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Message |
    
Aileen
Member
Username: Sunny66
Post Number: 1020
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, Nov 20, 2005 - 3:32 pm: |   |
new batch of orchard hay...nice hay... has rocks all through it. If they were all large ones I wouldn't post, but some of them are TINY.
Do I need to go through each flake and shake out all the rocks? Or will the rocks just go through his system if he accidently eats the tiny ones?
Do I need to worry about anything intestinal here?
Common sense tells me no since they are forever shifting things and picking and choosing what they eat in the pasture...but I just wanted to make sure...I don't need another issue if I'm wrong here  |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: Dro
Post Number: 14162
Registered: 1-1997
| | Posted on Monday, Nov 21, 2005 - 7:34 am: | |
I think you are right they will fall out as the horse eats the hay. But if they don't they may accumulate in the large bowel.
DrO |
Aileen
Member
Username: Sunny66
Post Number: 1023
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Monday, Nov 21, 2005 - 10:26 am: | |
Thanks Dr. O! |
LL
Member
Username: Frances
Post Number: 184
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, Nov 22, 2005 - 6:28 am: | |
Aileen, I would be a tiny bit worried about the possibility of enteroliths. Don't they tend to form around something hard, much as pearls form around grit in oysters? 
Lynn |
Aileen
Member
Username: Sunny66
Post Number: 1024
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, Nov 22, 2005 - 11:00 am: | |
Not to worry Lynn, I'm a shakin' that hay |
Susan Bilsky
Member
Username: Suzeb
Post Number: 538
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, Nov 22, 2005 - 1:05 pm: | |
You might want to have a chat with the "Hay Producer or Supplier" and voice your concerns.
Are these round or square bales?
Perhaps the machinery that picks up the swaths was set too close to the ground.
If it were me and I was paying by the pound or tonne, I don't think I would find this acceptable.
As you know my horse has COPD issues and if there are little rocks and gravel in the hay, there is certainly going to be dust. |
Aileen
Member
Username: Sunny66
Post Number: 1026
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, Nov 22, 2005 - 1:30 pm: | |
That's what is odd, Susan...the hay is great! Green and soft, no dust or mold...weird that it has so many rocks. I'll call them today, but unfortunately the quality of hay has already deteriorated around here! So I think I'm stuck. Hopefully the other 14 bales (square) won't be so bad. |
