Soaking Dusty Hay vs Water Intake

[Charloux]

Thanks carman_liz for your input!

When the vet was here, she did look at his teeth and said that they weren’t too bad. Last time he got them floated was ~4 years back, and when the vet did them then, she said that he hardly needed them done. Prior to that, he’s only had them done once (He’s 17 this year). So he doesn’t get them done often (2 times in his life only), but it doesn’t sound like that was/is the issue. He’s been healthy for a few weeks now - eating well, good spirits, pooping ~ 10 times/day… but if he starts to show signs of colic again, then we will look into ulcers. We may also do his teeth just to be on the safe side.

We also just dewormed him again using a new dewormer in case the last one was no longer effective (we hadn’t been rotating through dewormers).

[TMares]

When I was soaking hay for a horse with RAO, he LOVED the water left over from the soaking. We called it hay tea. All three of my horses would slurp it down. Have you tried offering him that leftover water?

[fanfayre]

@TMares

When I was soaking hay for a horse with RAO, he LOVED the water left over from the soaking. We called it hay tea. All three of my horses would slurp it down. Have you tried offering him that leftover water?

especially if it was made with warm water!
I love the smell so much I’d drink it myself!

[Charloux]

That’s great to hear - I wasn’t sure it was safe for them to drink since it contains the dust… but I suppose it isn’t inhaled, just ingested, which shouldn’t be problematic?

It does smell awfully good btw - like molasses!

[fanfayre]

As long as the dust isn’t actually mould spores, but if the hay smells good and sweet and not mouldy, then it’s just as you say.
Of course, if the hay is dusty from mould you wouldn’t likely be feeding it anyway, so it’s moot