our supplies and find a Saturday where we can get some work done!

I also want to set the trailer up in a place where I can begin working on loading regularly with Dani.  We'll set it up on blocks so it's secure without being hooked to a tow vehicle.  Lots to do and not enough time to do it!  Hopefully the warmer temperatures sans wind will come back soon and we can get cracking!

Serenity NOW!!!

Serene Sunday on a Monday.  Oh well, busy weekend!

Hay Trough

Sweet!!  Semi flexible tubing wound on the edges of the net appears to be working!!!!!

Why Do Horses Pee on Their Hay?

I removed my slow feed netting from the trough....I'm trying to see if there is a simple way to make the net ends stiff by placing some type of non flexible material on the edges.  The lattice worked so nicely but broke so easily.  Frustration.  I love my Nibblenet.  It's perfect and works so nicely!

Even feeding in the trough, of course without the slow feeding attachment, lots of hay gets on the ground.  Dani steps on it with a muddy hoof or lately, because it hasn't been warm enough to really dry things out in the shaded stall, her feet have pee mud on them.  She's also peed ON the hay!  Urge!!!!!  One of many reasons to use a feeder is to reduce waste.  I don't understand why some horses will pee on their hay.  At least it's not too regular of a thing but I've noticed it a couple times.  I just need to figure out a permanent fix for the trough slow feeder or just go out and buy another Nibblenet.  I don't want to spend tons of money on solutions that may not work nor spend that much time on it with the other projects I have going on in my life.  At least this issue doesn't seem to faze my mare....

Update:  Just did a quick search and got an idea!!!  

This idea will take very little extra hardware and cost me less than $10.  Granted if I had just bought a slow feeder....expensive as they are, I would have probably saved money!  LOL.  Sometimes trying to retrofit something it's the best plan.  Nibblenets will be my future purchases but I'm gonna make this trough work darn it!  

To Be Continued.....

Random Musings 'bout the Pony

 It’s hard when you are sick and the weather is nicer.  You want to play with your pony but the couple times you try you end up in coughing fits.  Ugh!  I haven’t ridden in a while and I know if I do ride I need to take it slow because a coughing fit in the saddle will not be fun.  I’m doing much better with my cough, it’s much more shallow but with the colder air I could easily make it worse again if I exert too much outside in the cold.

Dani is very cute.  I released her into the arena one day to roll and play.  She was full of bucks, snorts and farts!  LOL.  She was rolling then almost in one movement jumped and bucked a couple times and cantered off snorting and farting.  Oh if only I’d had my video on at the time.  It cracked me up! 

Lately when I’ve been releasing her in the “grazing” area she’s made a beeline for Daves hay bales.  He’s been buying a mostly alfalfa mix big bale….one of those almost 1,000 lb things from the local Prairie Springs Farm down the road.  That’s a nice facility with an indoor arena, expensive for what you get with no pasture turn out but nice full care right in town. 

Anyways, Dani can’t resist and I have to run up the hill, grab his practice rope that he leaves on a cow decoy and shoe her away.  She’ll eat the bits and pieces that have fallen when David has moved his hay in sections into his shed….I’m okay with that but when she starts digging through the tarp and trying to eat the bale I’m not okay with it.  I don’t want her eating his hay!  What a pest Dani can be!

David told me the day he brought the two bales there he had to fight off Don’s horses.  They are two mustangs that this guy doesn’t do anything with and has had the sheriff out a few times because of lack of feeding.  I think Don is missing a few screws in his head and really shouldn’t have horses but at least he seems to have been feeding more regularly.  The club alerted his family of the situation, brother, sister etc. and they have been assisting.  The older gelding isn’t looking so ribby anymore.  Anyhow Don had his boys out to graze and they were eating Davids hay.  David arrived with another bale and tried to shoe the horses away as he worked and took one bale apart to get into his shed.  Apparently Don just sat and watched rather than get his horses out of Davids hair.  How rude!  David said he doesn’t mind if Dani takes a nibble but I do.  She doesn’t need alfalfa or anymore food!  The mare acts like she’s starving sometimes!

Anyways, at least with my cough I can still love on my pony.  Her hooves are looking good, I’ve applied more oil to them and hopefully can get more done in the next week.  She has a pedicure next Saturday.  With the cold and mud I’ve been trying to keep an eye on her frogs for thrush.  I want to work on some of the gaps in her heal….I’ll do a post about just this soon.  No Thrush is a powder and on their website they tell you how to pack the frog and begin getting those gaps filled in.  Below is our usual hoof care area, it's on concrete so that I can apply the oil without getting dirt on her hooves right away.  Hopefully that means it absorbs into her feet for a few minutes.  My lighted hoof pick comes in handy with this shadowy light being what I have to work with.

Anyways, there hasn’t been much exciting training or riding because of the cold and me being sick.  I have the next two weeks off and the weather appears nicer so I will hopefully get some work done with my girl.  Perhaps I can even get my SLR out with me, my hubby too and get some Holiday pictures taken....been a slacker and haven't even gotten Christmas cards out yet this year!  Winter solstice was yesterday so you know what that means….the days will steadily get longer!  Yippeee!!!  Happy Holidays everyone!

A Little More on Hay

Being a self-care boarder I've had to learn a lot about hay since May.  I still have a lot to learn.  My biggest issue has been with mold.  The recent 100 bales I received from the West Slope of Colorado have been good but a little inconsistent; some have a little bit of alfalfa and then there are some so compact that mold is an issue.  I'm still doing some research on hay producers for next summers hay purchases since I'm not 100% satisfied.  Still the bales that are good are good and Daenerys approved.  I've only had about 3 so far with issues or partial issues.  Maybe I'm just really particular or picky being so new to horses but as I've said before, I'd rather through away a $11 bale than have a huge vet bill from feeding bad hay.  I'd also rather throw away hay I'm just not certain about...no sense risking it!

I need to find a good consistent producer of hay for next year; one that I can rely on and if I do find inner moldy flakes perhaps have the guarantee to bring a bale back...though that seems like it could be a pain for only a bale here and there.  I do have the guarantee where I bought this hay, it's a charity I'm supporting, but it's not their hay, it's hay they purchased and sold for a small profit to help with their mission.  I don't feel right bringing a bale here and there back, they don't have this hay supply anymore and may not have a replacement bale...hence I'd be taking money from them in a sense.

Is it really worth bringing back one or two bales $11 here and there to a distributor if you consider gas and time?  A large amount of bad hay is one thing; that could be thousands of dollars.  A large bale that is moldy is worth exchanging since they are several hundreds of pounds of hay and cost around $100-200 a bale.  When is it actually worth it to get a small hay bale exchange?  When is it easier to just chuck the small bale?  So far I've just tossed them as I've been mostly happy with this load.

My husband has asked about what moldy hay looks like; I saved him a flake once to show him but when I had about half a bale of issues I decided to whip out the iphone to make a short video; it is easier to see in video I think than some of the photos I've tried to take with my iphone.  Sometimes mold is subtle.  Sometimes it's pretty obvious.   Here's a quick video about a bale that had a large section of mold that was pretty obvious.  

 

 All hay has a bit of dust from the ground in which it was grown and from tiny bits of hay created from processing, moving, storing etc.  The plume from a moldy section actually looks like poofs of smoke when you open up the section.  I try to be cautious of every bale I open and look for any signs of mold.  Brown bits of hay do not necessarily mean it's moldy but a lot of it should make you look at the hay a little closer.  I think the biggest give away for me is a really compact and hard to separate flake.  I don't have a good sense of smell but if my nose is right up against the moldy area it does smell a bit musty.  I can't rely on my sense of smell alone.  Hopefully this video will help others understand what moldy hay looks like.  Make sure you have good lighting where you feed your horse so you can see the hay well.

Next year KCRC will get the hay committee in full gear I hope.  Those that had a good deal this past year I'll touch base with and see what they really thought of their hay.  If we can get a co-op together that will rock.  I may have two horses next year so it will be even more paramount to find a good source of hay.

Nibblenet

I've just not had luck with making my own slow feeder.  The DIY slow feeder worked nicely with the lattice but every other week something of the lattice would snap.  Could be my mare being to rough with it and trying to get around it to the hay.  I was going to try wood but it splintered like crazy cutting the holes.  There is probably a better material I could find to use in the trough but I just decided to go with a tried and true feeder.  At first I bought a sheet of the Nibblenet to use in the trough but Steve didn't think it was worth the extra effort to figure out how to make the flexible material work in the trough.  I'll have to send that back or sell it.

In comes the Nibblenet bag.  I bought the XL since it stated it would fit 50 lbs.  I really only fits about 15 lbs, I weighed it.  Perhaps I'm not stuffing it as compactly as I should but I fluff up each flake to make sure there is no mold.  Now my routine is to fill the bag up and then fill up the metal bin, without any slow feeding component on the trough.  There is hay left over each day which is good, I'm feeding about half a bale because upon weighing them I've realized that they aren't quite as heavy as previously thought.  No wonder she ate up all her hay pretty quickly!  I like there to be some hay leftover at the end of the day so I know she always has hay in front of her.  In all essence I free-feed hay to her.  Dani figured out the Nibblenet quickly.  In the evening she has the easy access hay in the trough and then can nibble the rest of the time in the Nibblenet.  It seems to be working nicely.  I like keeping her occupied when I'm not there.  Sigh, what we do for our ponies!

Mold and Hay

I've had to deal with moldy hay occasionally, usually a flake or two. The 10 bales of hay that I got awhile ago is turning out to be not as consistent and nice as I would like, hence the reason I didn't buy more than 10 and decided to shop elsewhere for my year supply.

 

The most recent bale that had mold was kind of hard to see at first, I open each flake to examine the hay when I feed so since this bale was more crumpled feeling than just neatly packed that gave me the first hint there could be an issue lurking.  I noticed the mold in parts that I opened out, so immediately went into dissection mode.  I pilfered through the next couple of flakes, anything suspicious looking was thrown in a "toss out" pile.  The bale got a little bit better towards the other end but I pulled apart every single flake anyways.  Pretty much most of the bale got disposed of.

 

 

I placed the bad flakes into a wheel barrel and started sweeping up the area to make sure I got all the bad hay bits.  Of course Dani was used to eating hay out of a wheel barrel from Whispering Winds.  They would load in the hay with wheel barrows to haul out to the field and make piles for the horses but Dani would never wait, she always went straight to the wheel barrow to begin her meal. So with the moldy hay in the wheel barrow that was an issue! I kept pushing her away but she kept coming back.  She was so pathetic looking and eyeballed me as if to say "mom that's my hay, what's your problem?". I finally ended up finding a couple good flakes put it over by her bin and tied her up to the fence loosely so she could eat the hay and I could get the bad hay out of the stall without a chestnut muzzle getting in my way.

 

I guess all in all it's not too terrible to occasionally have to throw out some hay.  I've had several bales of hay from these 10 bales that I purchased.  The 30 bales of Timothy I bought in May were really good and consistent.  There was maybe one bale I was a little worried about and had about one flake that was sort of moldy, so I probably threw away about 4 flakes of that bale.  I think it's just safer to throw out more hay than to accidentally feed hay that is moldy. 

 

I'm looking forward to starting her on the hundred bales that I recently purchased since they are really good bales of hay and look like they're gonna be nice and consistent.  I think it's better to be meticulous about your hay and throw any suspicious hay out, than to have to call out the vet on a colic issue!