Hay Change: orchard to timothy

[frisky]

I am moving barns soon and we will be changing hay from orchard to Timothy. My horse is officially IR with two cases of laminitis this time of year, so I am on high alert. (The second laminitis occurred because a human did not listen to me.) what is the recommended schedule for changing to different types of hay? She gets 10lbs 2x/day.

TIA

[Scribbler]

The big question is the NSC level. Typically Orchard is higher than Timothy but individual batches vary. I’d suggest mix the hay for several days. The hays should be similar enough for an easy transition

I would expect spring laminitis to be connected to spring grass.

[lorilu]

@Scribbler

I would expect spring laminitis to be connected to spring grass.

Unless OP is in the SOuth. Our grasses do not have the sugar rush in the spring.

[StormyDay]

If you can test it.
But usually timothy is lower in sugars than orchard. Usually. It’s always good to test

[frisky]

The orchard hay has been tested regularly (monthly) when a semi-load comes in for years. It always tests in the acceptable range. My horse is only on negligible amounts of grass, which wasn’t my question.

I called my vet who said, change at rates of 25% every few days.

Yes, I weigh everything with a digital scale.

[Snowdenfarm]

@frisky, I just wanted to say I feel your pain. It is not only a constant challenge to manage an IR horse’s diet, exercise and trims/shoeings, but also managing the humans that won’t listen to you because they think you are just neurotic. When I change hay in my home barn, I generally add a flake of the new hay first day, two the second day, etc until I have replaced all of it with the new. However, when I ship to Florida seasonally, it’s one big switch from orchard to timothy and back again in the spring. So far no issues.

[JB]

You can’t trust what usually happens, or generally this over that. You must get the hay tested.

[horsepoor]

@frisky

I called my vet who said, change at rates of 25% every few days.

This is about what I do with mine when we change hays. Fortunately mine are at home so it is easy to make sure it happens, and I also weigh out everything. Hopefully you can find out the NSC on the new hay even if you have to test yourself. I have owned two IR/EMS horses now and I know the struggle!