"Heaves"

[Lynette Helgeson <helgeson@lansford.ndak.net>]

Hi everyone,

I have an 21 arab gelding who has heaves
and has a hard time with hay. I talk to
the list last fall about him, because he
drops weight so bad in the winter. I was
told about beet pulp, alfalfa cubes and
fast-track. All winter I have been giving
him a mush consisting of 1 1/2 lbs. of
alfalfa cubes, 3 lbs of beet pulp and a 1
lb. coffee can full of naked or hulless
oats. The protein level of the naked oats
is 16%, Alfalfa is 16% and the beet pulp
is 8%. He also has had free choice hay
which is a brome and wheat grass mix. He
has done well over the winter, but with
the cool moist air of spring he has
developed a cough. Yesterday we were doing
some light riding and he started to cough
so bad that he had blood and mucus coming
out of his nose. It was lightly, but I
want to get him totally off of hay. I have
enclosed him in a corral with a pony mare
who is a good buddy and could use some
weight too. I am going to start feeding
them the alfalfa and beet pulp soaked in
water twice a day. My question to you guys
is how much to feed and how will they do
without having hay at all in their diet.
We do not have green grass yet and it will
probably be about 6 weeks before we can
turn them out into green grass. 

The gelding weights about 800 lbs and the
pony is about 600. 

Lynette